A Renegade Cowgirl

Creating and sending greeting cards has been a fun and creative way to keep in touch with people. I started making hand made cards out of different types of art paper, photos, cutting, pasting, and layering. I added flowers, herbs, glitter, buttons, and ribbons to these fun, but time consuming creations. Still, today, it’s a great art project to do with my friends, kids, and grandkids.

Soon came the computer age. My first computerized cards were of a generic nature, and the computer graphics in those days were pretty bland. Considering that I had a dot matrix, black and white printer, I still managed to create some of the cutest cards, all spruced up with hand colored graphics and glitter. No card stock, just folded up paper. Cute, but definitely not ‘keepers’.

Eventually, I graduated into several upgrades in computers, software, and printers. Thinking this was pretty cool, I went on to create everything from greeting cards, to labels, boxes, and packaging for my skin care and soap.

I was even selling the cards; some with soap, some with jewelry, most had glitter, very cute! I love the technology of computer graphics; finding pictures, adding text, playing around with borders and text bubbles.

I spent hours and days on the computer, spending just as much time creating my cards and packaging, as I was on the actual 'products'.

What I soon discovered was this was becoming a printing business, and as much as I love creating these cards at home, my printers were wearing out time and time again. After awhile, I couldn’t print on card stock, so that pretty much stopped me in my tracks.

Often they wouldn’t go through the printer, getting stuck and jamming, and smearing all the ink. I’ve literally spent all day trying to fix a lost cause, only to resort to buying a new printer..once again.

A New Look

One day I received a card from a friend whom I had just visited. He had taken some pictures of my daughter and me when we went out for dinner one evening. When I came back home the following week, I found this really cool personalized card he had sent. It had our pictures on it and some really cute thought bubbles and captions. I was thrilled at the sentiment of a personalized card. This was something I hadn’t seen before, and I could do this at home on my computer! The quality was superb and the price to make each card was substantially cheaper (about 1/3 of the cost) of what they sell for in a retail store. Have you priced cards lately?

So I called him right away about this really cool card. He gave me the website and I discovered that this company was also an MLM. It seemed to me that this 'product' could be used as a 'tool' as well; sending cards to your main MLM downline could be of great value to your business. People love getting cards! Especially a high quality personalized card. What a great way to grow and maintain a relationship!

I could use it for personal use, sending greeting cards to friends and family.

I could use it for business to keep in touch with my customers and downline.

Or I could promote it as an opportunity, enrolling others who might be looking for a fresh idea in a new home-based business.

Sending a greeting card through the mail has about a 99% chance of being opened and read. People will also more than likely keep a personalized card.

Since you can edit these cards, you make them your own by adding your own fonts, colors, pictures, graphics, and even a gift or gift card. The company will print, stamp, and mail your card; all this from the comfort of your computer. How slick is that? My cards didn't come close to this quality, not that they weren't 'cute'.

I still like the home made cards, once in awhile, but it takes time, as do most art projects. It wasn’t practical for me to make a couple dozen cards for Christmas. I just didn’t have the time. So I created my Christmas cards, using my graphics and photos, as well as the standard graphics offered by the company. Each card took only a few minutes to personalize, save, and click ‘send’.

I’m definitely more of a ‘card sender’ these days and everyone I send to really love them.

This is a fun way to market any business or stay connected with your family and friends, and with all of the Social Networking sites available today for marketing, the possibilities are endless!

Find out more about starting your own Greeting Card Business.