I shot my pink tulip in a vase, Tulip Study #1, as the image for a Mother's Day card for my mother.  It is high key, with a small range of colours; I find its simplicity to be charming.  If you look at the leaves and stem with their repeating arcs, the composition is also not too shabby.

I enjoy this image so much, that I have printed it to canvas to hang in the house.  In addition to making the original Mother's Day card, I have used it for greeting cards for a number of birthdays and special occasions.  Despite my own enjoyment of it, however, I haven't really been able to to decide if it's a great photograph, or if it just appeals to some sentimental weakness in my critical faculties.

So, I submitted it as an entry in our club competition to find out if anyone else thinks it's any good.  Turns out that the judges liked it too.  I'm even able to say that it won in my category.

Too often, shots, like my tulip shot, or the shot of the yellow daisies at the roadside, languish on a hard drive, or worse, on CD or even worse on a memory card that will eventually be reformatted.  I want strategies for getting my work into view.

And that is part of the point of creating my own greeting cards.  They are relatively easy to make, at least once you have worked through the various steps.  At their worst, they show a special effort and at their best, they elicit special approval.

That was the case with the card created using the shot of the lily.  Again, created for my mother, it was taken during a trip to the Purdon Conservation Area.  She recognized it immediately.

Making cards can be relatively easy.  I got a good start from my friend, Norma, who creates box sets for sale at art and gift shops. 

Staples/Business Depot has double-sided matte presentation paper which is heavy enough to make good cards.  Each 8.5 x 11 inch sheet accommodates two cards.  They also sell invitation envelopes, both white and coloured, which are exactly right for the 4.25 x 5.5 inch cards.  The appropriately sized envelope contributes to the appearance.

Because she is in the business, Norma has a stock of those small plastic boxes of the sort that are used to package thank-you notes and Christmas cards.  I get mine from her; she orders them in larger amounts from a supplier.  On one occasion, I used a plastic box to contain a gift set of cards of a Loon that I shot while at my niece's cottage.

It is pretty commonplace now to have custom-printed Christmas cards.  Here, too, I print my own.  I have to fight the temptation to use the same Christmas card year-after-year.  My all-time favourite Christmas card image is shown here.

I have prepared a sheet with the instructions I originally got from Norma.  If you would like more detailed information you can download the instructions. 

Posted October 30, 2010 at 7:59 pm.