Photo card design

And now for something completely different --- photo cards! Photo card design is a natural crossover from digital scrapbooking, as it uses the same materials and skills. Just like traditional scrapbookers become card makers because the already have the paper, digital scrapbookers should become photo card designers as well. Photo cards have become popular for holiday greetings, birth announcements, and party invitations. Here is a party invitation I made for my daughters' (gasp!) third birthday.

Though Snapfish and Shutterfly provide ready-made templates, I think it's much more fun to design my own. And it's CHEAP, I might add. I create them in 4x6 format, upload them to Snapfish, and order them just like I would any 4x6 picture. They run about 10 to 15 cents a piece including shipping (or less if you have a coupon). I would pay more than that in the store for a stack of generic invitations.

I have much more flexibility when I design my own, as well. For this card, I wanted to show a progression of her from birth to age three. I had seen it done once before and I loved the idea. The 4x6 size gave me just enough room to include three small photos under the text. The one-year-old photo with frosting smeared all over her face is a little goofy, but it goes with the birthday theme.

The main photo shows one of the rare instances in which she was looking at me and smiling just long enough for me to focus and shoot. Just as a quick technical note, I took it with my 50mm/1.8 Nikon lens. It takes crystal clear shots under indoor lighting. For just over $100, it was a great investment.

I also love photo cards because it's an opportunity to distribute pictures to friends and family. Of course, people who aren't very close to my family probably will not keep it, but that's perfectly fine (did I mention they are CHEAP).

There is also a business opportunity in photo card design. I've heard of companies that design custom-made photo cards for people. Now that I have a little practice myself, maybe I could start making them for friends. Then I can see where that leads. Thanks for looking!