Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Easy Frame Cards - MSCE April Day 13

Working in the non-profit sector, we find ourselves constantly juggling projects and trying to be superwomen, all while working on a tight budget. It can be stressful for even the most organized of folks! This week I'm lending a hand to our Cook Library Center Director by helping her create some quick and easy, multi-use, "thank-you" card templates.

Often we like to send out personalized thank you cards from the kids that we serve to donors, community partners, etc. It really makes a statement to get something in the mail that was made by a child. Unfortunately, card-making is time consuming, and let's be real -- sometimes kids are big into wanting to help with things like this, and sometimes they are not interested at all!

So what I am trying to come up with is a template on cardstock that can be mass-produced in which a photo can be slipped into, and kids can add decoration to. I'm thinking along the lines of those insert-a-photo greeting cards you can get from Hallmark and such around Christmas-time. Here's what I came up with...

Of course it needs backing behind the window so that a photo will slide in.


Then the photo would go inside.


And children can write "Thank You" or "Gracias" and the decorate it as much or as little as they like.

Trouble is I can't figure out how to easily create the template, and make it easy to slide a photo in. I had to glue these in! Do you see the general direction I'm going in, though? In a perfect world it would be great to create something that was one piece that didn't need gluing, so the Library Director could just copy and cut out the templates and then fold and be ready to go with a photo and some decoration by kids.

I'm by no means stuck to this specific design - can anyone offer a suggestion?! Help, crafty friends, help! : )

PS) Happy Hump Day!

PPS) I swear the fabulous magnet tutorial is heading your way SOON! So much to do, so little time! Check back SOON!


1 comment:

AVinNYC said...

Hi Joanne;
So, I saw your post about cards, had an idea on the subway on the way home, whipped up a sample, and posted it on my little blog. It's nothing high-tech, but it might be another (very cheap) option for you!
I'm off to dinner... g'bye for now!
PS- LOVE those magnets!