Evening star., 1953-11-08

SCdrC6O Oh your pLlOCOgTapHlc
Christmas cards. Later on,
when you are tied up with last
minute shopping for gifts. you
may not. find time for them.
You can make these highly
personalized greeting cards at
a cost no greater than the
average commercial variety.
A photo greeting card can be
a simple one-card affair or it
can be just as elaborate as you
have the time to make it. It
can be a plain black-and-white
print or toned green to suit
the spirit of the occasion with
inexpensive chemicals. If you
have an especially fine color
transparency you are proud of
and it is a suitable subject for
the season you can have a local
color professor make up a
batch of color-print cards for
you for only slightly more than
some of the finest commercial
cards.
The essence of the idea is
to give your greeting cards a
special personal meaning and
we can't think Of better way
to do it than with a photo
graph of your own making.
High on the list of favorite
subjects are pictures made at
last years Christmas celebra-
ton. If you made snaps of
the children around the Yule
tree opening presents or
around the holiday dinner
table. any one should be suit
able for card purposes. Failing
this you may find shots of the
children playing in the snow
or a picture of your snow-cov-
cred home. A photograph Of
yourself is an excellent subject
for a photo greeting card-or
one of yourself and wife and
the children in family group.
There are a number of ways
OF making photo cards but the
easiest is to purchase a photo
card kit at your dealers. This
will have all the working ma
terials you will need except
the picture negative. The kit
will have the necessary masks
for picture and message. Each
should be printed individually
on each card. Contact print
ing is the quickest and most
practical method for mass
production of cards. You can
use either a contact printer or
a printing frame.
Although the standard
photo-card kit will contain
negatives with an assortment
of messages or greetings, you
can make your own by writ
ing, printing or tipping the
message on a sheet of paper
and copying it with your
camera to make your own
negative.
Here's the way it works. You
will find a paper guide in the
kit. This should be secured in
position with a bit of adhesive
or cellulose tape. The negative
containing the message is ex-
posed through it's mask onto
the card. It is best to develop
one or two of these to make
sure you have the exposure
right. Then expose the rest
of the cards in this manner.
Be sure to stack the cards thus
exposed in way you will be
sure to get the second or snap
shot exposure in the right
place. If the cards become
jumbled you may make the
mistake of printing the sec
ond exposure on top of the
first.
The paper guide is now re-
moved and the picture mask
placed in its stead. The pic
ture negative should now be
placed in position and secured
with tape. Place one of the
cards in position and make a
test exposure. AS soon as one
comes up right in the devel-
oper, go ahead and print the
picture on the balance Of the
cards.
Now you should be ready to
go on and develop and fix the
cards. Don't try to handle too
many at one time-siX to eight
should be about right. Place
them, one at time, in the de-
veloper and shuttle them by
placing the bottom print on
top of the pile. Continue this
until you bring up print that
is developed just right. Then
move it over into the short
stop bath and the others
should be ready as they come
off the bottom of the pile to
follow. Now move the cards
nrer into the hVnn or fixing