Blue Mountain Cards Have Changed the Greeting Card Industry

Blue Mountain spreads joy not only through its e cards, but through its books, calendars and posters that feature poetry and prose written over colorful nature backgrounds. There are over 1,000 Blue Mountain e card designs to choose from and send electronically to a friend or family member to mark a special holiday or occasion. These messages are not available just to the English speaking world; greetings are available in many different languages.

Boulder, Colorado couple Stephen Schutz and Susan Polis Schutz started the Blue Mountain cards company in the early 1970s as a vehicle for their illustration and poetry hobbies. They began by combining Stephens artwork and Susans free form poetry to create poster prints that embodied their shared feelings about life, love and nature, very much in keeping with the hippie culture of the time. The Blue Mountain cards company was initially conceived as a poster business when the couple persuaded a local Boulder bookstore to offer several of their posters on consignment. The business took off with the posters popularity; soon other area stores began carrying the prints.

Blue Mountain Arts, parent company of Blue Mountain Cards, was officially formed in 1971. With the posters popularity, Stephen and Susan began travelling the country selling their art and soon branched out into gift books, calendars and stationery. Stephen and Susan transferred their art to Blue Mountain greeting cards soon thereafter. In fact, they were responsible for introducing the all occasion blank greeting card to the public. They also introduced a second greeting card innovation: the inclusion of expressive free form poetry to the interior of their cards, replacing the staid traditional rhyming messages used for so long.

In the 1990s, Blue Mountain Arts introduced another greeting cards innovation: the electronic greeting card, launching their free e card website in 1996. The concept was a natural extension of the Schutz family practice of communicating with their college age son through electronic messages and greetings. Once, again, through its line of e cards, Blue Mountain Cards was an innovator. They offered their e cards for free, and they allowed the sender to add personal greetings to the card rather than select from a collection of stock messages. The recipient received an email notification of the card and accessed it through an attached link to the company website. What could be easier.

Blue Mountain e cards are now available in any number of languages and can be sent all over the globe.