Tag: Birthday Cards

Crafting Greeting Cards into Placemats

What can you do with old greeting cards? I bet you are thinking: “make Christmas ornaments!” That’s fine for Christmas cards but what about those all purpose cards and birthday cards received throughout the year? And what can you do with that pile of your children’s birthday cards that are collecting dust in your drawer? It would be such a shame to throw away greeting cards after receiving and reading them, so let their beautiful designs and colors inspire you to use them in creative ways.

One thing that you can do with your children is collect all the birthday cards they receive and make placemats. This would make a great gift for any family member and this activity will spark your children’s creativity, making them use their noggins. It is also a great geometry lesson!

You will need old birthday cards (or really any kind of all purpose cards), scissors (child-safe please!), construction paper, glue, and either a laminator plus laminating paper or clear contact paper.

First, help your children cut out different shapes from the greeting cards. Then have them lay out the shapes on the construction paper so they can measure their picture before gluing (I warned you this would use math!). Once they have decided on the picture they want, glue the different shapes onto the construction paper. If there is room, they can write a message to the person to whom they are giving the placemat or they can just embellish their picture. Finally, either run the placemat through a laminating machine (most office supply stores will laminate for you), or use clear contact paper to cover the placemat so it can be wiped clean.

And there you have it….a great gift for anyone in your child’s life, created by reusing personal birthday cards and all purpose cards! Come to think of it, using old Christmas cards would also make your holiday table look great too!

Birthday Cards Help an Older Boy Celebrate

They say men aren’t really adults but just older boys who never grow up. I can certainly attest to that, at least when it comes to celebrating a birthday. Having just turned 59 (gasp!) about a month ago, I can tell you that being the birthday boy is still a great feeling. On that big day, it should be all about oneself…and why not? This is the day when I can and should feel that there’s something special going on and not be criticized for feeling that way. I can revel in all of the birthday cards I receive and enjoy all of the attention I get. More importantly, I can feel like a child again without the guilt.

As a perk, some companies give an employee a paid day off on his or her birthday. Where I work, I wouldn’t even think of taking a vacation day on my birthday. My coworkers shower me with cards, good wishes, a cake and a “happy birthday to you” serenade. Even the head honchos of the company come over and offer a birthday handshake along with company birthday cards personally signed by each of them. After the workday is over I head home, where I am again presented with more birthday cards, gifts, a special dinner, more singing and all the attention a birthday boy deserves.

And you know what? I love it all, even at this age, which is why I’m actually looking forward to turning the big 6-0 next year!

Boxed Birthday Cards for Oma

I sent my Grandmother “Oma” a set of boxed birthday cards to keep on hand after the holidays had ended. She had mentioned how difficult it was for her to get out of the house lately. The usually temperate small town she lives in had been hit hard very early this winter. Knowing my Oma would travel through snow, sleet, and flooded roads to get a birthday card for one of the dozens of people she acknowledges on their “special day,” I thought it best to send her assorted birthday cards so she wouldn’t have to travel outside her cozy home to show someone she was thinking of them.

I arrived home after work to a stack of mail as usual: a few circulars, advertisements for that week’s one day sale, and a couple of my monthly bills. Amongst the plain envelopes and colorful coupons was an envelope for a Gallery Collection greeting card. I can spot that envelope from a mile away! Not only does the unique deckled edge make the envelope pop, but the birthday cards are just the right size to make them stand out in a crowd.

I was running late for a night out so I hadn’t planned on opening my mail right away. The bills could wait, but this was a greeting card! I had to open it and see who had sent it to me. In the envelope was a birthday card with a blue balloon and soaring stars, one of my personal favorites. Inside was a sweet message from my Oma, in the most perfect handwriting you’ve ever seen, wishing me a happy birthday almost a week before the actual day. I can always count on my Oma to remember a special occasion, and now she can always count on those boxed birthday cards to have just the right greeting cards she needs to show her family and friends how much she cares!

Assorted Greeting Cards Will Get me Organized!

I start out each year with the same thought: “I am going to get organized! This is the year that I will be the person I want to be.” Who is that, you might ask? I want to be the person who has a place for everything, and everything in its place. Not the person who has small piles of papers, laundry, magazines, bills etc. all over the house. I want to be the person who quickly and efficiently accomplishes all of those items on her to-do list. Not the person who loses her to-do list! I want to be the person who remembers all of her family and friends’ birthdays and sends them birthday cards that arrive either on or before the actual day. Not the person who remembers the day before, the day of, or let’s face it, more often than not the day after (okay, I’ll admit it, sometimes it’s been the week after).

