Creating Greeting Cards

kathiemt

I am interested in using the Greeting Cards option on my site to order several blank cards with my photos on them. But all the templates seem to require more than one image. I only want to do cards with one image on the front, and a Christmas message on the inside. Is this possible to do? I'd like to have the choice of at least 3 or 4 templates with one photo each.

rainforest1155

Hi Kathie,

Looking through the layouts, there are a few with just one photo on the front:
http://cards.smugmug.com/5x7-Folded-Cards/Christmas/6549527_HWsmKj#983636919_wpw8k
http://cards.smugmug.com/5x7-Folded-Cards/Christmas/6549527_HWsmKj#709969214_QBGDi
http://cards.smugmug.com/5x7-Folded-Cards/Christmas/6549527_HWsmKj#425309655_Lq99i
http://cards.smugmug.com/5x7-Folded-Cards/Christmas/6549527_HWsmKj#574678711_hRosj
I didn't look through all of them and for the first one there's also a version in a different color.

You can browse our specific card catalog using this link:
http://www.smugmug.com/cards
At the top just above the different card thumbnails, you can find a sort option to sort by number of photos which brings the one photo cards to the back of the catalog. You can also filter out the 4x8 photo cards (which are prints not on card stock that aren't suited to write on the back) by selecting just the 5x7 size

Sebastian

kathiemt

Ok, thanks Sebastian. Much appreciated.

One more question. Flat cards? I've not seen these here in Australia, other than postcards. I got caught through Snapfish awhile back when I was looking at their card service and ordered what I thought were greeting cards, only to find they were really just prints on card - not what I was looking for at all. Are they a common thing in the US for people to send?

rainforest1155

Personally I wasn't familiar with this type of card before joining SmugMug either, but I'm told they're quite popular across the world so I'm guessing my family / circle of friends just doesn't use them.
You can add some text to the front of many of our layouts.

johng

The 'flat card' photo card has become popular for sharing family pictures - typically Christmas or birth announcements. Those postcards are on refrigerators across America . They're offered by Walmart as well as every photo sharing site that allows prints. The challenge, from a business perspective is selling them profitably. They're good when you don't care much about the verse in the card - not at the price you have to charge. And, in general they're expensive to print. So, you're only going to sell them if you're taking the type of photos that people would use on a cards they're sending out to 20+ people (e.g. Christmas cards, birth announcements). If you're not doing those types of portrait sessions, I don't see it as a viable product offering.

kathiemt

Thanks John. Your flat cards are what we call postcards here. I don't do portraiture but nature photography and yes, some people would buy postcards. But it's more the greeting cards I'm interested in for people to use at Christmastime. Seeking a decent service with low cost cards with my photos is proving a bit of an exercise. But I'm getting lots of suggestions from people. My challenge is getting something that won't cost a lot to get to me.

kathiemt

I thought I'd update here. I ended up purchasing Hallmark's Card Studio program online to create the look I wanted with my photos on the cards and then sent the PDF file to a local digital printer. End result? Great professional looking glossy Christmas Cards which I now can sell at markets. In fact a local cafe has asked me if they can sell them in their shop as they saw examples of them on Facebook. But I did get one done via Vistaprint too - just to see what it would be like (the JOY one below). The cost was considerably more than the ones I got done by the printer locally.

cat

I'm not sure if you've run across (google) Photographer's Edge, but take a look at the cards they have, too. The stock is beautiful. Not cheap, but the nicest I've seen so far.