Chrism Mass Card For Priests...

The Chrism Mass "Thank You" cards have just arrived from the printers. I think that this year's card compares favourably with those of previous years... though it's difficult to see from the JPEG files. Trust me, they look really snazzy "in the flesh," so to speak!

When we started in 2003, I wanted to make the cards something the priests could use as a marker in their breviaries, perhaps as a keepsake. I bought a medium-weight one-sided photo paper, and printed the text on the back with a mono laser printer, and then printed the front on my colour ink-jet printer... the downside was the length of time needed to print the sheets (the printer wasn't very good, and I needed to feed the paper in by hand because of the thickness, to ensure the front aligned with the back) and the time taken to cut the cards up carefully using a small guillotine.

Paper cuts were a definite hazard, but I tried very hard not to bleed all over the cards...

In 2006, my ink jet printer had a conniption just as I was starting to get the cards done. Major emergency! Fortunately I was able to find a local printer, and they colour-photocopied the sheets of cards... the result wasn't quite as good, though, as the photocopied cards lacked the slight glossy sheen of the ink-jet prints.

The following year I started early, and found a card-printing company on the internet. This meant that the cards could be full colour bleed (ie. the colour goes right to the edge) and laminated. Also, I don't get paper cuts... 

I have put up what we've had in the last few years (in case anyone wants to try the same for their own diocese!)