*HELP!* (Please) DIY/Custom Christmas cards?

[OcalaFlGuy]

In a move TOTALLY uncharacteristic of me, I'm actually looking WAAAAY far ahead to Next Year's Christmas cards.

 

Beleive it or not, I've already shot the front card photo.

 

Now, I need to figure out what to do next.

 

I am no compuder expert but is there a DIY program where I could make the card out of some nice FP friendly paper

or considering the color (photo) ink usage for 25-35 cards would it just be cheaper to have it done? And of course, has

anyone had any photo cards made up that ended up being on FP friendly paper?

 

Someone here has to have the info I'm looking for!

 

PS I have the pic narrowed down to 9 shots. If yall are really interested, I'll post the pics and you can help me

choose the card pic.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[hollyuk]

Hi Bruce - I can't help with the printing of the card (unless you go to a local printer and do a deal and choose the paper whilst you are there - he should be able to give you some card to try to see if it is FP friendly).

 

Would love to see your pictures though! What a wonderful idea taking your own picture!

[txinsk]

Bruce,

We made our own cards this year. I had some folding cards from Staples which we trimmed for clean edges as they were perforated. Two cards to a letter size sheet. The paper was ok for fountain pens. Then my wife had bought some seasonal decorative paper, snowflakes and the like. We cut that into pieces that fit on the front of the card. We then took wallet-sized, family portaits and glued it all together. The decorative paper on the card and the picture on top of the paper. Inside we wrote a message, with fountain pens of course. It is not hard, especially if you have scrapbooking materials. Printing on the card might be nice, but I think I like the multiple layers made by attaching other papers and pictures. So it can be done, I would advise skipping the printing and just attach everything with either glue or paste.

 

Rick

[bitterwonder]

I hand draw simple cards. Cant deal with the printing, pasting issue.

[hollyuk]

There is a website here in the UK that you can upload photos to cards - they can be a bit pricey - it's OK for a one off birthday or special occasion card (which I tend to use them for) and you can get custom printing (so you can get their name on the front of the card for example). We tend to buy larger quantities of christmas cards so that can be a problem.

 

I never checked at christmas if they did any special offer or not. The website is moonpig.com. I'm sure you have one more local to you that does something similar, but not sure of the costs.

[Vulcan1066]

in ms word 07 you can upload a picture onto half your sheet of paper then rotate it upside down. Then when it is folded over it will be right side up. Print on your favorite paper and your set to go. Just remember that the space below the picture is the back of the card, The inside of the card will be blank.

Using the margins settings you can designate how wide your card is.

[Vulcan1066]

Bruce

drop me an email on here or my personal account. Ive dummied up a copy for you. tell me if it is what your looking for.

Also what are the dimensions of the card? If you have a good printer you can always make one or two, then have copies made of it using fp friendly paper.

[seres]

We’ve done this for the past several years. As others have said, almost any word processing program can place a photo. I place the photo on the lower part of the page, then fold the card and trim the edges to fit the envelope. The inside is blank for my personalized greeting, although you could run the page through the printer again for inside printing. A standard 8.5 x 11 sheet trims down to a 5x7 card.

 

For paper, I use an uncoated 110 pound index card stock, about 200 grams/m^2. This is heavy enough for a card, yet not too heavy to run through a laser printer.

[OcalaFlGuy]

Rats. I think I am out of luck here...

 

The new printer I got is a Canon MP490. I did research it beofore asking for it for Christmas, but one thing I didn't check was how heavy a paper you could use in it as I figure it would handle as heavy as I would USUALLY be likely to use. (Which it will) I checked the manual and the heaviest paper it says to use is 28 lb. Now, while I might could see trying some 32 lb paper thru it, the 110 lb card stock would seemingly be WAY too heavy for this printer.

 

I doubt taking the homespun file to a print place and having them print it out on the cardstock would save much more than

just having them do it from the start... (But I could be wrngh about that too...)

 

Thank everyone for their help but at least as far as printing this at home, I think I'm a NoGo.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[Cedar]

I've made some cards. I bought a package of "the Paper Cut" 50 text inserts that are acid free, 5X8 in both cream and white. I make my card on stiff cardstock paper, fold these text inserts in half and then use a small strip of double sided tape to hold it in place inside the card. Works very nicely, easy and good for fountain pen ink. I use a rubber stamp for the message standard message and then fountain pen for signing. Another advantage I have found with this method is if I goof up what I write, I can just discard the text insert and not have wasted or need to make another card.

Scrapbooking stores are great places to look for things like that and often have a big variety of papers that you can usually find several that are fp friendly.

 

Cedar

 

edited to add that you can print your photo on regular photo paper, buy the cardstock paper (scrapbook stores have them the right size so when you fold them in half everything fits together nicely) use tacky glue or double sided tape to hold the photo to the front or top of the card and away you go.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Cedar

[seres]

......you can print your photo on regular photo paper, buy the cardstock paper (scrapbook stores have them the right size so when you fold them in half everything fits together nicely) use tacky glue or double sided tape to hold the photo to the front or top of the card and away you go.

I did that technique one year, and it resulted in a very nice card. It's more labor intensive, but you're only making 25-35 cards.

[kernando]

Did you already decide against looking for the cards with the picture holder on the front? Crane makes them, so you'd think at least one of them would work with ink.

 

If you're cutting and folding plain card stock yourself, I'd use photo corners.