Nobody throws away a card with a face on it
Think about the last thank-you card someone sent you.
Can you picture it?
I can't either.
It went in a drawer, or the recycling, and nobody felt bad about it.
Because a card is just a piece of card.
But a card with a painted portrait on the front?
Of the person sending it.
Or of someone who has died.
That one doesn't go anywhere.
It goes on the mantelpiece.
And it stays.
That's the whole idea.
Your portrait, on a flat 5×7 card.
Single-sided. The back is blank, so you can write whatever matters.
Envelopes included.
Printed on thick, uncoated cotton stock — the kind you can feel the weave of when you hold it.
Not photo paper. Not a postcard.
A card.
(Savoy cotton cover, 20 pt, if you're curious.)
What people send them for
A Celebration of Life.
Families send thirty or forty thank-you notes in the weeks after a funeral.
Usually whatever the funeral home handed them.
A card carrying a portrait of the person being remembered is different.
It's the one nobody throws away.
And the sender keeps one too.
Thank you.
A client who sent you a referral.
A friend who gave you a wedding gift.
Someone who did something kind, and you want to say thank you in a way that actually means something.
Thinking of you.
No occasion at all.
A portrait of the grandchildren, arriving at their grandparents' house in February for no reason except because.
Happy holidays.
Fifty cards, one order, sent in November.
A new baby.
The portrait is the announcement.
And for work.
An accountant, an attorney, a realtor.
The card that makes a professional relationship personal without being awkward about it.
Which portraits suit a card
Watercolour and pencil work best.
An oil wants a wall.
A drawing wants to be held.
The practical part
Boxes of ten — flat cards and envelopes.
Single-sided. Blank on the back.
Choose any portrait you've already made.
One thing to know:
Your cards and your prints are made by different people.
Cards come from a stationery press.
Prints come from a fine-art lab.
So if you order both, they'll arrive as two separate packages.
Different craftsmen. Different workshops.
The part that matters
You already have the portrait.
This just puts it in somebody's hands.
And on somebody's shelf, where it stays.
