Larry Magid: DIY holiday cards & projects plus safe shopping

Welcome to the holiday season With hope we ll all get a healthy dose of well needed cheer In this day s column I ll offer advice on how to create your own holiday greeting cards and DIY gifts along with specific shopping tips Related Articles Larry Magid Macs are on sale and Windows PCs have gotten better Magid Preponderance Google Apps work on iPhones but not vice-versa Magid Amazon upgrades Alexa with AI and a new Echo for kids New Tesla update adds Mad Max mode deletes option to set top speed Magid Meta expands Instagram and AI teen safety efforts DIY projects There are lots of procedures to use your PC or phone to create your own greeting cards letters calendars and other highly personalized gifts In preponderance development they need to be printed but if you don t have a printer there are options to get them printed professionally which for a few items such as photographs can certainly wind up being less expensive and a lot better looking than printing them yourself especially if you consider the wastage that often encompasses home printing projects No offense to Hallmark but I like creating my own greeting cards They just seem more personal than canned messages and if I want I can even create individualized cards for special people on my list If you need help coming up with greetings try ChatGPT or another Generative AI tool They may not be quite as personal as coming up with your own words but you can get a personalized message by saying something like create a combined Christmas Hanukkah and New Year s card for my cousin in Ohio or maybe create a Christmas card greeting for a family with a boy a girl a mom dad and a dog You can even specify funny or sentimental but if you have it in you I still recommend writing your own greeting I often paste in pictures from my own library or even images generated by AI Sometimes I just print them as a one-sheet without worrying about a fold but if I want them to resemble greeting cards I use a template such as ones built-into Microsoft Word or use various of the free greeting card creation services from Canva Adobe Express or Greetings Island You ll find a link to these at larrysworld com greetingcards If you don t mind a little extra work you can create a card using the free Google Drawing project along with Google Docs You can insert or type in your content on the first page directly but if you want the second page to be inverted for printing back to back use Google Drawings to create the second page and then rotate the image and text in Drawings and paste it into Google Docs Easier and perhaps classier options A perhaps easier and classier option and this works for calendars and all sorts of holiday gift ideas is to use a facility like Shutterfly Walgreens or VistaPrint that helps you design it and then professionally prints it for a fee Prices can be genuinely less than store-bought greeting cards if you order enough of them I use Walgreens because it s convenient and relatively inexpensive Aside from better quality than I can get with my own printer they either reprint it or reimburse me if there are any mistakes or flaws Another nice greeting is a personalized video message or slideshow that you create with your PC or smartphone Largest part photo services including Google Apple Microsoft and Amazon photo apps allow you to share albums or collections Recipes and jigsaw puzzles Specific folks like to give out recipe books You can use your family recipes or generate recipes via generative AI but if you do that test them first One of the things I like about using services such as ChatGPT is the ability to customize them especially for people with dietary restrictions Once you have the recipes you can create them with a word processing project or Google Docs free or use a function such as Shutterfly or VistaPrint which also lets you add in photos perhaps ones you ve taken yourself If you have a jigsaw puzzle lover in your life you can make your own puzzle using a template and a photograph JenniferMaker com has free puzzle templates and all sorts of other DYI projects you can do using your PC or phone Shopping If you re like the greater part people you are starting to think about gifts for friends and family Aside from not having to go to a store one of the things I like about shopping online is that the online e-tailer can send the gift for me saving me the cost and hassle of wrapping and shipping In selected cases such as for Amazon Prime or Walmart Membership on sale now for for a year the shipping may be free If you shop online beware of any pitches you get via email text or on social media I m often torn between wanting to buy from a small business vs the prevention of ordering from a well-known company such as Amazon Target or Walmart so if I do go the small business journey I try to select a store or company I m familiar with or do certain research to make sure they re legit Be especially careful of look-alike websites or deals that seem too good to be true Check the URL methodically and make sure the seller is reputable Before I buy anything online I try to find out the shipping costs if any how long it will take to arrive and the return agenda A lot of online retailers will extend the return guidelines during the holidays typically until January but this might not apply to all purchases so read the guidelines attentively Amazon Prime or Walmart Members get free shipping on majority of items but there are exceptions I was about to order a gift basket on Amazon from Harry but held off after noticing a shipping fee And don t assume that Amazon Walmart or Costco necessarily have the lowest price or the best deal It does pay to shop around Also be wary of viable counterfeit merchandise And even if the site is reputable the item might come from another seller If you see a great price check if it ships from and is sold by Amazon or Walmart If not check reviews very conscientiously to make sure it s a legitimate reseller with a good rating Completely don t overlook brick and mortar merchants Online may be more convenient and perhaps cheaper but aside from supporting local business there s something to be revealed for getting to look at try on and feel the merchandise before you buy it And you might even get a smile and friendly greeting from the clerk or run into someone you know Related Articles Newsom sues Trump administration to halt homeless housing funding cuts Anthropic called to testify in House on china-backed cyberattack Tech firms from Dell to HP warn of memory chip squeeze from AI Little Caesars was accidentally approved and now downtown Sebastopol is stuck with it Pittsburg to focus on tool sports tourism vigor and industrial redevelopment mayor says Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist Contact him at larry larrymagid com