Good things come in small packages

We've all been there haven't we? The shops are heaving with festive shoppers, the roads are stuffed with holiday traffic, yet you've still got one more person to buy for and you have no idea what to get. Sure, a nice box of chocolates will suffice, but there's nothing that shows your effort and thought more than a personalised gift. If you've bought personalised chocolate, you win.

Christmas for most is a time to enjoy time with family and friends and forget the stresses of work. As the turkey roasts and the sprouts boil, the last thing we should be thinking about is business, but there are a few reasons why ordering business cards as a gift is a brilliant idea. First off, they make excellent stocking fillers. Filled with sentiment and thought, you can really set out to impress. Why not use Christmas as an excuse to ignore the conventional use of business cards and make them as personal as you like? There are loads of ways in which you can use our templates to make someone a special Christmas present. Here's a few ideas;

• Why not design someone a Tweepcard? They have proven very popular with Twitter users who attend 'Tweet-ups' and social events. We have many Twitter style templates to choose from to suit any keen Twitter member!

• If you've a friend or family member who sells on eBay, you could make them a compliments card. A card for them to put with dispatched goods in a 'Thank you for your purchase' kind of way.

• Cards for that special someone. Everyone likes to be told that they're loved, so why not make your loved one a personalised card with space for a personal message? You could give them a card a day and write a thoughtful message. If you think you're the ultimate romantic, you could even order enough to give your loved one a card daily!

If you've already bought someone a present, but you want to add a final touch of class, why not design a tag to attach to the present? A personal message from you and your family will go down a festive treat, guaranteed!

For instructions on how to replicate this lovely festive design, click here!

When thinking of them as a Christmas present, there are many possible ways to design cards and in most cases, it will come down to the hobbies and interests of the person receiving the cards. So if there is someone you think that could benefit from a set of great quality cards for Christmas, go for it! It could just be one of the most useful presents they ever get.

...because good things always come in small packages.

Merry Christmas!

Nick

Meet Ben!

Good afternoon!

We thought it was about time that we gave our customers, friends and followers a look behind the scenes here at Goodprint HQ! Today's blog post will be the first of a series of 'Meet the team' style entries where we'll gradually introduce you to the people that work for Goodprint. Many of you may have spoken to various members of the team over the years, and for you to put a face to the name is important to us! Here's our debut 'Meet the team' post, keep your eyes peeled for future entries!

Name: Ben Goodwin
Age: 21
Position: Management Trainee

6 foot 4, dashing good looks, a rippling six pack and an IQ of 170 is how Ben wanted to describe himself, although the truth may differ slightly. Ben started in July as a Management Trainee after graduating from the University of York with a Bsc (hons) in Accounting, Business Finance and Management. He's no stranger to the company however, having worked in a variety of part-time and summer positions in customer service and production. He's a keen pool and snooker player, representing his University in both and his county (Suffolk) at pool. As exhibited by his lack of a rippling six pack, he's also enthusiastic about good food and enjoys cooking, eating out and growing his own Dorset Naga - the world's hottest chilli plant.


Ben’s job involves four three-month stints with our four senior managers, learning their roles and the roles of their staff. So he’ll be working in accounts, production, advertising and web-development all in his first year of employment. He’s also in charge of our Facebook fan page, which is about to get a completely new look, so keep your eyes peeled!

Next week, you'll be lucky enough to meet the artwork elf herself, Alexa. As our pre-press specialist, she deals with checking your artwork, looking after our tweaking system and answering customer queries, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Nick

Pimp my business card!

When it comes to business cards, there's nothing more effective than a well designed, creative and unique card and we're going to give you a few little hints about how to achieve this. This can be done after you receive your cards, as we're going to be talking about modifications that you can do at home to further improve the look of your cards. This is a really cheap and personal way of making your cards as individual as possible.

No matter what your trade, if you can think along creative lines there's always something you can do to your card to give it that individual touch. We suggest that you stop by your local arts and crafts shop as most of them sell great products that you'll be able to use. You can aim for simplicity by adding small stickers or you can really go for it and use decorative card cutters to shape the card to your style.

There are several directions you can take when tailoring your cards. For example, if you're an interior designer and you've ordered 100 cards with all of the important info on, you could separate your 100 into 4 piles of 25 and embellish each pile in a different way so each customer can be presented with a card that reflects their taste.

Here are a couple of our own designs that we'd like to share with you;

Here's a design we did with upholstery in mind. A small piece of ribbon and a matching bow stuck on to the card not only gives a nice texture but it also it looks professional, especially if you co-ordinate your text colours with your embellishments as we've done here.


Getting married and want your guests to receive something a little more special? Add some relevant stickers! Placement of extras can work extremely successfully as demonstrated here.


Cupcake anyone? Everyone likes cupcakes, and how better to advertise your cupcake making with a delicious looking card. We used a Martha Stewart edge punch for this lovely cakey effect!

When the artwork was uploaded, we intentionally added it with a gradient at the top so that when we used the cutter, the tips of our yummy cakes remained pink! There are a huge range of cutters to be found out there to embellish the edges or corners of your cards.

Why not add something by taking something away?

Hope you enjoyed this short post, and we would love to hear from anyone who enjoys modifying their business cards!

Thank you!

Nick

All systems go!

Welcome to our blog!

If you don't already know, Goodprint are a web-based printing company situated in the heart of Breckland. Our HQ is in Thetford, Norfolk and we've been printing your business cards and stationery since 1984! You can find us online at www.goodprint.co.uk.

Goodprint have been on Twitter for some time now, and over that time we have learned that 140 characters isn't really enough space to post the things we think you'll like. After some thought and discussion, we decided that a blog would be a good idea and a great way to keep you guys out there inspired by the things that we see and do. If anybody chances upon something that you think we will be interested in, we'd love to hear from you. You can email me at Nick@goodprint.co.uk or hit us up on our Twitter page- you'll find us under 'Goodprint'.

'til the next time. Adios!

Nick