Tag: christmas cards

Christmas Cards Made Simple

The demands associated with running a new business can be hard, especially with the holiday season just around the corner. When I started running my own HVAC Systems business, I was not quite prepared for the sometimes overwhelming tasks that come hand in hand with running your own business. I started it in March and after a few extremely short months, thought I’d be running my new business right into the ground! The holiday season brought upon a whole new host of problems and I had no idea one of the biggest thorns in my side would be Christmas cards! My business mainly installs central air conditioning units for large wholesalers, personal homes, and everything in between; thinking of a greeting that fit my holiday wishes to my wide range of clients was difficult, but the answer finally came as a catalog in the mail.

Christmas Wishes Holiday Card

The Gallery Collection helped me down to every detail of the card (I had no idea I would be thinking so much about whether to use ‘and’ or ‘&’!) The process in my head that took weeks to mull over was done on the phone in less than 30 minutes. They had no problem incorporating my logo into the card; allowing me to send holiday greetings and drive some business. After the season, I was overwhelmed with the amount of business I had received by just sending out a holiday greeting! I would recommend The Gallery Collection for corporate Christmas cards, small businesses, or anybody who needs a few to say something special. The staff is wonderful to work with and I anticipate not having to think about these in the future!

Cheap Christmas Cards Can Leave A Bad Impression

I have the privilege of working for The Gallery Collection, one of the top greeting card companies in the country. I feel we produce the most beautiful, dazzling Christmas cards, and the results are truly eye catching. I have always been entranced with the array of color found in things that sparkle, and these cards are all of this and more.

Cheap Christmas Cards Leave a Bad Impression

In my travels during the holiday season, several years ago, I visited a few offices in another state. I remember noticing how their greeting cards were displayed around the room. Some were taped to the wall, and others were hung on a piece of string. If the greeting cards are of high quality, they truly stand out amongst the other not so pretty cards. Cheap Christmas cards can leave a bad impression, and find there way to the bottom of the pile so to speak. Companies that purchase “high end” cards will have a lasting impression from the card sender, and perhaps develop future business all because of an eye catching Christmas card. On the 2 office visits, I spotted cards immediately which were designed by my company. I actually felt a sense of happiness and pride to see our company’s classy cards up front and center!

Business Christmas Cards Are Good Office Etiquette

We all know that sending emails and/or text messages are such time savers but lets face it, they are not very heartfelt. Especially during the holiday season where we are even more appreciative for our relationships with clients and vendor. What better time to show how grateful you are of them? With sending business Christmas cards you show that you and your company are invested in the relationship rather then typing up a couple of sentences and clicking send.

New York City Channel Gardens Card

With business Christmas cards you get to hold the actual card that was picked out and read the message that they took the time to hand write just for you. You are not simply staring at a screen that probably has a holiday greeting that was copied to 20 other emails. Unfortunately, we live in a society where manners are hard to come by but rest assure that when sending Christmas cards it will be a win-win situation for both parties. Don’t get lost in the countless holiday emails this season. Showcase your company in a positive light and be remembered for it! When contemplating if you should send out cards think about how many emails you get a day and how many cards you get in a year. It’s an easy choice!

Christmas Cards- Still a Good Business Decision

Many difficult decisions have to be made by the average business owner on a daily basis. In this economy, where every day there are reports that the market is on a downturn and also that another recession is on the horizon, these decisions must be made carefully. So as the leaves begin to turn colors, and the crisp air greets us as we close the door behind us, the decision about how to handle the Christmas cards decision looms. As a small business owner, each one of these decisions must be made with great care.

Holiday Sleigh Card

One of the best principles I have always maintained through the years is to always let my employees know how much I depend on them and how appreciative I am of their hard work and loyalty to our business. The service they give to our customers comes back to us many times over in repeat business. Our customers are our bread and butter and without good service, they will go elsewhere.

Another principle I have maintained is to do everything I can to keep our business name out there so our customers old and new are reminded of the great service they have received. One of the ways I do this is with corporate Christmas cards. I am a fond believer in the value of calendar cards. I have searched for the best quality cards available with a design that our customers will want to hang on their wall and The Gallery Collection is always the winner. Their beautiful designs help us to remind our customers of our business and our well wishes, but they also serve as a constant reminder, on a daily basis, of the excellent service from some good friends. It is money well spent in a time when every penny counts. The eternal optimist in me knows good quality, good wishes and good advertising will keep us going.

