Making people and ideas findable

How do I get "sloppy borders?"

Okay, I'm not sure if "sloppy border" is the correct term.

Other than the "feathering" feature in Photoshop and/or the smear, is there a program within (or separate of) that allows you to give your photos fancier (or sloppier) edges than just a square, round or oval photo?

I am working on some greeting cards that I thought this would make an interesting feature. Snapfish has one that I used built-in but after my second order I realized that they aren't consistant--the cards had white borders on one side and they ran the photo image off the bottom of the card. The quality of the card/image was great other than that.

And, any suggestions for companies that make photo greetings cards that do a nice job and are reasonably priced so I can wholesale them would be greatly appreciated. I'm hesitant to go over a $5 ea. retail price and realize that I will in most cases have to wholesale for $2.50. (Which if I can't get them inexpensive enough it's probably not worth doing.)

I'm wanting 5"X7" with envelopes and don't have (nor want to invest) in a quality printer to do them myself.

Thanks in advance!

Kendal

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kendal R. Miller on January 22, 2011 at 10:57am

Here's the Snapfish example with sloppy edges (scanned card so not as good quality) I was talking about. My first order was more impressive with the borders being completely centered as I had it ordered. Here the image runs off the bottom of the paper. Kendal

Permalink Reply by Michael Carney on January 22, 2011 at 1:16pm

making borders for photos is pretty easy in photoshop. Open an the image you want to work with (after all of its tweaks, cropping, etc) and then go to image>canvas size and relatively increase the size by however wide you want the border to be. Add a new layer and fill it with whatever color you want (probably best to make sure to match it with the color you expanded your canvas size with). Add a layer mask and then either use one of the brushes included with PS or make your own brush and mask out your border.

As for printers, I trust and use MPIX.com 100% of the time. I've never been dissatisfied with their service and their turnaround time is very quick, usually shipping in about 24 hours. 5x7's start at $0.99 and they also do greeting cards if you don't want to do the design work yourself (envelopes provided for free).

hope that helps,

Michael

Permalink Reply by Kendal R. Miller on January 28, 2011 at 7:02pm

Thanks Michael!

Permalink Reply by Rachel Steely on January 22, 2011 at 11:35pm