Celebrate Pets-Related Holidays in May with Personalized Trading Cards

Did you know that May marks the arrival of several pets-related holidays? It’s true. For starters, it just so happens to be National Guide Dog Month, National Pet Month, Go Fetch! Food Drive for Homeless Animals Month and National Pet Foster Care Month. Hug Your Cat Day, Be Kind to Animals Week, National Dog Bite Prevention Week, National Pet Week and National Special-abled Pets Day are all scheduled to take place as well. In our opinion, that makes the month of May the perfect time to invest in custom trading cards.

What do custom trading cards have to do with pets? It’s simple really. At Custom Sports Cards, we can create one, or a whole series of, personalized pet trading cards for an affordable price. The pet trading cards may then be used for fundraising, promotional or personal use. For example, let’s pretend that this month, a local humane society wants to collect food for the animals and encourage pet adoption. They could order a series of personalized pet trading cards that feature the organization’s adoptable pets. Those cards could then be given out to potential pet owners at special events. Maybe seeing the personalized pet trading cards will encourage people to actually adopt the animals and make those needed food donations.

Our personalized pet trading cards come in a variety of formats that organizations and individuals may choose from. Many people opt to select a format that features a photo of an animal on one side and stats about it on the other. There is even enough space on the cards to list a website address, physical address and phone number. That way, people will know where they may go to adopt the featured pet or make a food donation. Our minimum order is 12 cards and design services are included in the list price.

For more information about our personalized pet trading cards, including suggestions on how to incorporate them into special events, please contact us at (877) 385-0060.

5 Tips for Planning a Sports-Themed Wedding

Hey Sports fans, if you're wondering how to include your favorite sport into your wedding day (like baseball or football) without making your potential in-laws freak out, then you've come to the right place.  We have tons of ideas for incorporating sports into a wedding, without actually numbering your bridesmaids.

1. Sports-Themed Wedding Locations

Consider using the stadium or ball field for a wedding location. Football, Soccer and Baseball fields will have a beautifully manicured lawn that you can decorate and fill with thousands of tables and chairs. A Basketball court will have shiny polished wood floors.  You knew that.  

Many sports facilities host trade shows and other events when there's no game.  You might need to call more than a year in advance in order to secure the facility.  Smaller facilities will be cheaper than larger ones. If you live in a smaller town or if you're looking at a public ball field or high school gymnasium, the cost will be significantly lower, maybe even free.

2. Team-Inspired Wedding Colors

Using your favorite team's colors as your wedding colors is another way to include sports into a wedding theme.  When bride and groom are fans of rival teams, consider choosing elements from each team color.  Having the bridesmaids in the bride's team colors and the groom's men in his team colors, then decorating the rest of the reception with combinations of the team colors, for a bright and vibrant combination. Kind of like the playoffs, only much sweeter.

3. Sports-Themed Centerpieces for Wedding Reception Tables

A clever and resourceful florist or wedding planner can design custom-made centerpieces and table decor that reflects just about any sport you can think of.  Tastefully combining sports equipment with flowers, ribbons and candles is just the type of challenge that wedding planners dream of. These photos will be all over their Facebook business page.

4. Sports-themed Wedding Invitations

Instead of the traditional vellum-printed wedding invitations, go with something more appropriate, like photo playing cards. Your wedding details can be the "stats" on the back. 

5. Keepsake Wedding "Team" Photos

After the ceremony, send everyone in your bridal party a "team photo" thanking them for their sportsmanship. 

Wedding planning doesn't have to be all formal and fancy. Your wedding is your special day and you're more likely to host a memorable event if you decide to stay true to your personality. That's what your friends already love about you.  Don't be afraid to plan a sports-themed wedding if that's what you really want. Contact us to hear more about photo sports cards and printing team pictures.

Announce Your Wedding with a Save the Date Sports Card

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!  This is such an exciting time in your life!  It is a busy time too with lots of planning to think about.  Once you have decided when and where you will get married you will want to send out save the date cards to your guests.  They will need to mark the date and location on their calendars so they don't miss the special day.  Plus this will allow guests to start making travel plans and scheduling vacation from work.  Often save the date cards become a memento family and friends keep long after the wedding to remind them of your special day.

If you are a sports fan consider sending a custom sports card as your save the date notification.  Your guests will enjoy receiving the sports card.  They are unique and will be memorable for you and your guests.  

Custom Sports Cards offers wedding save the date cards in three different sizes.

• 2.5"x3.5"
• 4"x5.5"
• 5"x7"

You can select from a variety of templates and most templates can be converted to any sport so you can pick the sport you and your fiancé love!  The text is obviously customizable to allow you to provide the specifics for your special day.  In addition you can choose the text color.  You may want the text color of your save the date notification be one of your wedding colors.  You will be able to review a proof of your product before printing so you can rest assured that what you receive is exactly what you anticipated.  

Custom Sports Cards will provide you personal service along with our excellent product.  We know your wedding is important and we want to make sure your experience with our business is fantastic.  We have been in business for over 16 years and are proud of the high quality keepsakes we provide our customers.  

While you are shopping for your save the date notifications check out our other wedding products.  We also specialize in wedding invitations, wedding favors, and custom place cards.  Consider planning a sports themed wedding!  

Contact us so we can provide you high quality, unique save the date wedding cards.

It's hard to imagine a more exciting event than welcoming a sweet, new baby into the world. The next most exciting event after that is being able to tell everyone about it. Having the right birth announcements make telling your happy news that much easier.