Business Christmas Cards to Brighten Up The Season

I don’t know about you, but I love the Christmas season. There’s so much to celebrate, so much to anticipate, so much to enjoy. Of course it’s also a very hectic time of year that sometimes gets under our skin, but nonetheless, it is a great time of year. I love the look on my children’s faces as they open up their presents under the tree. I love counting down until the big day with all my employees at work. I love the feeling of making my yearly Christmas donation to our favorite local charity. I also love hearing my customers rave about how perfect, elegant and classy my business Christmas cards are every year. Every year I take pride in picking out a design I know my customers will love even more than the one they loved the year before. It’s a personal goal of mine to keep them in awe with the quality that our company is all about. And for a professional company, we need the best cards out there. The Gallery Collection is all that and more. And for the price they are truly a steal. I usually buy in bulk, so the cards end up being a great deal, especially considering the amazing quality of the cards themselves.

Joyous Wreath Holiday Card

This year, since things are going well for us and business is finally taking off again, we’ve decided to try Thanksgiving cards as well as Christmas cards. I’m sure our customers will be thrilled to receive their Thanksgiving cards in the mail and I’m anxious to hear what they think about them. We chose a lovely elegant design with leaves and gold foil on the front of the cards. Both of these holidays are excellent times to reach out to your customer base and let them know that you appreciate them, and furthermore, care about them and their family enough to extend some wishes and blessings. This is the season of sincerity; don’t leave room for people to speculate that you sincerely don’t care about them.

Choosing Business Christmas Cards – Not for the Faint of Heart

Do you wonder why a certain person in the office is chosen to pick out the business Christmas cards? Is it their sense of style that sets them apart? Or perhaps it’s that they are favored by the boss. Maybe he values their opinion better than everyone else’s. If any of this has crossed your mind think again. If your office is anything like mine, the job goes to the person with the most patience.

Business Christmas Cards

Once upon a time, I was the person with the most patience. Then I was chosen as the Christmas cards selector. My boss said we need a nice card to send to our clients. It can’t be too corporate and it shouldn’t be too cutesy, but I trust you to choose wisely. First mistake I made was to feel pleased he had chosen me. I set about getting catalogs and searching websites with a purpose. A few days later my boss saw me looking at samples and said “You should show them around, get a consensus of what everyone likes”. I had no idea what was to come.

Do you know that in an office of 25 people there will be 30 opinions? It’s true that by the time you have surveyed 25 people, 5 people will have a new opinion. I’m sure you have seen this depicted on Discovery or the Learning Channel, because it is a unique phenomenon reserved for the human race and perfected in the American business office. There have been many studies done on it – it is caused by too much coffee and staring at computer screens too long. All sense of decorum departs with the mention of Christmas cards and a chance to break from the routine. It is encouraged by the fact that the person expressing the opinion does not have to make the decision.

Wisely I narrowed down the selection on the second go around to three choices –  one awful and two really nice cards. The opinions were evenly (and very vocally) divided between two cards, which I promptly presented to the boss with my decision. He chose the third card as our business Christmas cards that year, which nobody liked.

The moral of the story is never believe you are better than your neighbor and always inform the boss that you admire your neighbor’s sense of style. Uh oh, here comes the boss with a birthday card catalog- break time!

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back Series – 2009 Finalist Designs

In today’s entry for our Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back series, we wanted to put the spotlight on a couple of finalist entries which were selected to be made into cards. Every year we receive thousands upon thousands of entries for our scholarship and while there can only be one Scholarship Winner, the amount of amazing artwork that we receive is so great that we always like to pick out a few finalists and add them to our line of cards as well. In the case of the 2009 Scholarship, two finalists designs were chosen to be made into cards.

The first design was submitted by Daniel Romlein of Potsdam, NY. Daniel painted a beautiful winter scene featuring Birch trees in a snow covered forest. When we first saw this entry, everyone in the room loved it. It brought to mind the holiday season at it’s most relaxing moment. This design was transformed into the “Shimmering Birches Holiday Card” after some additions like foil glitter depicting snow and a beautiful frame to center this amazing image and provide a background for the “Season’s Greetings” front sentiment.

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The second design was submitted by Katie Maupin of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Katie submitted an amazing painting of a snow covered home with a snowman in the front and the words “Seasons Greetings” written on the bottom. This design had such a warm and inviting feel to it that we knew that we had to add it to our line Season’s Greetings Cards. It was officially transformed into the “Warm Winter Welcome Christmas Card“. You can see some of the changes that were made to enhance this beautiful image such as a frame covered in snowflakes and glitter to represent the falling snow.

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Even though the above entries did not win, they deserved to be added to our line of cards. It truly is a testament to the quality of entries that we receive each year and we are always looking out for new designs to add to our ever expanding line. We hope you enjoyed this look into two great entries from the 2009 scholarship contest and we look forward to seeing you here next week for our next entry into the Create-A-Greeting-Card Look Back series!

