Right before last year’s holiday season began, I must have been asked about 100 times for custom greeting card photo sessions. Rather than being excited at the prospect of new work, I have to admit I shuddered a little. The thought of shooting a large number of sessions back to back and then creating a custom card that fit each family’s unique style seemed like an insurmountable task for a lone photographer, or at least a lot of sleepless nights.
There are tons of pre-made design templates out there, but I couldn’t find a style that felt right for my clients. With the styles I liked, the photo was printed on the card making it so that whoever got a picture in the mail had to live with a holiday design all year if they wanted to enjoy the photograph. The styles that included a photo insert just didn’t strike my fancy so I turned away a lot of potential clients and went home for the holidays, but not without thoughts on doing some serious research on photo greeting cards and invitations for next year. Lucky for me, an answer was waiting on my mom’s desk.
The desk was bedecked with about 30 holiday cards and most of them were the photo kind. They could have all come from the same place — they all had a generic seasonal salutation printed across the top. One, however, did not look like the rest and wonder of wonders, you could actually take the photograph out and frame it after the holiday season was over. Not to mention, this card was original, hand-made looking, and beautifully framed the image it enclosed.
It came from a cousin of mine who has a knack for creatively styling home interiors, her two lovely children and now also greeting cards and she was also home visiting for the holidays. Yay…a solution! She pointed me in the direction of Stylart cards and well..now I’m a dealer for them.
I didn’t expect to end up selling wedding invitations too, but this company makes it so easy to carry all types of cards. I love that they are so customizable — you have a lot of options when you go through their ordering process. Most importantly — for me at least — you can take the photos out. To view their offerings and order cards of any kind, click the link titled invites/cards on the menu bar at the top of this blog or click here.
It would make me very happy if you used images from a photo session with me, but you can also order the kind without photos or use your own. Any orders will ship directly to you.
