My system, which I've developed over the last ten years for doing about 80 cards a year:
Most important: set up a manila envelope **right now** labelled "2005 envelopes/letters." As every card comes in to you, stick its envelope & anything else in there -- esp anything with an address on it.
Then at the end of the card season, take out your envelope & your address list, & update as needed. Also put a note by each address saying when you updated it. That way, you'll no longer stare at a cousin's address going, "Didn't he move in the last couple years? Is this the new one or the old one?"
As for doing cards themselves, my routine is to sit down with my address list & write up the envelopes first. (The tech alternative would be updating & printing the labels.) Then I can carry the envelopes with me to wherever (I like coffee shops, but your mileage may vary) & use them as a guide to writing up the cards -- as in, "okay, Aunt Martha....what do I want to say to Aunt Martha?") I keep both piles in order, and then sit down to stuff card with letter in envelope. Then I go through & seal everything (usually requires tape). Very last passthrough is for address labels & stamps.
This all takes a while, but the sense of accomplishment is molto bene when it's done.
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carisma_sensei
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:38 pm (UTC)Most important: set up a manila envelope **right now** labelled "2005 envelopes/letters." As every card comes in to you, stick its envelope & anything else in there -- esp anything with an address on it.
Then at the end of the card season, take out your envelope & your address list, & update as needed. Also put a note by each address saying when you updated it. That way, you'll no longer stare at a cousin's address going, "Didn't he move in the last couple years? Is this the new one or the old one?"
As for doing cards themselves, my routine is to sit down with my address list & write up the envelopes first. (The tech alternative would be updating & printing the labels.) Then I can carry the envelopes with me to wherever (I like coffee shops, but your mileage may vary) & use them as a guide to writing up the cards -- as in, "okay, Aunt Martha....what do I want to say to Aunt Martha?") I keep both piles in order, and then sit down to stuff card with letter in envelope. Then I go through & seal everything (usually requires tape). Very last passthrough is for address labels & stamps.
This all takes a while, but the sense of accomplishment is molto bene when it's done.