A PhotoStamp on Christmas Cards

Whatever holidays you celebrate, if you send out Christmas cards or other greeting cards, you can dress them up and make them stand out by using a PhotoStamp on the envelope.

The PhotoStamp program is still relatively new and a lot of people have never heard of it — and that’s another reason you might want to do it. Your envelope would stand out all the more! If you are new to the idea yourself, no surprise, as it’s just been a few years that the US Postal Service has been allowing this. You do have to submit photos or art that are not offensive, not of famous people, and that you own the rights to use.

Basically, what you do is quite simple. You choose a photo or a piece of artwork that you want to use. You might want to take some pictures just for the event, showing how much your kids have grown or with your smiling faces up close. If you are among the many people who don’t like having their pictures taken, how about your dog or cat, maybe wearing a red stocking cap if it’s for Christmas?

Your final space on the PhotoStamp is just 1.1 inches square, so you will want to make the photo or artwork fairly simple. You could do a greeting such as “Merry Christmas!” done in attractive lettering; even a word processing program can do this with a wide choice of fonts, colors, and effects.

Once you have your artwork, just go to the upload page. You can use this link to create PhotoStamps or clicking on the image on the left side of any page of this site takes you there. You find where you have put the image on your computer, upload it, and then you can modify it in several ways online if you wish: adding a border or more.

Typically your order is mailed out to you within just a few days, but if you are doing this in late November or December, I would allow some extra time. The PhotoStamp program is becoming more popular, so that would just be a good idea. But I’m sure Santa and his elves would be working long and hard to get the postage out, so there may be no delays at all!