Greeting Cards at Broadway Paper

Despite the increasing costs of cards and postage, holiday greetings still flood post offices every year at this time. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1.9 billion greeting cards are sent to friends and loved ones every year for the holidays, making Christmas the largest card-sending occasion in the United States. (The second largest is Valentine’s Day with approximately 192 million cards given, according to Hallmark.)

I read an interesting article that reported 64% of people send traditional Christmas cards via snail mail and spend untold hours choosing, signing and addressing each card as opposed to the 16% who just send them via e-mail. I’m curious as to how many people actually burn the midnight oil creating original and personalized greetings to mail.

I love the idea of Christmas in the sense of family and friends and being reminded of them, but sometimes it seems like it has lost its sincerity. Instead of receiving homemade cards or ones that obviously took time to personalize, I often get greetings that are just stamped with a signature. Every year I either make cards in Photoshop or at least write a letter and send it with a card – even if it’s time consuming. And this year, I decided to make my Christmas cards the old fashioned way with colorful paper, a little glue and some creativity.

Saturday after Milwaukee’s Holiday Parade, I spent nearly four hours at Broadway Paper for a holiday greeting card, tag and invitation workshop.

My mom and I signed up together and met there at noon. Even though the two of us combined would be an unstoppable craft-making machine, we both wanted ideas to spruce-up our gifts and cards this year; plus it was a good reason to spend an entire afternoon together.

There were nine of us participating in the workshop all together, and like me, most came with a family member or friend. Several women were there hoping to get new ideas for their party invites while others were just itching to get out of the house for a couple hours that day.

The instructor was a young woman named Caitlin who used to work at Broadway Paper and has since graduated from MIAD with a Fine Arts degree – now she is a painter.

Caitlin spent several minutes at the beginning of class showing us a couple gift tags she put together the night before. Then, we worked hands-on assembling samples to take home with us. We made an invitation for Thanksgiving and two greeting cards, one tri-fold, which was pretty complicated, and one pop-up.

I went to the class hoping to get ideas for custom, personalized cards that’d be a little more interesting and less conventional, tags to accentuate my gifts, and invitations to make my holiday get-together a success.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make any gift tags, but the couple Caitlin showed us at the start of class sparked some ideas. The card designs were fun, but WAY too time consuming, so I doubt I’d be able to pound out a dozen pop-up cards before Christmas. And being pretty crafty already, I knew how to do most of the things we were taught, well, besides the tri-fold that I completely botched up. But it seemed like everyone was in the same boat because the instructor had a tendency to move quickly through the process, which caused a lot of bewilderment among the students. Therefore, my mom and I started to do our own thing with the materials on hand instead of following the step-by-step instructions.

Almost three hours into the class people began to shuffle out – four hours is just way too long! My mom and I left a few minutes early and browsed the store for a little while since we were given a 10% off coupon.

I’m glad we got to bring scraps and materials home with us though. If I happen to find some free time, I’ll certainly use the ideas I learned to make a couple cards for some really special people. The rest of my friends will get my usual Photoshop creations, which are still pretty cool, and much easier to mass produce.

Whether it’s a noncommercial printed card, a handmade greeting or just a quick e-mail, make sure you wish your loved ones Happy Holidays.

The schedules for the many Broadway Paper workshops are available here. They offer classes like calligraphy, Wedding 101, bookmaking, gift wrapping, holiday crafts, and many more. Prices range from $45 to $60 per person.

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Broadway Paper
191 North Broadway
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(Located in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward)
Monday – Friday: 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday: Noon - 4 p.m.

Comments

[christi]

Girl, I love it! I wish I would have known about the class, I would have totally taken it. There is nothing more aggravating to me than getting the stamped greeting card: stamped signature, stickered address label, stickered return address.

Why even send a card? I mean seriously?

I love that you made your own and I just may look in to doing that myself this year.

[Karen]

Awesome, Christi! I’m glad you agree.

You totally should make your own cards, and then let me know how they turn out! I'm all about the DIY stuff. I make my own cards, stickers, graphic Ts, business cards and so on. It's much more personal!

They have the greeting card class every year, so maybe it’s something you can plan to do next Christmas.

I also think the wrapping paper class sounds like fun. I bet Broadway Paper has some good tips on how to spruce-up an everyday gift, or those really awkward presents like a football or bottle of wine or something.

Anyway, have fun!

[char]

I thought the class was way to simple and for the instructor; she was an art student, but no teacher. I have been doing crafts for a long time and she had nothing new to share. I wouldn't take the classes at Broadway paper, but I would look into scrapbooking stores for ideas and classes. They usually have great card making classes. This class was a waste of time and money. I did get to spend time with Karen and that was worth every bit of my time.

[Karen]

I think for someone who doesn't make crafts, this would be beneficial. The ideas were good, but you're right that someone who is advanced, someone who has been doing arts and crafts for years, wouldn’t learn anything new. But you have to keep in mind that not everyone is on the same level and not everyone reads Martha Stewart Living. The main problem I saw was that Caitlin moved too quickly through the steps. Even you and I couldn't keep up with her! While I wouldn't pay $50 for this particular class again, I think there are people out there that would thoroughly enjoy it.