I love to make photo greeting cards, because it combines two things I love…photography and letter writing.
But sometimes, like today for instance, when I am trying to create a unique birthday card for my Dad, none of my photographs really fit the bill. I want to create a greeting card that says something about the person I am sending it to. Who are they? What are their interests?
I don’t have much time. I need to get this card in the mail today. So here is what I do:
I start with a Google Image search. If the recipient of your greeting card has a specific hobby, sport or talent, this will be easy. Golf? Tennis? Accordian player? There are thousands of images to choose from. For the card I created today, I searched on my hometown of Grosse Ile, Michigan. Grosse Ile is an island where I grew up and where my parents still live. Now I live on an island in the Florida Keys, so I am still an Island Girl. But I digress. Back to business.
Bingo! Searching on Grosse Ile, Michigan gave me exactly what I needed. First of all I found an aerial shot of the Naval Air Station where my father was stationed when he was in the Navy at the southern end of the island. This is also what I see when I fly into Michigan to visit.
Next, I find this fabulous old Navy plane flying over the tip of Grosse Ile. My Dad was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and was in charge of maintaining the electrical systems of the planes. I can’t believe my luck in finding such great photos. This is going to be a nice masculine card right up his alley.
Even when I make photo greeting cards, I use a greeting card software. In this case, I used Printmaster software by Broderbund. I imported the photos into my art gallery there. I like to call it Island Girl Gallery. After selecting the Half-Fold greeting card, I placed the image of the plane on the front of the card. Clicking on View and selecting Inside, I placed the aerial shot and added text…. “I love my Navy Dad” and “Happy Birthday!” On the back view, I typed Island Girl Greetings and under that, “Created especially for Chief Petty Officer Rex Lawcock.” You get the picture. When you make photo greeting cards from your heart, the right stuff just seems to come your way. It sure did this time. I added my handwritten note inside, telling him how seeing the aerial shots of Grosse Ile made me miss him and home and voila! A completed card in just a few moments.