This year I’m going to be armed with assorted greeting cards so that I am never caught off guard. Whenever I realize that I need to send birthday cards or thank you cards, I can go and find the perfect greeting card from my boxed birthday cards. My aunt recently came to a family get-together and went around asking everyone their birthdays and writing it in a book she had received as a gift called “The Book of Birthdays.” I thought it was the coolest thing. I thought I had found just what I needed to get organized and be on top of sending greeting cards, which obviously is no small feat. It’s basically just a book like a journal with all of the days of the year so you can write everyone’s birthday, anniversary, etc. in it and be ready to mail out assorted greeting cards. No more transferring birthdays and anniversaries to the new calendar year after year. Especially since last year I threw away the old calendar and didn’t realize until a week later that I hadn’t copied over all those very important dates! Of course, then I realized that I would actually need to remember to go pull out the book each week to see if there were any special occasions coming up that I needed to send greeting cards for, and I lost my enthusiasm.

Now I’ve signed up at one of those websites that will remind you via email or text message when you have an important occasion coming up and need to send greeting cards. You can determine when you want the reminder sent and if you need a second reminder, they even do that too. So I’m all set. Now, I just need to find my to-do list!

Business Birthday Cards Inspired by a President

I recently purchased stamps from the USPS so that I could mail out business birthday cards for my company, and there was an interesting quote from John Adams on my receipt:

“Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.”
John Adams, 1765

This quote got me to thinking how nice it would be to write a personal note on all of the birthday cards I send out. Every employee enjoys receiving that special card to help celebrate their birthday. Would it mean more to them to include a handwritten note in their greeting cards telling them how much they are appreciated? After all, John Adams said “Dare to think, speak and write,” so I decided to give it a try to see the response.

One of the next upcoming birthday cards that I had to send was Melody’s. How original can I be? She is so creative that my idea could backfire, but I decided to write her a poem. Melody was so touched and surprised that I took the time to personalize her birthday card. Maybe it is a small step and surely not the type of writing that John Adams meant, but it certainly got me thinking and made Melody happy. Next in line…Dolly and Lauren! I am sure I can have fun with what I will write in their birthday cards.

I am sure John Adams had more on his mind with his quote, but isn’t making someone happy on their birthday just as important as writing an epoch? That may be going a little overboard but you can never tell, all this thinking about what to say may get me to writing the next great American novel.

Anniversary Cards: Is it Really too Much to Expect Them?

I really don’t need gifts, but is it too much to expect anniversary cards? I receive business anniversary cards from my company, The Gallery Collection, commemorating the wonderful day I first walked through the door. Well, not really. It’s more about the anniversary of when I started working on a regular basis because I had worked on a seasonal basis for several years before becoming a regular employee. Yes, I know it’s a greeting card company, but that doesn’t mean that they have to send me an anniversary card.

You would think that my husband would remember that he was lucky enough to marry me 35 years ago. Ok, so maybe the fire distracted him. Well, is that really a good enough excuse? Didn’t he think about getting me an anniversary card before our anniversary?

Oh, you want to hear about the fire? On my anniversary, I received a call at work from my son. With a slightly hysterical tone, he says “THE GARAGE IS ON FIRE!” It seems my husband and son were having a leisurely lunch when someone knocked on the door and said “You have to get out – the garage is on fire.” Well, what good would it do for me to go home and stand outside and watch, especially since I have asthma? So I stayed at work and kept getting updates from my husband and son.

When I went home at my usual time, I walked into chaos. It seemed the whole family was there plus the neighbors, the firemen, the police, and assorted unknowns. The garage was burned, wet, and smoke damaged. The siding on the back of the house was melted along with the neighbors siding and all the patio furniture. How it didn’t damage the car in the driveway is beyond my comprehension. Everybody hung around until almost ten o’clock and had pizza (which I paid for) and nobody even wished me a Happy Anniversary. Okay, maybe they were preoccupied.

After the last person departed, I sarcastically asked my husband, “Is it really too much to expect an anniversary card?” Hopefully he’ll redeem himself in a few months by giving me some fantastic birthday cards!

Birthday Cards are the Right Choice for Both Colleagues and Friends

Business birthday cards let you share inspiring messages with employees, coworkers, and customers on their special days. Keeping a variety of business birthday cards on file at your desk means you’re always prepared with perfect greeting cards whenever you may need one. Taking that extra step by sending greeting cards to people you work with could turn out to be a vital part to your company’s success and retention of employees and vendors.

Everyone wants to know that their clients and associates are thinking of them. Exchanging greeting cards is an easy and unique way to stay in touch with these valued individuals. If you keep assorted birthday cards on hand at work you will always be ready to send greeting cards when the occasion comes along. To stay organized, I keep a simple spreadsheet with all of my Gallery Collection coworkers’ and vendors’ birthdays listed, so that at a glance I know when to send out corporate birthday cards or any type of greeting cards.

