Business Cards

I have been interested in going gluten-free for years. The reason: a few years ago my grandfather was diagnosed with lymphoma. His doctor, who does cancer research at the university my husband is getting his PhD from (WVU), told him that his research has shown that gluten has a huge impact on cancer. My grandfather went gluten-free after that and has been in remission for about five years now. So I’ve been wanting to go gluten-free. However, I have never actually done it, mostly because it’s expensive. With Zach still in school, I figured we could wait a few years and then switch when we had some extra grocery money.

Last week, I decided to take a small step, for curiosity’s sake, and attempt a gluten-free bread. I looked up a ton of recipes on Google and then combined all of the basic elements, ignoring the ingredients that I don’t generally have (like potato and tapioca starch).

I found something I was happy with, whipped up the dough, stuck it in the oven and waited.

When it was finished, it was a rock. And it tasted horrible. (I wish I had a picture, but I was very mad and threw the bread in the trash before I could remember to take one.)

I don’t know what it is about healthy(er) bread and pastries…but I can’t seem to do it right. I think I know where I went wrong, though (hint: it was eliminating ingredients that I didn’t have or understand), so I’ll try again another time. (ETA: Just noticed that the cook book that came with my bread machine has gluten-free recipes! Score!)

The bread was supposed to be today’s post, but instead, let me show you the business cards I made!

I came up with a lot of different designs, but eventually settled on this one. (The website URL came out lighter than I wanted on mine. I fixed it on Zach’s.)

I used parchment paper for the final product, because I didn’t like the look of the card stock. I made the design in Microsoft Word (and, no, I don’t care that you don’t approve of MS Word–I’ve been using it for thirteen years and I have never even once had a problem), printed it, and then used a paper slicer. Mine turned out a little frayed because the blade I used needs sharpened. I used a different blade for Zach’s, which is why his are nearly perfect. 😛

In case you’re curious, the fonts I used (in order shown, from top to bottom) are Champagne & Limousines (pt 18), Kenzie (pt 20), HGSMinch (pt 11–I think this came with my computer), and PMingLiU (pt 20–I also think this came with the computer).

After cutting, I decided they needed a little more color. So took a green highlighter and ran it around the edges. (An idea that I got from The Thrifty Ginger.)

I really love how it turned out. It gives it a nice pop without looking unprofessional.

I tried other colors, too! Blue, orange, and yellow, actually. They were all OK, but I liked the green best.

These are Zach’s old cards, which we still have a lot of. I think we paid about $20 for them, but when they got here they looked like they had been printed from a home computer. They were OK, but way too plain. I greenified them, too, and they look much better.

In the end, I would rather just make our own cards. It’s cheaper (all I had to buy was the paper–about $8.00…the ink will need replaced eventually, but we have a very efficient printer), and we got something we really like. I do feel like something is missing, though. But whatever it is, I can change it–that’s the beauty of making things yourself. I can just reprint without worrying about sending them back to the company, looking over an order form to make sure the mistake wasn’t mine (making my own cards, I know it’s mine), and then waiting for replacements.

If you decide to do something like this, I wouldn’t recommend permanent markers for parchment paper. It will bleed too much. Unfortunately, there are only so many color options with highlighers. But I think a stamp pad would work. I’ve heard spray paint is nice, but I haven’t tried it.