Homegrown Greetings

How can you save money, increase your wall space and tackle your end-of-the-year teacher tributes all at once? This amazing mom feat is actually possible with our latest savvy find, Cards by Kids.

Cards by Kids was the brainstorm of mom entrepreneur (of course!) Lucinda Pentin, who was shocked by the price of greeting cards when she moved here from the UK. Like many of us Canucks faced with shelling out five bucks or more for a card, Lucinda found she wasn’t buying nearly as many as she used to. So she organized a preschool fundraiser that turned the children’s artwork into reasonably priced, printed greeting cards, and the parents encouraged her to make a business of it.

Now any of us who have fallen in love with little Johnny’s carefully scrawled rendition of the family cat can turn that drawing into greeting cards that will delight grandmas, teachers and coaches alike. And YOU can now take the original picture off the fridge, where it’s been getting dog-eared and grease-stained, to make way for the next artistic offering that comes home.

Lucinda accepts all sorts of images: scanned artwork in various formats or photographs. The technically challenged are welcome to mail her the work (maximum size 12 by 19 inches) if they don’t have the hardware or the know-how to do it at home. Each pack of cards can contain one, two, or four different pieces of artwork. The images are then digitally printed at a local print shop and turned into sets of blank greeting cards with envelopes. She keeps the cost low ($16.95 for 10 cards, or less if more packs are ordered) by sending batch orders to the printer, which means the turnaround time is two to three weeks.

Cards by Kids also loves helping groups create fundraisers. This year one of their partner art teachers will be working with a local high school rugby team to help them produce art for a Christmas card sale…who says preschoolers should have all the fun? The company’s own charity of choice is Canuck Place; it donates art supplies to the children at the hospice, and produces the cards found on the organization’s online store.

The feeling of pride the kids get from seeing their work in print is irreplaceable—and that’s worth writing home (or to Grandma) about. 

Cards by Kids
www.cardsbykids.ca
(604) 987-4181

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