Tuesday 24 September 2013

Unique Greeting Cards

Finding unique greeting cards to send to your loved ones can be hard; having looked long and hard for a greeting card that fits them and the occasion it would not be great to know that someone has sent them the exact same greeting card, the chance of this happening can increase for holidays where card giving is popular like “Thanks Giving” or “Charismas”.
Many of the large greeting card manufactures that have stores on the high street or in shopping centres may have at what first seems like large selection of greeting cards which quickly drops down when you start to look at the individual categories. Some stores that sell lots of different goods as well as greeting cards may well have some unique greeting card produced only for their company along with a selection from a number of the large greeting card manufactures. Your next stop on your search for unique greeting cards would be small independent greeting card stores. By their very nature they will have the smallest selection of greeting cards but each one unique from the cards in the large branded stores. This is because they will be getting their greeting cards from the smaller manufactures that are unable to supply the lager branded stores and if you are lucky they will have greeting cards made by local artists.
To find the largest selection of unique greeting cards you need to venture onto the internet where you can find the work of tens of thousands of artists and designers from all over the globe. My first point of call would be Greeting Card Universe that only produces greeting cards, finding cards is easy by typing in “key words” or using their very logical categories that can be very specific “happy birthday estranged farther from daughter”. You can alter the inside verse on all the cards and on some of the cards you can alter the text on the front or even add your own photo to a section of the front of the card. You can even ask an artist to alter one of their designs for you or you can put in a request for a design you have in mind that will go out to all the artists on the site and you will get to see how artists with different styles interpret your request and all for no extra cost to you.
The next place to look would be the gift sites where you can find artists and designers work for sale on many items from clothing to clocks and puzzles to phone cases as well as greeting cards. Two of the biggest would be Zazzle and Cafepress press, the large number of products and designers on each of the sites can make it a little daunting in finding what you are looking for but is well worth the effort. Other sites are more tailored to the artists manly focusing on art prints and canvases but also include greeting cards, sites like “Red bubble” and “fine arts America”. Then there are the newer and smaller sites where the market place is not flooded with the designs of the more prolific artists like Mydoodle and Societ 6.
Renae Birthday Cavalier Spaniel Card
Renae Birthday Cavalier Spaniel Card by myshelle
Check out Spaniel Cards online at zazzle
One thing that all the websites above have in common is that once you have found and purchased your unique greeting card that design is still there for any number of people to come along and buy it, even if you have had a design changed by an artist on greeting card universe, the artist will think “one person liked the changes enough they bought it, maybe others will buy it as well” so leave for all to see and buy. The next group of websites are where you can buy handmade products only. On sites like www.Etsy.com or www.Folksy.com  you can find beautifully hand crafted greeting cards that by their nature are only produced in small numbers.
To get truly unique greeting cards for you loved ones and friends is to make them yourself. STOP, before you click away from this site thinking that it is going to be too hard or fiddly and you have no artist talent in you give me a chance, after all you have read this far why not read the rest of it. Now, I am not talking about making your unique greeting cards from scratch though I am sure that in a short time and with a little practice that is exactly what you will be doing. I am not even talking about using the wonderful kits with easy to follow instructions that you can down load and print out over and over again from great sites like Crafts U Print or My Grafico.
Embellishing greeting cards that you have acquired, I like to buy packs of holiday greeting cards from charities or thrift shops, these are not so expensive that you will worry about making mistakes and are a good starting point to hone your talents. When choosing your greeting cards try to pick a simple designs or pleasant images that have plenty of space to place you embellishments, the ideal card is one that you think is nice but just needs a little bit more decoration.
Many of the tools that you will need you may already have around your home; pens, scissors, marker pens, paper glue and if you have children you may have a lot more like paints, glitter, colouring pens, paint brushes and more. A quick visit to your local craft store or the craft section of a department store will give you an idea or the range of embellishments that you can use to decorate your cards with. You will need to have self-control not to buy everything you see, I know that I do. Buying a few stock items to get you started will do today, as you get the bug for making greeting cards you can build up your stock of what you like and know how to use and what tools will be useful to you. To start, for the price of one or two greeting cards you can get a selection of rhinestones, glitter glue and foam pads.
Taking a perfectly pleasant greeting card like the one above by adding a little embellishment you can make it uniquely your own.
tools photo tools.jpg
Above are some of the tools you might find useful when creating your greeting cards and below is a small selection of rhinestones, glitter glue and foam pads, this small selection is enough to make many cards.
glitter and rhinstones photo glitterandrindstones.jpg
By just adding a little glitter glue in different colours can make a big change to a greeting card. Using glitter glue is good for intricate work, if you want to cover larger areas it would be better to apply glue and then sprinkle on glitter, remember to put your card onto a large piece of paper or card so that you can collect the unused glitter.
silver glitter photo
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silver and gold photo
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red silver and gold photo
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Adding a few rhinestones to key points on your greeting card to finish off. Let the cards design or image speak to you as to where to add the glitter and rhinestones. When you first start it can be hard to know when to stop “less is more” after all you want to add to your card not overwhelm it.
close up 2 photo
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Try different styles and effects, do not be worried about making mistakes as you can always start again on another card and above all have fun.

Now the before and after.

snow and rhinestones
snow and rhinestones by martinspaperstore
Shop for Martinspixs Cards online at Zazzle.com