Author Topic: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home  (Read 2279 times)

Mgmny

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Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« on: August 31, 2018, 10:54:44 AM »
Hey gang!

Every year my DW and I spent a ton of money on sending out "nice" Christmas cards. We usually pay around $1+ a piece plus postage on sending out the cards being printed at places like Minted, Shutterfly, and Paper Culture.

Does anyone here have any hacks/thoughts on home setups (printer, paper, envelops, etc) that would be equal to "luxury card" companies?

I feel like we can get the designs on fiverr easy and cheaply enough, and good card stock, envelope, ink shouldn't be anywhere near a $1 a piece, right? I'm thinking we'd need to invest in a high-quality home printer (our current home printer is a cheap scanner/color printer that wouldn't do a good job not ruining high quality card stock).

I'm hoping not to incite facepunches for sending out 70 $1 cards every christmas to people who will just throw them away, but it's something nice we do for our friends and family and we have a collection of them, and there is a 0% chance I convince my wife to not send these out. I'm just thinking of a way to scale this at home.

Mgmny

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2018, 10:59:21 AM »
quick edit: It turns out that this year the one we are looking at is actually $1.85 a piece, no foil, etc etc. This is definitely a luxury product that I am trying to hack to get cheaper. Going to Walmart and printing them on photo paper is not going to fly for a luxury substitute... haha

wordnerd

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2018, 11:01:26 AM »
The hack I learned on this forum: use Vistaprint. Go their business materials and use the postcards. With some fiddling, you can make the designs work for anything. I think I got 50 cards for $10.

Cranky

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2018, 12:47:22 PM »
You can get a nice photo collage printed out at CVS or wherever for about a quarter.

I buy my Christmas cards at the ReStore - they have bags and bags of them. The stamp is the most expensive part.

okisok

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2018, 12:56:32 AM »
+1 on Vistaprint. I've used them before for many printed items. The Frugalwoods have a hack on their blog about how they get really cheap Christmas cards. They choose a business postcard and substitute holiday pictures and message for the 'Sale' or 'Promotion' part.
You can Google promo codes for discounts, and shop through a rebate site like TopCashBack, Ebates, or Mr. Rebates to get your costs down.

If you do go the CVS or Walgreens route, look for discounted gift cards on Gift Card Granny, Gift Card Jungle, or ebay that you can use to pay.

+1 on the ReStore. I have a lot of stationery from thrift stores, estate sales, and yard sales. Some of it is gorgeous, on heavy card stock with lined envelopes, etc. I don't  care if my Christmas cards all match, because no one on my list is going to get together and say, "OKCisok's card to me doesn't match the card you got!". As long as they're all nice cards, they don't need to match.  Some people are getting the Spode cards, some are getting the snowman cards, and some are getting the snail cards with glitter shells :)

You can send fancier postcards, doing away with envelope and a percentage of your postage costs.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2018, 08:29:56 AM by okcisok »

lbmustache

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2018, 10:16:49 AM »
I also recommend Vistaprint or Minted, as they often run sales. Is Minted mailing them for you, adding to the cost? You can have them sent to your place and address and stamp them yourself to save money.

Unfortunately I've found that the average home printer will not compare to a "luxury" card and a truly nice printer is fairly expensive.

englishteacheralex

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2018, 11:31:07 AM »
We do Vistaprint. They run excellent sales in the months leading up to Christmas.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2018, 12:17:31 PM »
I use VistaPrint. They would not be a luxury substitute, if that is what you want to send.
But they are really nice cards (we use postcards- save on postage!) and 90%+ of people just throw them away anyway.

Mtngrl

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2018, 02:37:16 PM »
You do not need a luxury card. The very act of sending a Christmas card makes it special in this day and age when few people do so. The people who receive the cards are not judging the artwork or fancy trimmings on the card (and if they are -- who needs friends like that?) My favorite cards to receive include photos of the people they are from -- as many people have mentioned, these types of photo cards are relatively inexpensive.

If you simply must send a luxury card, the cheaper hack is to make it yourself -- as in, craft it with cardstock, fancy paper and perhaps an embossing kit. This takes time and effort, but if you start now, you can make the 70 you need before Christmas. Search online for ideas -- choose one and replicate it.

Mgmny

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Re: Printing Christmas/Other Cards at Home
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2018, 12:35:33 PM »
Thanks everyone! I'll look into Vista print hacking!!