Photo Cards & A few questions

I've decided to make cards from my photos.  The easiest way to go is to buy 5x7 cards and add a 4x6 photo to the front and you are ready to go. Envelopes become the issue so one needs to buy sets of cards and envelopes.  These can be expensive.

After some research,  I managed to find a heavy white card stock which will serve nicely for the card base.  The photo has been trimmed to 3.5 x 4.75 inches to leave a generous border on this A2 card which is 4.25x5.5 inches. 

This requires that I have a photo I can afford to trim .25 off one side. It comes down to the composition which I will work on.  Two of these are off to my card exchange group. 

 

I am interested in finding how many folks give cards.

Do you give paper cards or electronic?

Does the cost of postage make you hesitate to give a card?

What type of occasions do you give cards for?

Do you prefer to have a card specific to the occasion?  Or will a generic card suffice for almost any occasion?

Do you have a preference between a card made with stamping and designer paper or a card like these art cards?

You can leave me a comment with any information you would like to share.  Thanks so much.

Photo - Devonian Botanic Gardens

I took a trip to the Devonian Botanic Gardens on the weekend.  It's a large property and a good thing I went early as it rained later in the day.
The background for this collage is a copper pot in the Arid show house which had this terrific patina on it.  I do water drops every chance I get and they had just irrigated so there were plenty.  The Koi fish is in the brook in the Kurimoto Japanese Gardens.  I've been trying all kind of options with my camera and this one worked out really well. The fish was about 12" long. I saw 4 different ones in the waters there. In the Butterfly show house I got this pic of a very nice warm colored butterfly.  He was just sitting there so I got a lot of shots.  The bottom picture is of course Bird of Paradise.  I think this is the first one I've seen in real life.  It's beautiful.