Stress, Planning and Christmas Cards

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my life so far is that a vast majority of the things that stress you out are avoidable. Most of the time, what stresses us is caused by no one other than your own self. I can’t think of a better time that displays this lesson than Christmas. The amount of people I see scrambling around the stores sweating, hyperventilating and, when I’m lucky, crying is incredible. Had these people just planned better, they could be taking it as easy as I am and actually enjoying the season. I have most of my gifts bought by October. I buy Christmas decorations in January when they are all on sale. Most importantly, I have my Christmas cards planned out by early November. If I didn’t have to put a photo on my cards, I would have them bought before my vacation in July. Buying my Christmas cards early has gotten rid of so much stress and left me with a little more cash in my pocket. When Christmas actually rolls around, I am calm as a cucumber.

Christmas Bows and Beads Card

Imagine my dismay when during my first Christmas season at my new job. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was December 14th…a cold, sunny day. I am going about my business, doing my work like any other day when my boss nonchalantly walks over to me and asks me to send out our business Christmas cards. Assuming they had been written out, addressed, and stamped, I asked him where they were. He said they weren’t ordered yet and that was my job. I almost fainted. My heart rate went up, palms got sweaty and I am pretty sure a thunderstorm formed inside of our office. It was a year’s worth of stress packaged up into one moment. While I was able to order and send out the cards in time, my enjoyment for that holiday season was crushed. Until I confirmed that people got their cards before the 25th, I was a mess. I made sure we ordered our business Christmas cards very, very early the next year. It did go to serve as another example, though, of how much stress we create for ourselves.

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back Series – 2009 Winning Entry Transformation

In our current entry into the Look Back Series for the 3rd Annual Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest, we are going to take a look into the transformation of Lauren Ondreko’s winning entry into the final card that we have on sale today.

The process begins with Lauren’s entry being scanned into the computer to create a Hi-Res version of it for editing. Below is the original artwork that Lauren Submitted to the scholarship contest.

Lauren's Original Entry

This is what Lauren’s entry looked like after it was scanned into the system for editing.

Scanned in Version

The next step after scanning in the artwork is to clean up the image and sharpen the edges so that the production person, or Imager, can get to work. At this point the front sentiment is also added to the card and the card design begins to take shape!

Revised Art

Once the image is cleaned up and the front sentiment is added, the card is ready to go through the separation process. The imager determines the different colors and finishing techniques to be used on this Christmas card design. There are all kinds of options to choose from such as including ink color choices, die cutting, foil-stamping and foil embossing.

The creative team will get together and go over all of these choices to test out and find the best one to use. There are many different colors of paper stock, and some of these colored stocks will be tested with different types of inks or foils, depending on the design. Once the team narrows down the combinations, the card is sent to production so that the creative team can actually see all of the different choices and decide which will be the final one. Take a look below to see what these test designs look like.

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After much discussion and back and forth, the final design was chosen and added to our line as the Snowman Surprise Christmas Card.

Snowman Surprise Christmas Card

Once again, we want to thank you for stopping by and taking a behind the scenes look into the transformation of Lauren Ondreko’s entry into the beautiful card it is today. We hope you come back next week for another entry it our Look-Back Series!

Thanksgiving Cards: A Tradition in the Making

Thoughts of Thanksgiving conjure warm images of bountiful tables set in cozy homes, harvests of pumpkin and corn and evenings spent bundled against the chilling air. There’s an unmistakable sense of contentment and appreciation and a wish to feel connected, and sending Thanksgiving cards to family and friends is a wonderful way to share that sentiment with the important people in our lives.

But there’s no reason why that feeling of gratitude needs to remain in the home. Valued customers and employees are the heart and soul of a business, and what better time of year than Thanksgiving to show our appreciation?

Thanksgiving cards

We spend the year finding different ways to thank our customers for their business, from discounts and top-notch customer service to receipts with ‘Thank You’ printed right on them to clearly communicate the thought. And once a year we have the opportunity to do something a little bit extra and express that gratitude in a more personal way by sending a Thanksgiving card. It’s a unique way to say Thank You at a time when we’re all taking stock of the important things in our lives.

Sending Thanksgiving cards may be a fairly new trend but it’s one that shouldn’t be dismissed too quickly. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season and brings with it the first waves of earnest anticipation, excitement and introspection. To capture that sentiment in a card sent to family, friends, employees and valued associates connects you and your company to all the joy and optimism associated with the holidays.

Follow up your fall mailing with a bounty of festive Christmas cards as the year comes to a close and you will ensure that you will be thought of with warmth and appreciation well into the year to come.