erin8u4l: Money Making Websites

Christmas cards get more and more expensive every year so if you‘re looking to save money on cards this year, there are a few useful websites where you can create and print template-based printable Christmas cards directly from the website or download high resolution PDF files for printing. Avery half-fold card stock prints well in inkjet printers and they look just as good as the real thing.

I’ve located 5 sites that I found fairly accessible and basically free to use, although there are many others out there that ask for money. But there is no need to pay anything when you have 5 sites like these that offer free printable Christmas cards.

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123printcards

One of the easiest and straightforward card printing sites is 123printcards. That’s right, in three easy steps, you can customize the title, add a thoughtful message and print our your card on letter size card stock.

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The site has 38 different styles of cards, featuring cute, festive and colorful holiday drawings. Some layouts are color intensive, so they may not print well on regular typing paper.

Another linked page on the site enables you to add a photo to one of eight printable Christmas card templates, featuring images of Santa Claus, snowflakes, snowman, Christmas tree, ornaments, winter scenes, and more. The size of these cards are 5×7, and are useful for Christmas card invitations, seasonal and personal greetings.

KeepandShare

KeepandShare has a page of nine Christmas cards of assorted layouts that can be printed on card stock.

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You can download them as single high resolution PDF files and print them out or send them as eCards. Each card has 2 pages in the PDF Christmas card file, so it’s easy to print out. First print out the first side, setting your PDF software to print page “1″. Then flip your paper stock over and put it back in the printer and print page “2″. You don’t have to register on the site to use the resources.

AmericanGreetings

AmericanGreetings offers a more advanced card printing service, in which you can customize templates in their online Create & Print editor.

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You can add photos, artistic elements, customize text, and change font size on the front and inside cover the layouts.

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You can use the service and website for free on a two week trial basis, which enables you to print your card layouts directly from the site. You can also post your Christmas card right on your Facebook account or use it as an e-card.

ActivityVillage

ActivityVillage includes a collection of a dozen layouts that can be printed directly from the site or downloaded in PDF format. From there, you can hand write your greetings and add art elements.

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These cards are geared more towards kids and maybe your office co-workers. The site also has resources for classroom printables, including holiday posters, coloring pages, games, jigsaws, stories and poems, etc.

Christmas Greetings Ideas

If you’re looking for some inspirational messages for your Christmas cards, check out Printable Greetings. It includes an handful of messages like, Friends and family are like the tinsel on the Christmas tree, they provide the sparkle for the season.

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For additional sites with charming message greetings, check out my MUO article here and for more ideas on season’s greetings, check out Simon’s 3 Sites to Make Funny Video Greeting Cards.

The printable Christmas card sites listed above are the most accessible resources I found, but if there are ones you know about, please share them in the comments section below.

Last night, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons took a shot at corporate cousin Fox News. However, if you’re clicking over to Hulu or Fox’s websites to check out this week’s helicopter gag, you’re going to be disappointed. WebNewser has noticed that the joke, from the episode’s opening credits, has been removed. Did someone at Fox (other than Bill O’Reilly) complain?

Well, maybe. However, as much as we love a good conspiracy, our money is on WebNewser’s second hypothesis, that the gag was added at the very last minute and after the websites had received their copy. We can easily imagine the producers of the show getting so excited about the media coverage of the first joke (and thoroughly enjoying O’Reilly’s take down of it) that they rushed to their computers to add the new joke to the next episode, which was finished long in advance of airing. Besides, as much as some might like to picture shadowy Fox executives wringing their hands over the joke, we just can’t imagine any exec exclaiming, “What? People are writing about our two-decade-old series all over the internet because of one joke?! Well dont let them do it again!”

However, you’d think that the TV channels would get the shows before the websites so you never know…

UPDATE Simpsons’ Executive Producer Al Jean revealed in an exclusive interview with the NY Times David Itzkoff that the motives behind the anti-Fox News gag were light in spirit:

Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)

The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.

“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”

Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.

Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Money Making Websites

123printcards

KeepandShare

AmericanGreetings

ActivityVillage

Christmas Greetings Ideas

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