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Personal Greeting Cards

High Tech Version - What you need Photograph(s) and a scanner or a digital camera (You do not need a different image for each card.) Photo editing program on your computer Photo finishing store which develops digital images Blank greeting cards with envelopes Royalty Free Flower Stock Images for instant download

How to start

What you need to start is a photo. You can either take one yourself or scan an existing one. For the stationary I made for two of my friends I shot photographs of their favorite flowers. Funny childhood photos can make a perfect gift for a sibling.

Once you found the desired image, you need to save it onto your hard drive. Then use an photo editing program to do the enhancing and also to add the text.

First you will have to crop the photo to a 3:2 ratio. You will achieve a great quality print (6 in by 4 in) with an image which is 1500 pixels by 1000 pixels and 72 dpi.

Depending on how experienced you are with photo editing, you now can do all the other adjustments such as contrast, colors, etc. Or you might want to convert a color image to black & white.

Once you are happy with the way the image looks, it's time to add the text. It can be whatever you desire:

• Name
• From [insert name] desk
• With love from [insert name]
• Thank you
• Poem

In order to get a feeling of the finished photograph, you might want to zoom out on your work until the image on the screen appears to be about the size it will be when developed. This will enable you to see if the text is big enough or too big. Also you will see if the text color is well chosen.

Once you are happy with your composition, save the image as a JPG file. Depending on your photo lab you either save the file on a disk or CD or you may be able to upload it via the Internet.

Important

Do not order the full batch of prints the first time around. Do a test run and have a look at the results. Images look different on a monitor than on paper. Once you are happy, you can order the desired amount of photos. A nice amount is about 10-20 prints per subject.

At the end just glue the finished photos onto blank greeting cards. Wrap it all up nicely and you have a lovely gift.

Low Tech Version - What you need Photographs Blank greeting cards with envelopes Pencil

Gifts don't need to be expensive just thoughtful. These cards are from a series of slides from my father's collection. The photographs were taken at the national exepition in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1964. My brother scanned my father's entire slide collection a while ago and I came across those beautiful images. I had them printed as photographs and made them into greeting cards for my dad and two brothers.

Alternateviley you can develop and frame a series of images.

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