DIY Christmas card

[Sclass]

Having just moved across the state I thought I'd better get my Christmas cards out early.

I usually get the cheapest photo cards at the drugstore. They have one photo, some text you type in like Merry Christmas from SClass 2015. And a cheesy picture of some holly. I've done these things every year for a couple of decades. Starting with 35mm negatives and migrating to jpegs.

This year I decided to get creative and cheap. The cards we receive are getting more and more elaborate with multi photo fold outs with pictures of vacations, kids sports and cheesy text. It's become an industry. I decided to go against the grain.

As I was photo shopping our image (SO and I cannot agree on the same photo due to crooked smiles, age spots, gray hairs, etc) to put us both on the same background I decided to try taking my text tool and writing something cheesy in a cheesy font. Then I found some cartoonish clip art of some holly. I pasted it on. Saved the layers as JPEG and I'm going to just print out a single 4x6" print and get a box of business size envelopes.

Print out my form letter with the change of address and write some stories about how I've spent the last year stressing over my aging mom and how I resolve to kill somebody over it in 2016. Boom, cheapo cards. No shutterfly foldouts.

[jennypenny]

Print out my form letter with the change of address and write some stories about how I've spent the last year stressing over my aging mom and how I resolve to kill somebody over it in 2016.

Maybe you could sprinkle a little white powder into the envelopes, at least in those addressed to potential candidates. Might help get your point across.

I gave up on those letters when they became another source of competition in the extended family. I was tempted to spice up our letters with tales of DS flunking out of school or DD running off with some old guy she met on the internet, but decided it was probably best to opt out of the whole business instead.

I can't talk publicly about most of what we do anyway.

[Sclass]

I need to announce I'll be going away to rehab for a long time. Pretty sick, I need to hoist myself out of this dark mood.

I'm basically sending cards to a bunch of folks I'm not too happy with at the moment.

I wish I could get a photo of the cops and neighbors at mom's telling me that her neighborhood wasn't zoned for a dementia care hospital. It wasn't a good time for a selfie.

They were LA county sheriffs so it's probably better not to whip out a selfie stick or I may be able to make a card about my beating with stills I capture off the 6 o'clock news.

With the drugstore getting twenty cents per card I cannot say I'm saving much with DIY. It was funny how I pretty much got the same cheesy card at the end of the process.

[OldPro]

Be careful Sclass, making your own cards can lead to things you never thought of.

I was living in Greece and wanted a birthday card for an acquaintance there who was from Australia. As you might imagine, finding an English birthday card on a Greek island is not easy to do. So I had the great idea to make one using a desktop publishing program I had on my computer. I found some clipart that let to put a kangaroo and the Sdney Opera House on the card to give it that Australian touch.

Well she loved the card and asked me if I could do menus for the bar and restaurant of the hotel she owned. I said I supposed I could but since I didn't really want to, I quoted her a price I figured would kill the idea. Instead she said OK, make them. So I made her menus and she paid me. Next thing I know, I get a phone call from a friend of her's who owns a bar and he wants menus for his bar. I found myself in the menu business without ever having decided I wanted to be.

Over the course of the next 3 years and entirely by word of mouth, I literally had more work doing this than my printer was physically capable of putting out. I should mention that there is only about a 6-8 week period just before the beginning of the tourist season, when anyone wants new menus. So this wasn't a full time thing at all but it paid VERY well on a per hour/day basis.

So just be careful is my message Sclass. You never know what unintended consequences something you do, can have.

[Sclass]

Be careful Sclass, making your own cards can lead to things you never thought of.

So just be careful is my message Sclass. You never know what unintended consequences something you do, can have.

That is a really cool story. I dream of a life like that.