CardsDirect Blog

Posted by Leah at 6 August , 2007

Photo cards are a wonderful way to personalize your holiday cards! Whether you visit a professional studio (or have a photograher come to your office), or you decide to showcase your own amateur photography skills, a holiday photo is a welcome addition to often generic holiday greetings. If you choose to take the photo for your cards yourself though, it’s worth keeping in mind a few tips and guidelines, so your holiday well-wishes don’t become a holiday disaster!

• If you can, plan your photo in advance. Everyone in the photo (whether they’re your children or your board of directors) can plan to wear a nice outfit for photo day, and you can prepare a spot for taking the photo with a good backdrop (find a clean wall, or hang a sheet or blanket over a room divider) and decent lighting. This is the ideal solution, and would eliminate most — if not all — of the hazards in the rest of the list!

• Pay attention to your background! Tales of photos with accidental reflections or stray objects, people and pets in the background abound. If you want to take a photo of the lovely wreath in the office foyer, make sure the janitor isn’t walking past the scene when you click the shutter. If you’re taking a photo at home, watch out for reflective surfaces like mirrors in the photo. (If there are reflective surfaces around, do put some clothes on! One unfortunate woman saw her 3 year old doing something cute in the bathroom and took a picture of it. She put the picture on her Christmas cards and learned after she sent them out to 100 of her closest friends and family that one could clearly see her naked body in the mirror behind her son … and no, I’m not making that up!).

• Watch your lighting! A photo taken with a bright light behind the subject will cause the subject to be dark or completely blacked out. If some people in your photo have glasses, bright direct lights may turn their lenses into blinding reflectors. If the light isn’t bright enough, the photo may turn out blurry. If you’re using a camera flash, use your camera’s red-eye reduction setting so you don’t send out photos that look like “business of the damned.”

• Get permission from your “models”! This is essential in a business setting. Make sure everyone in the photo knows it is going to be mailed out, and not just framed and hung in the office reception area.

With a little common sense and attentiveness, your photo cards can turn a boring holiday greeting into a keepsake! Without it, your holiday photos could end up featured on the internet in the next popular “photo bloopers” chain email … which is definitely not the kind of publicity you want.

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Posted by Leah at 25 September , 2006

Can you imagine a world without photo Christmas cards? They are actually a fairly recent invention.

Frenchman, Louis Daguerre created photographic images on silver-plated copper in 1837 and Fox Talbot received a U.S. Patent for a process that enabled photographs to be printed on paper in 1841. According to the History of Photography, the new portraits became hugely popular. By 1850 there were 77 photographic studios in New York City. During the Civil War Matthew Brady’s team took over 7000 pictures to record that period of American turbulence. Following the lead of these men who carried their bulky equipment to the battlefields, photographers became fairly common on the frontier. History was documented and many thousands of families had their photographic portraits made, but professionals did the work and the pictures were still quite expensive.

Then, in 1888, George Eastman developed the roll-film Kodak box camera that changed Americans into a nation of amateur photographers. Kodak’s early advertising slogan was, “You press the button – we do the rest.” Photography was no longer limited to professional photographers. It quickly became available to people of almost every economic level. Snapshots chronicled every event in life. It naturally followed that people would want to share these treasured photos with their families and friends at Christmas. When someone came up with the idea printing or tucking photos into specially designed Christmas cards, it caught on quickly. Now, more than a hundred years later, we still smile when a photo card arrives in the holiday mail.

At CardsDirect there are dozens of beautifully designed Photo Cards and Photo Holder Cards. A picture of your family, company team, or corporate headquarters makes a statement of, “We’re a family – we care.”

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Posted by Leah at 30 September , 2005

What a great way to send updated family photos! There are so many cards to choose from, but sometimes the best card is the one with your family on it. Photo holder Christmas cards make it easy. You pick out the photo you want and get the copies made yourself, then pick out a coordinating card to border and display your picture like a frame. Then all you have to do is stick the picture to the card using double sided mounting tape or glue or in some cases the cards include die cut slots to simply slide your card into. Simple and fun! Get the kids to help and turn your Christmas card mailing into quality family time.

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Posted by Leah at 12 September , 2005

Got a great photo or idea? You can create your own greeting cards with the help of CardsDirect graphic artists. We have many design templates to choose from or we can work with your original idea. We use 10pt. 100lb cardstock in a variety of sizes to make your very own personal greeting card. Photo calendar cards are also newly available. Add a personal touch to holiday greeting cards this year! Need holiday greetings for your business? We can even make a unique greeting card using your company logo. Get creative with our Full Color Custom greetings this season.

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Posted by Leah at 4 August , 2005

If you have a great idea for a greeting card, we can make it for you. Our full color custom greetings are blank slates that you can create or allow our artists to assist you in creating a one of a kind greeting. Use your logo, a picture of your office, the team or anything else that illustrates your business as a great highlight for your personal greeting card. Look at some of our samples in photo cards to see what we can do and get ideas for your own custom greeting card. You may also include a custom greeting and imprint to personalize your greeting even more!

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