PostNet

Holiday cards don’t all need the same lead time.

A finished design on standard stock is one project. A photo card with specialty paper, foil, printed envelopes and a mailing list that still needs work is another.

Before setting your order date, look at what still needs to happen: design, proofing, printing, addressing, assembly and mailing. Every extra step needs its own place in the schedule.

Not sure how much time your project needs? The full timeline breaks down what to plan for based on the week you want your cards to arrive. https://www.postnet.com/blog/holiday-cards-planning-printing-mailing-timeline/

Your window is already doing the work. It may as well say something.

A storefront window works every hour and reaches people who may not have been looking for you.

Holiday window graphics can carry a seasonal message, your hours, a promotion or simply the fact that you are open during the stretch when people assume half the block is not.

They come down as easily as they go up, which is the point. A window graphic is seasonal by design.

Two things worth deciding before you print: what the message needs to say from across the sidewalk, and how much glass you are willing to give up.

Bring us the window measurements and we will make the design for you.

There is no single order-by date for holiday cards.

There is a sequence, and it runs backward.

Start with the day you want the card in someone's hands. Then work back through mailing, addressing and assembly, printing, proof approval, and design. Each step borrows time from the one before it.

That is why two projects placed the same week can need completely different schedules. A finished design on a standard stock is not the same project as a photo card on linen with foil.

Not sure when to start? The full timeline helps you work backward from the week you want your cards to arrive: https://www.postnet.com/blog/holiday-cards-planning-printing-mailing-timeline/

The most important thing at your fundraiser might be the paddle numbers.

Great programs set the tone. But it’s the less glamorous pieces that keep the night running:

📖 Programs guests reference all night
🪧 Table numbers, signs + directions
🔢 Paddle numbers, item cards + bid sheets
🎪 Event banners that make it into every photo
💌 Donor thank-you cards ready to send after the event

And when the auction ends? Those items still need to reach their winners. Framed art, glassware, gift baskets and more, packed properly and shipped with care.

Fall is full of community events, and they run on the details nobody notices until they’re missing.

Save this checklist now. Thank yourself when someone asks where the bid sheets are.

Fall fundraiser season is starting, and most of what an event needs is printed, packed, or both.

On the print side: paddle numbers, table signs, programs, donor thank-you cards, and a banner that shows up in every photo taken that night.

On the shipping side: auction items that have to reach the winner in one piece. Framed art, glassware, signed memorabilia, gift baskets — packed properly and quoted across carriers.

Running a gala, auction or school event this fall? Give us a call, and we’ll help organize the print and shipping pieces around your timeline.

December shipping is decided in September.

Four things worth settling now:

Which carrier suits your actual mix of weights and destinations — UPS, FedEx, DHL* and USPS each win on different lanes.

Whether your packaging is costing you in dimensional weight, on every order, all quarter.

Your own cutoff dates, set earlier than the carrier's and published to customers now.

Who packs the fragile and high-value items.

None of it is urgent in September. That's exactly why September is when it gets done.

Tell us what you ship and we'll walk the options with you.

*DHL not available at all locations.

Week one of a new business tends to go the same way.

The sign isn't up. The cards are ordered. And someone asks for a brochure that doesn't exist yet.

Ordering the kit in one pass fixes most of it — cards, brochure, flyers, banner, window graphics, folders, thank-you cards. Less back-and-forth, and everything matches because it was designed together.

Opening this fall? Tell us what you're launching and we'll build the list with you.

Fall market season is here, and signage is what separates a booth from a table.

It works before you can. People decide whether to walk over from fifteen feet away, while you're mid-conversation with someone else.

Five pieces cover it: a retractable banner behind you, a poster on an easel with what you sell, a table sign with your name, cards at the front edge of the table, and a small QR sign for your online store.

Vendor fairs, farmers markets, trade shows, school nights — same kit, and it travels between all of them.

Tell us what you're setting up and we'll size the kit to your table.

A new business gets judged on its materials before anyone has used the product.

Ten pieces cover it: business cards, brochures, flyers, postcards, banners, yard signs, window graphics, presentation folders, business forms and thank-you cards.

Ordered together, all ten match. Ordered one at a time as each need appears, they usually don't.

The full breakdown: https://www.postnet.com/blog/printed-materials-every-new-business-should-have/

A thin white line along the edge of a printed piece has one cause, and it isn't the printer.

It's artwork that stops exactly at the trim line. Commercial cutting is accurate but not perfect to the thousandth, so a hair of variation leaves a sliver of white showing.

An eighth of an inch of extra artwork past the trim absorbs it completely.

Two minutes in the file. Or a reprint after.

Prevent the thin white edge before your file reaches production. See how bleed works in our latest blog: https://www.postnet.com/blog/what-is-a-bleed-in-printing/