Frugal photo Christmas cards
December 16th, 2005 | by mbhunter |We’ve gotten photo cards from several people for Christmas. We (actually, my wife!) made our own this year at a cost of under 50 60 cents apiece, including postage!
She took a picture of our daughter (which wasn’t a chore for either of them — my daughter loves the camera). She draped a dark piece of fabric over a chair, put our daughter on the chair, and snapped a beautiful picture with a digital camera. She imported the picture into Microsoft® Word®. She copied it three times with a Christmas message and printed them on glossy photo paper ($0.16/sheet), cut them with a paper cutter down to letter-envelope size, and away they go!
4 Responses to “Frugal photo Christmas cards”
By Colleen D on Dec 17, 2005 | Reply
This sounds like a great idea. I’m just wondering, though, how many cards did you send out and can you figure in the cost of the ink cartridge? This last expense is what usually keeps me from doing something like this for the 100 cards I send out each year.
By mbhunter on Dec 17, 2005 | Reply
Hi Colleen,
Thanks for your comment! I went back to check. I was off a little but it’s still under 60 cents. (I fixed the post.)
The pictures were 2 1/2″ by 3″ plus some text. A review for the printer we used said that the ink cost for full-page pictures was about $1.00 per page, so that works out to about 10 cents worth of ink per card.
Tack on 6 cents for the paper, and maybe 2 cents for the envelope and a penny for the printed letter inside, we’re looking at 19 cents per card, or 56 cents per card mailed.
Cards from a picture studio cost over $1.00 per card, and then you have to mail them.
By Colleen D on Dec 19, 2005 | Reply
Thanks. That’s still a bargain!!!
By mbhunter on Dec 19, 2005 | Reply
No problem. You’re keeping me honest! Merry Christmas!