Downtown Portland Inspires Me

I had a very inspiring day today. Every visit was fresh and warm . . . just like the sun today in Portland as it peaked out beyond the clouds. Downtown Portland is an exciting place to visit; I felt it a privilege to be in the Pearl District for part of my day. It feels so alive there amongst the brick warehouses transformed into eclectic meeting places!

I drove past my old stomping grounds as I left my appointment: Smith Western Novelties and Gifts. I learned how to use a packing tape dispenser working in the shipping department which pretty well explains why I am a master box packer. I would bring Morty, my first baby, down to the warehouse of the family business and work in the afternoons.

 

It is funny how I used to count boxes of thousands of postcards there and now I represent a greeting card company, SendOutCards, that prints ONE personalized postcard at a time. How cool is that? I love that not only do they print on recycled paper BUT they print ONLY the cards that are being sent out; now that is eco-friendly! Not only are they “Changing lives, one card at a time” but they are “Saving the environment, printing one sent card at a time”!

Happy Easter

Wishing you a Happy Easter weekend! I hope you have both a fun and relaxing time with your family and friends over this holiday. We have been enjoying grandchildren and family visits for the last two weeks. We were going to try to hop down to California for a day to see two more grand children (and their parents also of course) but the flights are too full. It would have been fun to add up how many family members we were able to visit in the last two weeks.

Speaking of hopping down to California, one of my favorite Easter time cards I created a couple of years ago was my granddaughter hopping on the trampoline, thus . . . Hoppy Easter!!! This time of year there are so many reasons to send cards and gifts: graduation, wedding, Mother's Day and Father's Day and . . . Happy Spring since the sun is starting to shine here in the Northwest!  I love using my SendOutCards service to not only make my life easier but to bring a smile on someone's face.

 

Instead of traveling, we will enjoy our holiday at home with my mom and our daughter, Katie.  It is a good excuse for an Easter basket to show up in our living room. I think it is kind of fun that she has requested a traditional ham and "funeral" potatoes dinner since, as a teenager, she said we should switch to lamb on Easter. Now, hopefully your Easter Feasting won't make you feel like this bunny below!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Late Christmas Cards

How late is too late to send a Christmas greeting card you may ask???  Do you think your friends and relatives are going to refuse the mail because it is late?  No, everyone loves getting a real piece of mail no matter when it arrives!  A late greeting card will just make people smile and know they are in the company of real friends who aren't worried that they will be judged!!!

Traditionally, I keep a fun gingerbread bowl on the kitchen table to store our holiday greeting cards that arrive throughout the holiday.  I see most of my visiting children take some quiet time to read every card from that bowl.  So, our later arriving cards don't get read by our visiting family but we enjoy them even so.  I hear that there are lots of people who regularly send their holiday greeting cards late.  Some say they do it so their card gets more notice but truly, most of us are just running late. 

Goodness, we just experienced a year when there was an extra week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and yet, I don't know a single person who felt that they had more time.  Christmas just snuck up on everyone this year it seemed!

SendOutCards has some great solutions for late holiday greeting card senders.  If you don't want to send a late Christmas greeting card, we have a fabulous assortment of New Years greeting cards or Calendar greeting cards. Check out my December post about Campaign Cards: TIP #6 for more information on New Years or Calendar greeting cards.

Today, my daughter-in-law, Aubrey, showed me this card that made me laugh.  You have got to take a look at it.  You can find it in the Humorous sub-category under the Christmas category.  Or, it is easier to just use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the Card Catalog and type in: january.  Do not capitalize the word January as the search tool does not like capital letters!  You will need to view it from your SendOutCards account to really read it easily.  

Enjoy and Happy Late Card Sending!

