Design Crafters

Last week we discussed the fact that more and more people
are wanting to express their feeling and belief that this is the
"Christmas Season," not just a Holiday Season by the cards and verses
they are selecting this year. We here at Design Crafters have noticed another
shift in sentiments this year as well.

There are still a lot of business owners who are concerned about being
"politically correct" with their cards and "play it safe"
by selecting "generic Christmas cards to make sure that they don’t
"offend anyone" by sending  Christmas cards with a
"Christmas" message.

It’s interesting that gay rights activists and pro-life and pro-choice
activists, women’s and civil rights activists, etc., etc., etc. don’t seem to
mind standing up for their beliefs and are very vocal in speaking their message
loud and clear - not caring at all what others think or have the slightest
concern about offending someone - but when it comes to using the word Christmas,
we are afraid to speak out about it’s true meaning and why we celebrate it -
because we "might offend someone."

Something is wrong with this picture in my opinion. That is why I personally
have been encouraged this year to see that a lot of individuals, not only for
their own personal Christmas cards, but for their businesses, have created
their own Christmas verse with a spiritual, encouraging message to send out to
their colleagues and clients - throwing caution to the wind and sharing their
convictions and beliefs through their Christmas message.

After all, what is Christmas all about - why is it celebrated? With all the
commercialism that surrounds it, have we forgotten the true meaning of
Christmas? Sure, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but does that mean that we
who do should put a lid on it and not celebrate it because someone else might
not agree with us? Since when do we all agree about anything?! 

Well, I didn’t mean to get on my soapbox, but thanks for listening! I hope that you have already ordered your Christmas cards, because time is running out to get them in time for you to add any personal notes, address them and get them to their destination before folks take off for the holidays.

With all the talk this season about 
"Holiday" this and "Holiday " that, we at Design Crafters
have seen a bit of a rebellion against that campaign in that more and more of
our customers are looking for Christmas cards that say Merry Christmas - not
Holiday Greetings, etc. If they can’t find a Christmas card they like that has
Merry Christmas on the front, then they at least will select or create a verse
that says "Merry Christmas."

I even had one gentleman tell me that I had lost a sale because none of our
tropical Christmas cards said "Merry Christmas" on the front. I think
many today are balking at the whole idea of replacing "Christmas"
with the term "Holiday" at every opportunity.
It seems that fewer people care about being poetically correct any more. Of
course a lot of businesses are overly concerned about offending other cultures,
so they are still looking for the "generic Christmas cards." Some
businesses don’t care.  Overall, the main objection seems to be coming
from those selecting Christmas cards for personal use.

To see our selection of "Merry Christmas" cards, you can visit our
"Merry Christmas" category for a nice selection.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying
a restful, relaxing time with your family. I am certainly not the philosophical
type, but Thanksgiving is a day I do like to take some time to reflect on my
life and measure how I’m doing. As always at this time, because of the nature
of my business, I am strung our and exhausted knowing that the next three weeks
are going to be the hardest ever with all the last minute Christmas card
orders. I am thankful though of course for the business. It’s one of those
“Mixed Blessing” types of things.

I want to thank all of you who have already ordered your
Christmas cards this year for being “on the ball” and getting your orders in early. I
hope that you have been pleased with the quality and service that we have provided.

I’m getting to that age that a lot of my friends’ parents
are leaving this world and we all know that is inevitable for all of us as some
point in time. As we get older, it’s eventually going to happen to all of us and
right now we don’t probably think that much about it. But what if we don’t make
it that long? It seems that the more people I know, the more I learn of those
who are struggling with various physical problems – the terminal type like
various forms of cancer and such. These are not old people, they are
contemporaries of mine. It makes me really think about how one day we can be
carefree and think we are fine, and the next day find out that our days are
numbered. How about those who are fine and then their life gets snuffed out in
a moment because of a drunken driver or some other freak accident?

My daughter loves country western music and she introduced
me to a song a couple of years ago entitled, “Live Like You’re Dying.” It’s
about a guy who found out that he only had a short time to live so he decided
to do all the things he’d always wanted to do. He says we all should live our
life like we would if we knew we were dying. There’s a lot of wisdom in that
song. My husband and I have decided that as we are advancing in years and are
finally “empty nesters” that we should take advantage of every opportunity that
comes along, and even create our own opportunities to do some fun things that
we would enjoy, instead of waiting until we retire, because who knows when
something could happen to either one of us and we wouldn’t be able to do all
these things. Consequently, we have had some of our richest life experiences
the last couple of years.

Even more important than having a great time and living life
to it’s fullest, I think is making sure that our relationships, especially with
those we love are the best they can be. Whether it’s we or they who may leave
this world earlier than expected, are we going to feel like we have been the
best friend, mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife, etc. that we could
be? Are we treating those we care about as if it could be the last time we see
them? Will there be no regrets if it is? Ho about your relationship with your
Creator? As my pastor would say, “Not a sermon, just a thought.”

I have resolved to make sure that there is no unresolved
conflict in my life with those I care about and would challenge you to do the
same as you have probably more time than usual with your family over the next
month.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far. I do hope you
have a blessed holiday season with your family. I thank you again so much for
your patronage, especially those of you who have faithfully ordered from us
year after year.

Have a great Turkey Day!

