Paper Matters

According to an artilce in The Independent today, 23.5 million items of illegible mail are sorted and deciphered each year by some 200 Royal Mail workers. Handwritten letters make up about half of this amount during the year and as much as 70% during the Christmas season. The key thing to remember is to print the post code neatly and try to control your creative urges to decorate the envelope with holly and reindeers and fancy festive script!

People probably think as a stationer I have my cards all sorted! Unfortunately, that is not the case and like many others I am looking at the calendar with some trepidation, realising with just one month until Christmas I better get to work! I usually do two different cards: a photo card for friends and family living overseas who I don't see often and a card designed by one of my daughters for local friends.

I like Christmas cards to be personal and this is why I like to design them myself (or truth be told have one of our inhouse CLD Stationery designs help me). At CLD, I am lucky to see what other people send out -- it is such an interesting range -- many people purchase our border cards and stick their own photos on at home. We have also created a number of cards for people featuring wedding photos, pictures of their young children or even playful pets; other cards feature lovely wintery scenes of their garden or nearby area.