Congratulations Cards for Flying High

Almost all of us have a written list or have at least thought of some things that we would include on our bucket list. I have been very blessed to have done a few things already that I have been able to cross of my bucket list but my latest thrill has come from jumping out of an airplane from 14,000 feet. Do I deserve Congratulations cards for such a feat? My kids think I do! Let me tell you why.

Skydiving is totally safe is the message I got from the company that was allowing me to jump, yet I had to sign many a form saying that I would not hold them liable should anything happen. Always having been a bit of risk-taker, I was undeterred and ready to jump. I was not really nervous but as we were ascending higher and higher, 7,000 feet, 9,000 feet, 12,000 feet….I did have a brief moment when I thought to myself, what the heck were you thinking? But alas, that passed quickly as my tandem instructor hurled himself, with me attached, out of the back of the airplane. I can’t tell you how incredibly liberating it is to free fall for an entire minute before having your parachute deploy. I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list.

The next day, I found Congratulations cards that my kids had made for me which said Congratulations Mommy for jumping out of an airplane. I found it very amusing to be congratulated for something I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager. But nonetheless, I saved those precious hand-made greeting cards along with the video and pictures I purchased of my extremely eventful day. I will never forget the experience but it’s great to be able to relive it every once and awhile. My next bucket-list adventure is a hot-air balloon ride. Not quite as risky maybe but at least the hot air won’t only be coming from me this time.

Design 644AR – Congratulations Banner Greeting Card

I remember years ago when I worked as an employee for a sporting goods chain. One of the nice things working for the folks who ran that company was their acknowledging of both my birthday and company anniversary with the presentation of very nice congratulations cards. Now that I am a member of a corporate executive team, I make absolutely sure that my employees always receive business congratulations cards to commemorate special occasions in their lives.

The one I picked out for this year is Design 644AR – Congratulations Banner Greeting Card. This is a fun and colorful design that says exactly what I want to say in a most cheerful and happy way. The design depicts a banner across the top of the card that reads, ”Congratulations from all of us!”, with the lettering in all different colors ranging from blue and green to red and gold.

Design 644AR - Congratulations Banner Greeting Card
Design 644AR - Congratulations Banner
Greeting Card

Below are four people – two men and two women (the same makeup as our executive group) – with big smiles on their faces, holding multi-colored balloons and standing in a large, opened gift box. Multi-colored streamers and confetti lend an accent as a final touch.

I have yet to see a more joyful and pleasing business congratulations card to give to a valued employee! Design 644AR – Congratulations Banner Greeting Card really fits the bill!

Business Congratulations Cards for your Sneezing Friends

Upon a recent promotion, I received several greeting cards with well-wishes from co-workers. My boss gave me a business congratulations card and on the inside wrote “Congrats…or should I say God bless you?” I guess you are wondering what sort of inside joke this could possibly be, right? Let me backtrack.

It all started with a sneeze. It’s pretty much a given that if someone sneezes, they will get a “God bless you” in response. Inquisitive beings that we are, a few of us wondered how God’s blessings became the response of choice to a loud, germy sneeze. Of course to find out…we “Googled” it.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember what I did before Google. Have a question about something? Google it. Need to look up a factoid or rumor? Google it. None of the other search engines made it into a verb in our daily conversations. I only wish it had been around when I was a kid. It would’ve been so much easier to Google something than ask Mom to drive me to the library so I could look it up in an encyclopedia.

In any case, Google made good on its informational uses. It turns out that back in plague times, the Pope made it a law that you should bless someone in case the sneeze was a precursor to an untimely, plague-related death. Prior to those times, if someone sneezed, they were congratulated for getting rid of an evil sprit!

Some of us have started to congratulate our colleagues when sneezing. Sure, we get odd stares at first, but when we explain the origin, the stares stop (well, usually). Our Congratulations Movement has yet to pick up steam, but I am determined to make it catch on, even if it means bribing with days off! (Ok, maybe not. Bribery is not the best way to go about things, folks.)

If you have particularly sneezy friends or co-workers, and are tired of blessing them every time they let out a big one, think about handing them congratulations cards. Include a tissue, and maybe an explanation of why you’re congratulating them. That should save you from having to react to the sneezes at all for a very long time!

Congratulations Cards for Any Congratulatory Occasion

My birthday is quickly approaching and the excitement is starting to build as the cards start trickling in. Imagine my confusion last week when I opened a card with no return address and noticed the cover said “Congratulations!” I am not celebrating anything other than my birthday, so I pondered what kind of person would send congratulations cards in place of birthday cards?

