Punchy Postcards

TYPE OF CARD: Standard-sized postcard

COOL FEATURE: Lets you send a holiday greeting--and show off your kids' artwork

PREP WORK: Divide a sheet of paper into quadrants. (Tip: Fold a standard sheet of paper in half, then fold in half again.) Dig through the layers on the fridge for some unsung masterpiece or have the kids create some new images to fit the space. (Note: Primary colors tend to copy better than pastels.) Reduce your images with a color copier, if needed. To put the same image on all four cards, copy the image four times to make a master. You'll want a bold image, as the final art may lose some crispness being twice removed from the original.

AT THE COPY SHOP: Have the master color copied onto white card stock, then cut into cards.

ENVELOPE: None

COSTS: Roughly 25 cents apiece to make (and one can be mailed with a 20-cent stamp)

VARIATION: THE SKINNY POSTCARD

Here, the standard sheet of paper is divided into thirds, then decorated with photos (from a photo booth) and greetings, copied in black and white onto colored card stock and cut. The resulting card fits perfectly in a #10 envelope. Other possible skinny postcard designs: a totem pole of family faces, a recipe or a bookmark. Or, turn the card horizontally for a row of hung stockings, a wide string of colored lights or a menorah.

CUTTING THE CARDS

To turn a sheet of card stock into three or four postcards, you could do the cutting yourself with a paper cutter or even scissors. Or, for $1 or so per cut, you can have a copy shop machine slice the whole stack. Then you won' t have to worry about getting paper cuts.