After I select greeting cards for each person, I write a short but personal message. Sending out birthday cards to people you know gives them a reason to pause and think for a few minutes about the person who sent the greeting card. When they receive the birthday cards and realize you have been thinking about them, it helps to nurture that relationship, whether it is personal or business related.

Assorted Greeting Cards: My In-Case-of-Emergency

So I went on a shopping spree the other day. As always, my intentions were to stop at the store to pick up the one thing I needed, which was a greeting card assortment box. But as any shopper knows, it is never that simple! Once you get to the store, you start looking around and seeing all these other products that you could use or that you might as well get while you’re there.

It occurred to me that I should pick up some snacks and bottles of soda for my Super Bowl party. And I also browsed the movie section and picked up a few DVDs. Now that football season is over, I’m not going to know what to do with my time on Sundays! Along with all of this other stuff that I bought without really needing, I got my box of assorted greeting cards, which I sometimes refer to as my emergency kit. Once I picked up what I was really there for, I was all set.

I like to purchase boxes of assorted greeting cards because when I look for a single card, I end up spending too much time reading through every card (as well as spending too much money). It’s also easier to have an assortment on hand instead of running to the store when I realize someone’s birthday is right around the corner. I love giving personalized greeting cards, even when I don’t know the recipient all that well. The box of assorted greeting cards that I found was perfect because it included birthday cards, sympathy cards, thank you cards, anniversary cards, and get well cards…all the cards I could possibly need in the case of an emergency (or a senior moment).

For the Love of Sending Greeting Cards

My friends will all tell you how much I love sending greeting cards. I’m the type of person who has been known to read half the cards in the store before selecting the perfect one (which is why nobody I know will go to a card store with me). I don’t just send birthday cards or Christmas cards; I love sending thinking of you cards or even “Today is Wednesday” cards. Whatever the occasion, I’ll buy cards in advance so I have them on hand when needed. Naturally, when I started working for a greeting card company, my friends laughed and said I must be in heaven now.

I am in heaven because not only are there new and beautiful cards to admire every year, I am surrounded by people who continually chat about greeting cards. “How do you like the new birthday cards?” our Creative team wonders. “Which Christmas cards are your favorites?” asks our Chief Marketing Officer. “Did you see the new assortment box?” questions a coworker. The all-things-greeting-cards atmosphere combined with the enthusiasm of our employees are surefire ways to produce a quality product that I personally love to talk about.

So when my boss asked me to write for our greeting card blog, I decided that my love of greeting cards was the perfect topic. Greeting cards are a wonderful way to connect with people, and I’ll share a tip…I save and reuse cards too. I cut up the cards with great pictures and use them as gift tags or presents. This is a terrific way to reuse a paper product, and anything friendly for the environment can’t be a bad thing.

Business Greeting Cards…A Golden Opportunity

Holidays and Special Occasions come and go…very much like an opportunity. Some opportunities are often very obvious while others may be somewhat obscure. As a business, whether small or large, the use of greeting cards can offer a golden opportunity to keep your company’s name and image in front of your customers throughout the year, strengthen relationships with business associates, and foster goodwill amongst employees. Here are some tidbits for a properly executed business greeting cards program:

Holiday Cards – extend your good wishes of the holiday season. But keep in mind that the card design and greeting should reflect the holiday that the individual celebrates.

Birthday Cards – can be sent to employees as a form of promoting goodwill and adding a personal aspect to these relationships. Birthday cards sent to business associates or customers can be a means of building relationships and offers the opportunity to express your gratitude for their valued business. In either case, be mindful of the type of card that is sent. For instance, a humorous card may not be appropriate for everyone. Birthday cards can be sent to the office or to the home depending on the type of relationship. If the relationship is one that is more casual and personal, then it is appropriate to send to the home. If the relationship is more formal, then it would be best to send to the office.

Thank You Cards – provides a way to thank a customer for an order or a business associate for a sales lead or referral. Thank you cards can also be a means of offering a promotion or discount to customers and clients as a special thank you for their continued business. Thank you cards may also be used to provide encouragement and thank an employee for a job well done. These greeting cards can be customized with your message and company name but should be hand signed and hand addressed. If the card is blank on the inside, at least three sentences should be written with the first sentence specifically mentioning the specific item or deed which you are thankful for. Remember to check for any spelling and grammatical errors.

Get Well, Sympathy, Thinking of You Cards – can be sent to an employee or business contact who is ill or has experienced a loss. Thinking of You cards can be used interchangeably with either of these occasions in which you may not want to specifically mention an illness or death. A hand written note should be included and the card should be sent to the home.

Keep the above in mind and your business greeting cards will surely turn into a golden marketing opportunity.