After staring blankly at the greeting card while wracking my brain trying to figure out what might possibly be the reason for the arbitrary congratulations, I decided to open it and discover which of my friends, at the ripe old age of 28, had already started losing their marbles. As I opened the card, a twenty dollar bill fluttered out onto the floor. I read the obligatory swirly congratulatory greeting that wished me the best today and always, and then noticed the card had no signature at the bottom. After thinking about it for another few minutes, I pocketed the money in true birthday spirit, randomly tossed the card aside and quickly forgot about it.

After a seemingly endless commute home a few days ago, I started up my normal after-work routine – let the dog out, water the plants, start dinner, check the mail for birthday cards. While going through the pile of mail I noticed an identical envelope to the one I had received last week. I hurriedly tore it open in the hopes of receiving another anonymous contribution to my birthday fund and discovered a congratulations card identical to the one I received last week! A signature from my dentist appeared at the bottom, along with a note congratulating me on having no cavities and sincerely apologizing for the blank card previously sent by his new assistant with no explanation. Dr. Rocco also mentioned the need to reorder more birthday cards and blank cards for any occasion, and requested that I remind my husband of his dentist appointment on Friday at 2:30. Who would have thought you could get $20 for no cavities? But as it turns out, a second note appeared in the card…I did not need to contribute my co-pay amount this time around. Oops!

Congratulations Cards are Nothing to Sneeze At

As one of the most recently employed members of the Gallery Collection, I’ve been learning new things on a daily basis. And apparently, there is a lot to learn about business greeting cards. I suppose my experience has not been very different from anyone starting a new job, but what has impressed me the most about my novel surroundings is the genuine kindness of the people here and the lengths they go to show their appreciation for one another. There are even some of my now fellow co-workers who will go so far as to offer congratulations to a person who has sneezed. Yes, that’s right…sneezed!

Now there was, as I later discovered, a much more elaborate reason behind this; a story perhaps better saved for another blog entry, but the idea of someone congratulating another person for something seemingly so simple aroused my curiosity. It got me thinking about the numerous reasons why people are recognized by those who care enough to commemorate them in some way, shape, or form.

And that’s when I saw the light, heard the trumpets blaring and the angels singing…well, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but I did realize something. Congratulations cards! I wondered, being just a callow trainee, if we had any of our own. Sure, I already knew about the Christmas cards and birthday cards, but what about this other possibility? I decided to check it out on GalleryCollection.com, and low and behold, I found several unique styles of congratulations cards. And what also makes these all occasion cards so great, just like all of the other greeting cards our company offers, is the availability of personal customization.

So whether it’s a graduation, an engagement, a marriage, a promotion, or a newborn child, the reasons for letting someone special know that his or her achievement is extraordinary are abounding. But sending people greeting cards to congratulate them for sneezing? Well, like I said, that’s a story for another time.

Congratulations Cards for Ecstatic Sports Fans

Certainly, it makes one feel terrific to send congratulations cards to friends or acquaintances who have special, personal events that are causes for joy; for instance, the birth of a child, a graduation, the purchase of a new house, a promotion or new job. To be the recipient of such greeting cards at happy times in life can provide memories that are hard to forget.

A few friends actually sent me congratulations cards for a non-traditional kind of event –when the New York Giants won the 2008 Super Bowl. For me, the Giants’ victory over an obviously superior New England Patriots team was one of the high points of my life, since I have been a die-hard Giants fan as far back as I remember. So it was pretty cool to receive greeting cards for this occasion.

In my office, there are two coworkers whom I consider good friends, and who both happen to be devout Patriots fans. None of the three of us actually believed that the Giants really could win but, when it happened, my two buddies were distraught. I, on the other hand, was overjoyed.

Now I consider myself to be a pretty upstanding, honorable guy. In a competition of any type, if I do not have the good fortune of coming out as the winner, I make it my business to make sure I shake my adversary’s hand and give the proper verbal kudos to their victory. Back at work the next morning, one of these coworkers was kind enough to murmur a half-hearted congratulations while the other not only was MAD AT ME (like I had thrown the winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress), but he refused to even acknowledge that the Giants were even good enough to be on the same field as the Patriots. Had I received congratulations cards from one or both, I would have made sure to frame them and put them on the wall of my newly-refurbished basement as a fond remembrance of an unlikely victory for my favorite team. But it was not to be. Maybe for the fun of it, next year I’ll send these two friends anniversary cards commemorating the day the Giants won the big game!