The choice of birth announcements is a direct reflection of every family's unique personality. So why not start this new family off with a birth announcement that is fun, original, and memorable?

Our sports card birth announcements include everything you want the world to know about your new baby - in one cute and unforgettable format.  Your child's photo, name, date of birth, names of parents and siblings, and all the other details you expect on a new baby announcement are included, but with a playful twist that will turn your announcement into a treasured keepsake.

You have a choice of 2 different sizes for your birth announcements. The larger size is 4" x 5.5", which fit into a standard A2 envelope for mailing. The standard trading card-sized announcements are 2.5" x 3.5".

We know that once your baby is born, you will want to get the word out as soon as possible.  Because of this, we offer a quick turnaround time for your birth announcements. Within 3-4 days of placing your online order, you'll have a JPG proof. You'll be able to make whatever changes and updates you like. 

Please contact us with any questions you may have - we are looking forward to talking to you. And...congratulations!

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share my thoughts about fans on facebook or at least my take on it.

There are many ways to get fans I have read a lot on this topic having a fan page it is important to be knowledgeable to some degree.

I have “liked” a number of pages myself mostly things I would be interested in, I tend to like pages that I am not asked for my email I am sure you will agree most of us are already signed up for too many newsletters and specials we seldom have time to read.

For our fan page I prefer the approach of having it available without using different methods to get more fans. We have grown our fan page organically and I have to say we have awesome fans the number does not matter. Many of you would be surprised the number of customers who have become friends.

As you may have noticed I post a lot of quotes I happen to love quotes I even share them on my own personal facebook page that has nothing to do with Custom Sports Cards. I prefer it to be a page where you can stop by and maybe read a quote that is relateable or something you want to share.

From time to time I share some of my favorite cards quite frankly there are so many it’s hard to choose, especially the birth announcements and near and dear to my heart are pets I have always been a animal lover.

I believe there is something I do not articulate enough and that is we are here to help and I believe we can do that without bugging you with “buy now before the offer expires”.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this I am always open to suggestions it has been the nuts and bolts of how our company has grown from wonderful suggestions from our customers.

Cheers,

Pam

Sorry for being so Picky

Sorry for Being So Picky

I have been working with customers on their wedding favors for many years you could say I am an old hack at it by now.

Over the years I have heard many apologies for being “too picky”

We send proofs of your wedding favor or save the date before we print that goes with any order. When ordering something personalized we are working with a visual on what you picture your card will look like. Even picking out a design does not mean your card will look exactly like that. Most of the time myself, or whoever else is working on cards can get approval on a proof after one or two tries.

When it goes beyond that a customer will apologize for being picky, it has nothing to do with that at all. I am a visual person so I understand what they are going through, they can see it in their head how it should look. It is up to us to capture that it has nothing to do with being picky but for us to see what you see.

We know these are keepsakes not just something for your special day so its important we get it right. Sometimes I cannot get it so I have passed an order to another designer and will get it on the first time, it does not matter to us who gets it just that we do.

I have had customers hand draw with stick figures what they want as funny as that may sound it helps and it works you don’t have to know photoshop to get your idea across.

So relax my young friends you are not picky it just part of the process.

It is a privilege to us to make wedding favors for your special day.

Warm regards

~Pam

The Cards That Have Touched Us

The cards that have touched all of us have been from Make a Wish, Cystic Fibrosis, parents whose children have rare diseases desperate to raise awareness to find a cure and so many more.

Sometime we get so caught up in our own day-to-day life we forget others are hurting.

I have never forgotten their names faces or their stories. Sometimes I wonder what happened to them.

There was a mom who emailed about her 3 year old daughter who had tumors all over her body, I could feel the desperation in a mothers letter. It was at the end of the day and I was shutting down, I stayed to answer her, I asked her to email me pictures, information, favorite colors whatever she wanted. I stayed that night until it was done it was the prettiest card I had ever designed.

It was being used at a walk on thon, she was reluctant to tell me how many she needed, it was not unreasonable at all I know for some its hard to ask for help and sometimes we find our self in a position we have to, a lot of us know what that is like.

Then there is the first card we did I can still remember his sunny smile his green shirt and his little blue bucket hat. He died at 18 months old of cancer and the parents were celebrating his short life here on earth. I asked instead of payment to consider a donation to Make a Wish or Children’s Hospital in their sons name. They made a donation to Make A Wish, which happens to be my favorite charity.

This last one was one of the kids form cystic fibrosis who were using the cards at a fundraiser to share what the disease is and what each child goes through on any given day. One of the children was graduating high school who needed a lung transplant. She had beautiful big brown eyes soft light brown hair and delicate features her picture just drew me in. I thought of other kids her age preparing for college or at least the next chapter of their lives. This young lady was really preparing for her final days on earth.

We are not a big company by any stretch, none of the stories I have shared were looking for free cards at the very least a discount.We saw it as a way to help, sometimes its not about our bank account, filling your heart at times can be more fulfilling. I believe the world gives back so nothing I have ever done through our company or on a personal level has always come back some how someway, I am always mindful of that.

You will not find these cards on our site, I feel families should have some respect and dignity they do no t need to see their loved ones card plastered on our site.

When you celebrate we celebrate when you hurt we hurt too, that sums up who we are, no different than many of you.

Warm regards,

Pam

www.customsportscards.com