I have been getting alot of emails lately asking how to package up greeting cards for resale. Packaging I believe plays a large part in how people buy your cards. Your options for packaging are only limited by your creativity (and budget ).

If you have some money to spend on packaging, you may want to hire a product design firm to make you a custom box to case your cards. This option is extremely costly but, in the end, you will have an amazing display for your cards.

If you have a tight budget then you can go with a company like Clearbags. This company is great because they have so many products, I’m sure they will have the size your looking for (even unique sizes). Also, if you want to package a set of cards and find that a clear box is too costly, then they even have bags that will accomodate multiple cards.

If you prefer to go with a stationery box you can get clear 1 piece boxes from Clearbags, if you prefer a 2 piece box then you can go to JC Danczak. Papermart sells 2 piece stationery boxes as well, but with a cardboard bottom either in white or gold with a clear top to display your designs. The boxes will cost your more than the bags but when you are packaging multiple cards in a set then the boxes are worth it.

If you sell your cards online and need shipping boxes, bubble lined envelopes, chipboard or other related packaging material, I suggest ULINE. They ship the same day and you will have your order in a jiffy.

With a little creativity, you can embellish your boxes or clearbags. To my clearbags I like to print a descriptions and contact info onto large round colored stickers and adhere them onto the bags. Not only is it fabulous, but its functional. You can get the stickers at Paper Source. Another option is to use paper bands. There are companies out there who make paper band but you can easily make it yourself. Just print your logo or design on a sheet of paper and cut the paper to your desired width. Wrap around your cards, dab a bit of glue or use double sided tape to hold the band together and voila, you have a beautiful paper band to hold your cards together.

Example of paper band by Yeehaw.

Example of clear boxes by Orange Beautiful.

Since I have starting printing on the pilot, I have had some issues with my gripper arms.  One issue being that it is leaving marks on my paper and the other being that sometimes my paper and image are the same size so the gripper arms get in the way.  Even though the gripper arms are causing me some headaches, nevertheless they are extremely necessary for the press.  Since the ink is extremely “tacky” the gripper arms prevent the paper from sticking to the image plate.  Therefore, allowing for a nice crisp image instead of a smeared one.  So how do you fix these problems?  I have devised a way that works well for me.  

One way to solve this issue is to move your gripper arms to opposite ends.  Make your paper larger than the printable area and when your image is dry, trim the excess paper off.  This solution is great however, this will NOT work is your paper is precut, such as when I had ordered some folded A2 size cards from Paper Source www.paper-source.com.  To solve this problem, I just use a rubber band.  How simple is this?  I just put the rubber band around the platen (please see pictures below for details).  Now that your gripper arm problem has been fixed, you will have nice, crisp, clean images (hopefully).

hint: I also use some photo corners to hold down the botton of the card.  This is a great solution if you are MISSING your gripper arms.  (These machines are old so chances are you will be missing some pieces). 

     Rubberband holding back the A2 card.

    Notice the photo corners holding down the bottom of the card.