Holiday Greeting Card Tips-Send a Sample Card

SendOutCards Campaigns

 Using the SendOutCards Campaign feature for sending Holiday Greeting Cards

Send yourself a hard copy

 

TIP #6-When I am going to send a card to over 100 people, I send myself a hard copy sample card of a large campaign in case I don’t notice a mistake (from my computer screen).  I can be pretty picky so you may not have the same need to see it first.  If you call SOC, or use the online chat feature, after you send yourself that sample card, they will refund that cost to your account.

Of course, if you are sending a holiday card right about now, there isn't the luxury of time to send yourself a sample card first.  If you really want to follow this advice, think about switching your holiday card to a New Year's greeting card or a Calendar Greeting Card is you have a business.  We have many, many great new cards in both of those categories.

Check out the New Year's greeting cards in the category: Holidays and sub-category: New Years.  There are even sub-categories in that section so click on the one you want. Businesses in the heath or finance industry are particularly well suited to sending a New Year's card and mentioning achieving goals for the new year.

A business can send a year-at-a-glance 2013 Calendar Greeting Card that will sit on your customer's desk all year long and the card only costs 62 cents!!!  That is a lot of months of keeping your name fresh in their mind every time they pick up that card . . . and for such a little cost.  Check out our new calendar cards in the category:  Special Collections and sub category: Calendar Cards.  We also have Calendar Elements if you would like to create a custom calendar card and add personal photos or images for only 1 more point.

The possibilities are endless!

I know the card catalog well.  Call me at 503-524-1111 if you want some suggestions. 

Holiday Greeting Card Tips-Adding Contacts

SendOutCards Campaigns

Using the SendOutCards Campaign feature for Holiday Greeting Card sending.

Adding people to your Contact Manager

TIP #5- At this time of year, hopefully you have already added your family, friends, customers and business associates to your Contact Manager.  If not, and if you have your contacts in any sort of Excel-type fie, you may add them to your SendOutCards account all at once with the Importing Contacts feature. Otherwise, plant yourself in front of a fun holiday movie and add your contacts one by one.  That is what I did before I realized there was an Import Contacts feature!

Check out the HOW TO IMPORT CONTACTS tutorial on your HELP drop down menu plus, Customer Service will help with technical issues if you experience any.  At this time of year, choose the CALL BACK option with Customer Service or use the Online Chat feature in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.

Once you have all your contacts into your system, you WILL feel jolly, jolly. jolly joy since it will then be SO easy to send a simple heartfelt card all year long!

Holiday Greeting Card Tips-Personalizing

SendOutCards Campaigns

Using the SendOutCards Campaign feature for sending Holiday Greeting Cards

Insert Name Feature for fun personalization

TIP #4-Remember to have fun with photos, text boxes, thought bubbles and personalizing your card on both the front and inside with the insert name features.   When you use the INSERT NAME feature, do not cut and paste it.  You MUST click on the INSERT NAME feature on the EDIT-PERSONALIZE IT page for it to work as a live mail merge feature.  

I used the FIRST NAME-INSERT NAME feature on this card.  When printed, whatever I have in the first name cell in my Contact Manager, will be auto-filled onto the front of my card.  Watch the tutorial about using Campaigns from your HELP drop down menu on your Main Menu Page red line for more explanations.  Call me at 503-524-1111 if you still have questions.

Holiday Greeting Card Tips-Signatures

SendOutCards Campaigns

Using the Campaign Feature in SendOutCards for Holiday Greeting Cards

Signatures and Personal Font

TIP #3-If you purchased the $25.00 handwriting/ 4 signature font option, it takes about 10 days to 2 weeks for it to get into your system.  For those of you who may have procrastinated mailing in that font page, a remedy to still using a signature is to scan an image of the signature that you use on your holiday cards and adding it as an image (photo) to your system.  Write it in a fun holiday color since you will not be able to change the color in an image of course, like you may change font colors.  When using a scanned image as your signature, remember the background of that part of the card should be white.  One of the fun features of purchasing a $5.00 signature, is that your background may be any color and there is much more flexibility.  Call me at 503-524-111 for further explanation.