So personally I am not the biggest fan of cards. I usually end up putting them away under my bed. But I do love making cards.

To me it doesn't matter if it's homemade or not. I think it's just more work and there are plenty of good cards out there that can be bought. But then they can be expensive.

I like to go to the store and ge the 99 cent cards. But if the card should be homemade, like it's for a first anniversary or something, then here are the things I like about cards.

1. Humor.

Cards must be funny. There is already so much seriousness in a card that no one wants something somber. There are definitely occasions that call for gravity but if you care enough about the person then you might know that all they may need is a laugh.

2. Simplicity.

I get a kick out of cards if they just have a picture, or one sentence. A blank side is fine with me and may even add to the ultimate satisfaction of a truly funny/awesome card.

3. Personality.

If you're giving a card to someone it should be someone you care about, someone that you have a history with. Use something that you have in common with the person, like an inside joke or a photo.

A great way to make personalized cards is to use photos! You can do it online or use the little kiosks in the stores. Below is a link to information about that through Kodak.

4. Money.

If you don't have any ideas for presents and it's a Christmas or birthday card or something. Haha.

Cardmaking is the craft of handmaking greeting cards. Many people with interests in allied crafts such as scrapbooking and stamping have begun to use their skills to start making handmade cards. This has contributed to cardmaking becoming a popular hobby.

Publishers have also been quick to cash in on the popularity of cardmaking, with several monthly magazines in the US and UK devoted to the topic. There have also been over 150 books on handmade cards published (source: Amazon.com).

Traditional high street stores have begun to devote an increasing amount of their floorspace to handmade cards. Handmade products are now being seen by retailers as a way to increase margins, and handmade cards are no exception. This is particularly the case as mass produced printed greeting cards have been faced with competition from electronic greeting cards. Over seven billion greeting cards were sent in the US alone last year; greeting cards are a multi-billion dollar business.

In contrast, hundreds of small businesses have been setup by avid crafters keen to make a return on their cardmaking efforts. Many of these are taking advantages of the low setup costs of web-based selling and the wide customer-base of auction sites like eBay. Many others continue to sell their creations at craft fairs, markets and fêtes.

History

The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls.

By the early 1400s, handmade paper greeting cards were being exchanged in Europe. The Germans are known to have printed New Year's greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400, and handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in various parts of Europe in the early to mid-1400s.

However, by the 1850s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively expensive, handmade and hand-delivered gift to a popular and affordable means of personal communication, due largely to advances in printing and mechanization.

This trend continued, followed by new trends like Christmas cards, the first of which appeared in published form in London in 1843 when Sir Henry Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card that he could send to his friends and acquaintances. Technical developments like color lithography in 1930 propelled the manufactured greeting card industry forward.

During the 1980s the trend began to turn, with consumers increasing looking for greeting cards that were differentiated from the standard offering. In the late 1990s the market was clearly beginning to separate in to three different segments:

• handmade and premium cards
• mass-manufactured cards
• e-cards