Can a Girl Fall in Love with a Calling Card?

Yes, especially in this season of love!

If you’re visiting a friend and place your card on a silver tray to announce your arrival, then you’re experiencing a bout of time travel that you MUST share with The Gracious Posse so we can blog about it.

Gone are the days when the calling card was used for the purpose of such visiting. Now it is used as a generic name for gift enclosure card or business/contact card. Calling cards are the “baubles” of the Stationery Wardrobe.  They pack a lot of pizazz in a small package. Today’s printing and design technology generates endless shapes, sizes, colors and fonts to create your personal style at a reasonable cost. While highlighting a variety of cards here, I will point out the nuances for you to consider when choosing your own calling card.


This card features my favorite monogram style ever (proprietary to William Arthur). Alison chose her favorite color, fuschia, and added her name and email address. This card leaves room to hand-write more information or a short greeting if she uses it for a gift enclosure.

This 2 5/8″ square card is my gift enclosure card featuring my initials. I used the gray, pink and white because I find that I wrap most of my gifts using those colors. From William Arthur.


This card from Whitney English is what I call a contact card. Two fonts are used, and I am a fan of the green and white combination. If you are going to use numbers on your card, be sure to check all the numbers of your font to be sure they are readable. Sometimes the character of numerals in a font style can be funky. The ones shown here are perfect.

The two cards are for my daughters created by the now-defunct Sweet Pea Designs. I show them as a sample  gift enclosure because I love using both the monogram and the name. The image on the right shows a layout with an overlay of the full name on top of the monogram in a different color. Although the graphics are not readily available, the design concept can be applied on any custom-designed card.

From Lallie, the two cards above show off Lallie’s fun and casual style. The card on the left uses the Lallie Script (proprietary) for the initials, with a name overlay. If you have a distinctive signature, consider using it on yours as shown on the card on the right.

You may want to have a formal calling card. The traditional formal rule is an ecru card with black ink. The two cards above show two different typestyles. A script typestyle (not shown) is a very formal look.

Perhaps you have a home-based business and want a professional yet stylish contact card. Shown here are two alternatives to consider. The card on the right by Alexa Pulitzer is printed on textured paper (difficult to convey on the screen) and the duogram (AP) is distinctive. The card on the left is by William Arthur, printed using the thermography (raised ink) method in two colors. Both convey a classic image for your business.

Lastly, I thought I’d display a few cards from William Arthur that just make my heart sing to look at them.

Have you fallen in love with a calling card yet? Want to look for more?

Before you order, I recommend visiting your favorite stationer to see the selection in person. The colors and papers are difficult to translate from screen image to the real McCoy. In Richmond, I prefer One Thing At A Time, owned by Sara Parsons. She carries William Arthur, Lallie, Whitney English, Stacy Clair Boyd, Printswell and Boatman Geller to name a few.

With a wide selection that you can make your own, I am confident you will find a fabulous bauble to add to your stationery wardrobe.

February 13, 2013