Monday, October 24, 2011

Putting Your Cards on the Table

Did you get out and enjoy this past beautiful weekend or did you lurk inside and watch forty-three football games at once?

If you didn’t take advantage of the wonderful fall weather then you did miss out. There are so many things to see and do you ought to be in a dead panic to pick up your brushes, clay, camera and start making art like your were paddling away from a waterfall and had only your hands to keep that leaky rowboat from going over the falls.

Maybe you got Archi’s message, Archi at the Coos Art Museum, Archi who keeps all of us informed of the comings and goings and winnings and successes. Yeah, that Archi. Maybe you even spent a quiet minute or two composing a well thought out thank you note for all that she does? No?

Did you send out a card acknowledging The Second Street Gallery’s Celebrate Photography show? Did you send along a card to all of the people who have graciously allowed you to promote your art, like Ken and Jane Snoddy at Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery or Anne Sobotta at Sage Gallery, who in spite of all of her other duties and obligations has keep the gallery open and the new Sage Place center full of exciting new projects? What about Umpqua Valley Art Assn’s tireless Aleta McGee, who offers so many opportunities to artists from all around the area. Or Susan Lehman, Victoria Tierney and Ava Richey, (Thanks Ava for the weekly news update, but that won’t get me off the hook for not sending a card. See I’m guilty too.), the Bandon Three who organize the shows at Southern Coos Hospital?

No again? Well why haven’t you?

You can’t find the right card, it’s just too difficult to do one more thing in an already over-crowded schedule, it costs too much and the dog ate my homework.

Aren’t you ashamed of using that excuse, which was lame back in Mrs. Prickle’s second period, and what exactly are you going to do about it?

Nothing. That’s no answer, you’re an artist, you have art, so use it. If you can find the right card make one up. There are so many pieces of art hiding in closets and storerooms, drag something out. You won’t find even the wrong art if you don’t look.

Once you find something the rest of the puzzle is easy. I’ll even share the results of my two day long Net search and battle with Print Screen so that you don’t have to.

If you are adventurous go to Avery. That’s right the same Avery which makes your Clean Edge Business Card stock. You are printing your own business cards, using your own art and not spending money to buy them from Vistaprint, right? If you aren’t you should be, so here’s the Avery form number 8871. Now you have no excuse.

So back to the start go to Avery.


This is the link so you don’t even have to look it up. The one you want is the second one on the page,  Postcard Tall or Wide Four per sheet. Download it.

But what if you don’t want to download some unknown page just on my say-so? Here’s the form all printed out for you.




Now all you need is some art. Which you have already selected right?

Use the insert command if you downloaded the form from Avery or cut and paste if you are using this .jpg image.

Now for the really easy part, voile, the back…



Now wasn’t that easy. Once you have front and back ready, you did save them as files on your very own computer didn’t you? Good now all you need to do is print. There is one last trick, when you print the front panel be sure that you take the side which comes out of the printer by the bottom edge and make that the top edge before you print the next side. Got that? Take the printed side and turn it over so that the unprinted side is in the printer. Then when you print the back everything will come out all right. Now wasn’t that simple and you won’t have to claim that the dog ate your homework.

Oh yes, here’s what one looks like when it is finished.


So now you have no excuse, lame or otherwise

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