Does your business serve the international community? Are
you sending Christmas cards to businesses in other countries or perhaps
different cultures? If so, you cannot go wrong with our International Christmas
cards. These international holiday cards are global in their appeal in that
many have the globe as part of the design. Many feature international flags
from many different nations.

Most of our international holiday cards have a festive appearance and yet are
generic in nature. It would be very difficult to offend anyone from any culture
by sending any of our international Christmas cards if that is a concern.

Another category that can serve the purpose of sending Christmas cards to
different cultures is the "Peace" Christmas cards category. Again,
this peace category has an international appeal. Most of these cards speak of
Peace and feature the Peace Dove. Many are also very global. You don’t have to
be international to enjoy these Christmas cards, but they are perfect if you
are.

We discussed last time about putting your company logo
inside your Christmas cards to add some class to your presentation. That still
is a great way to go, but becoming even more popular - probably because it add
some uniqueness is having your logo printed on the front of your Christmas cards . More and more businesses are having their logo printed on the front
rather than on the inside of their Christmas cards.

If you don’t have a logo, you can still stand out with one of our "Front
Imprint" Christmas cards in that you can have your company name printed on
the front of these cards. You can say something like, "From all of us at
Design Crafters" in a pretty script of something like that. Of course not
all cards are conducive to printing on the front. There would have to be room
where there is no other printing or embossing.

Another thing you can do if you don’t have a logo and you want to show off your
company name, is to choose one of our "Die Cut" Christmas cards in
which your company name is printed on the inside of the cards but it is
positioned such that is shows through the rectangular die cut opening much like
the logo cards shows the logo through the (usually) round opening in the front
of the card.

It’s rather amazing how sophisticated Christmas cards are
getting. We notice every year that more and more businesses are jumping on
the wagon to create something special with their Christmas cards. It almost
seems to be competitive, not only to outdo their competitors but to outdo
themselves from the previous year.

One way that businesses are doing that is to include their company logo inside
their Christmas cards. We have some special "Logo Christmas Cards" that are
specially designed for this purpose. They have a die cut opening where the logo
shows through from inside the card. That way, the logo is seen before the cards
are even open and then again after they are opened.

To print a single solid color logo can be done for a very reasonable price.
Adding another standard color of course adds to the price, but it doesn’t stop
there. If a special (PMS) ink mix is necessary, that adds to the price. Some
companies have logos that are actually full color.  Of course that beefs
the price up even more but that doesn’t seem to stand in the way of a lot of
businesses who realize that sending out "Season’s Greetings" with a
beautiful Christmas card with a thoughtful sentiment including their attractive
logo, is really a very cheap form of advertising and sends good will to all
their clients.

Christmas is one time of year that businesses can get away with sending
something like that to remind all their customers and clients of who they are
that they are available to serve.

For beautiful Christmas cards depicting a tranquil winter scene, check out our exquisite snow scenes Christmas cards. Some look cozy, some look cold, but all look tranquil. Most of our snow scenes Christmas cards have some foil and/or embossing making them very elegant.

One of the real pluses of our snow scenes cards is that they are very generic and so give you an opportunity to send these without worrying about cultural differences as they cross all cultural barriers since they are basically just a winter snow scene. There are a couple of cards that have a lighted Christmas tree in the forest and one with red bows on its branches but for the most part, they are very generic.

Even though the cardinal is the state bird of Virginia,
you don’t have to be from Virginia
to enjoy the beauty of the bright red Cardinal against the bright white snow.
Cardinal Christmas cards seem to be a favorite of some folks year after year.
They are such a lovely creature, especially in the snow that their images make
great Christmas cards. You can see them in snow covered trees, on mailboxes,
fence posts, on door mats and even hanging around on snowmen.

For a great variety of Cardinal Christmas cards, check out our Cardinal
Christmas card category on www.DesignCrafters.com. This year we have some very
unique designs with blind embossing, making these Christmas cards very elegant

One of our Christmas card categories that grows every year
is our animal Christmas card category. We have everything from deer and dogs,
to dolphins, moose, soaring eagles, penguins and polar bears. I have to say
that the polar bear Christmas cards have become extremely popular.

Every year they seem to get cuter as artists come up with new ideas. We
actually have a number of our polar bears featured in the humorous Christmas
card category as the artist has given some of these creatures personalities
which shows up in the pictures depicted on the Christmas cards.

If you are an animal lover looking for cute Christmas cards to send to your
family and friends you can find some real cute ones here at www.DesignCrafters.com

Over the next few weeks I will be highlighting some of our
Christmas card categories.  What we are most proud of this year is our new
category of printed photo Christmas cards. We had an artist design our own line
of Christmas cards for this special category. We had a few of this type of card
that was offered by one of our suppliers the last couple of years and found
that they were extremely popular, so decided to expand our own line.

We now have 19 new printed photo Christmas cards that we have added to the few we
already have offered by one of our suppliers. We knew we had a hit immediately.
What has surprised us is that we figured they would be mostly used by families
with family pictures and pictures of the kids, etc. However, we have found that
more and more businesses are using these Christmas cards to send photos of their office
staff. You really should check out our assortment of new Christmas Photo cards
to see if any of them will work for you. You will not find any of our DCP Photo
card line anywhere else as they are exclusively sold by Design Crafters.