Necessity is the mother of invention. On various occasions when I needed to give someone my e-mail address or telephone number or such information, I tired of writing on flimsy napkins or scraps of nondescript paper. I declined to use my old cards that were beautifully printed by a printer on nicely textured beige coloured card stock. They don’t use phone numbers with four digits anymore, anyway. 

A touch of class would be to flip out your own card with all the pertinent information on it and include a color spot of Fido or pet tabby or grandchild with rosy cheeks or a bright nosegay. 

You will need a computer, a scanner and a color printer. Any image manipulation software makes this job easier. Business card software CDs often comes packaged with other stuff as a kit. Check with your software store for business card specific software. If you are a hobby type, purchase the card stock, make 10 copies of your card, use an adhesive like glue stick and stick them in place, scan the sheet, and you’’re ready to print. Office supply stores have heavy paper stock intended for business cards and you can print ten cards on a standard 8 ½ x 11 inch sheet. They are die cut so they come apart readily. A package of 25 or 35 sheets costs around $6.00. 

I selected my photo from a 35mm transparency a friend shot while we were having lunch at a restaurant that had colorful stained glass windows. The sunlight through the glass put white, purple, green, yellow and red stipes on my head. Not a pretty sight, but it is attention getting. Throw a bunch of cards on a table. Which one stands to be noticed first? 

I scanned the slide with my scanner. I opened the photo on my image manipulation software. I cropped the image, preferring a narrow vertical format. I used the rubber stamp feature to eliminate a busy background and wound up with me and the dark background. I preferred to bleed the top and bottom of the photo. Registration with the card stock was chancy, but this ain’t missile science. Just the facts. Simplification is the key. 

As I am a watercolourist and I sign my paintings a certain way, I chose my art signature as the logotype of my card. I loaded up my No. 2 watercolour brush with paint and painted my signature about nine times. I selected what I considered the best of the lot. I scanned the logo and placed it with my photo. You can use the same method with pen or brush or turkey quill. 

I chose a sans serif type face to contrast with the logo. I wanted the telephone number to be the most prominent, so it’s on the first line with 14 pt type and the less important area code in 12 pt. 

Next in importance to me is the e-mail address. It is in 12 pt. The street address and city and state and zip code followed. I flush lifted everything. Being an old newspaper person and layout artist, I prefer eyeballing rather than mathematical formulae to place elements. 

If you are in business or belong to a club or want to identify your activity, do put this information on your card. I am retired, but I didn’’t want to put "retired" on the card. Someone might think I was old or something. Perhaps a curmudgeon, but not old. I didn’t want to put painter or watercolourist on it because I’m not interested in trying to impress someone who wouldn’t be impressed anyway. I just don’t like to write my address with my ballpoint pen on soggy, stained paper napkins.