Design Crafters

This is an interesting topic. Custom photo Christmas cards seem to be getting more and more popular. Here are some things to consider before you begin designing:

1) How many cards will you be sending? A dozen or two — or more than 100?

2) What size card do you want to send? Standard greeting card size is about 5.5×8.5″ but you can make them smaller or in other sizes as well.

3) Do you want your cards to be glossy or matte finish?

4) Do you want them to be horizontal or vertical?

5) Have you considered a postcard?

Those are the basic questions to ask yourself. If you want to send a few dozen standard size greeting cards, you can find greeting card stock kits at a variety of places. These clever kits come with pre-scored card stock which you can run through your inkjet printer with your own design, photos, etc. They also come with envelopes, and you can choose from glossy or matte finish.

If you’re sending out a lot of cards — more than 75 to 100, you might want to design a card and have it printed, scored and folded at a print shop. Then you would purchase your envelopes separately.

If designing a postcard is your cup of tea, I recommend a print shop: store-bought postcards are often rather flimsy and don’t always look as professiona (even though this doesn’t have to be your intent). You can either mail it as a postcard or you can design a postcard to fit in an envelope.