In 1984 I came across an advertisement in Sky and Telescope magazine for Winter Solstice Greeting Cards, published by Educational Greeting Cards of Urbana, Illinois. There were six different cover designs with scientific and historical themes. These were wonderful cards, and I thought they captured the holiday spirit in a beautiful non-religious fashion. Plus the astrophotographs used on several of the designs appealed to my interests as an amateur astronomer and photographer.
For two years I sent these cards out to family and friends, however in 1986 the publisher, David G. Owen, M.D., decided to discontinue making them.
Inspired by David’s example, I decided to make my own cards with a similar theme and format. All I needed was a suitable image for the front of my card. In the spring of 1986 I took a white-water canoe trip down the lower canyons of the Rio Grande River, where the incredibly dark skies rewarded me with a lovely star trails photo. This was perfect! I bought blank card stock, used a laser printer to print the text, and glued 3×5 photographs onto the front. I made about two dozen of these cards for December 1986.
Over the years I refined my technique, first to batch-printed cards with 5×7 photos glued on them, and now custom digitally-printed cards. It continues to be an interesting challenge to come up with a suitable image to use. The positive feedback I get from the recipients of my cards makes it all worthwhile. Enjoy!