Ever flip over a greeting card and check the price on the back? If you haven’t and you enjoy the ease and convenience of buying a card, then don’t. The price will make you cry and you will NEVER be able to buy another one! You may be thinking to yourself ‘well, isn’t her mom WORTH the five dollar greeting card?’ Yes, I do love my mother enough to buy her a five dollar greeting card and I have done so. But, think about it- how many of you still have any of the cards that people bought you for your last birthday? Or last Christmas- you saved all those cards didn’t you? NOPE! In reality, it’s not that we are ungrateful, it’s just that there’s too many holidays and too many cards to keep them all. So, if it’s just going to get thrown out, why bother giving anyone a card at all you Scrooge? Relax, you can still give a card to show how much you care and you can do it for a fraction of the price you would spend to buy one in the store. The answer is simple- make your own!
For parents it is a great idea to get your kids involved in the process. You can incorporate a little learning as well such as spelling, writing, tracing, and spatial awareness. For my five year old, I have her trace the letters and practice signing her name. For my three year old I have him tell me what colors we are using and I help him practice the letters in his name. It doesn’t have to be a complicated process. In fact, follow the KISS principle: keep it simple stupid. The simpler the design the more success you will have with it. Don’t break the bank buying supplies either. I’m willing to bet that if you have kiddos, then you have construction paper, markers, and washable paint laying around. This is pretty much all we use for our card construction process. Occasionally we have called in the help of stickers, glitter, and stamps to supplement my lack of artistic talent.
The process is easy! Just fold your construction paper in half to resemble a greeting card, come up with a cute or silly catch phrase, paint/draw/stick on/stamp your themed picture, and have the kids sign it. Voila! You have a cheap card that also doubles as a keepsake for the grandparents! Not sure where to look to find content? I’ll admit, I’m not actually that creative so I tend to steal my card ideas from Facebook. You can also Google search ‘handprint painting ideas’ and find a bunch of themes from superheroes to princesses to farm animals. Pintrest is another great place to scare up ideas.
Don’t have kids and want to give a more ‘adult’ looking home made card? Try this- for a wedding that was cancelled and rescheduled due to coronavirus I wrote a poem, printed it out, and framed it with a cheap, yet beautiful frame I found on clearance at Target! Snapfish.com or Zazzle.com are great options too for creating your own personalized photo based cards if, like myself, you are not ‘computer savvy’ or don’t want to go broke buying access to photoshop . You can find templates for as cheap as a dollar or two (watch out for shipping costs though. If you buy a lot from Zazzle it is worth it to enroll in Zazzle Black which gives you free shipping for the year. You can also find coupons on sites like Retailmenot for Snapfish which may offset your shipping.) Then upload your pictures, plop em in, and fill out the written section with your personal names, dates, or greetings and click purchase. Viola again! Now you have a cheap greeting card that looks professional and personalized! https://www.zazzle.com/https://www.snapfish.com/homehttps://www.retailmenot.com/dealfinder?networkType=search&keyword=retailmenot&network=g&matchtype=e&content=&search=1&creative=520428466069&placement=&adpos=&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=[RMN_BRAND]_[DT]_[DF]&utm_content=[RMN_BRAND]_[G]_[EXM]&utm_term=retailmenot&SID=_k_Cj0KCQjwzYGGBhCTARIsAHdMTQyu9yYIOFq34dtKuHR48JTkFAhxgsDqEbQd0nibCT9XM2WAxcMExDsaAsf4EALw_wcB_k_&ch=Null&attributedOutclicks=13039092121_121586421106_aud-94448163454:kwd-3960846399_520428466069_c&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYGGBhCTARIsAHdMTQyu9yYIOFq34dtKuHR48JTkFAhxgsDqEbQd0nibCT9XM2WAxcMExDsaAsf4EALw_wcB
So, with these ideas in mind- Happy card creating!
Cheers!
Love,
Marie
The thrifty-momcom 
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