Design Your Own Greeting Cards

For what you get, greeting cards are pretty expensive. Plus you have to take time out of your schedule to go to your grocery store or mall. Then, you have to look through a bunch of cards for the right one. Making your own greeting cards can save both time and money. And, even if you are artistically-challenged, it really isn't that hard. With the right software you can even get the kids involved. Children love to create cards for birthdays and holidays, including Christmas, Chanukah and Rosh Hashanah.

Making Greeting Cards on the Computer

Using Microsoft Word or Open Office you can put together a simple greeting card template in a couple of minutes. Simply follow the steps below:

Formatting Your Greeting Card

Convert the document from a portrait page layout to a landscape layout.
Make the document two pages -- the first page will be for the card cover and the second page will be for the message inside the card.
On the first page, change the text area so it takes up the right half of the page. Put your short headline message toward the top. Here you can use word art of stylized fonts and colors to make it look nice. Then, you can put in an anchor image(s). You can use clipart that comes with your word processor software to find suitable images. Or, better yet, you can use pictures from your digital camera.
On the second page, again change the text area to the right portion of the page. Again, pick a suitable font -- many times an italics font will work well for the message. Now, type in your personalized message. Then, experiment with a few font sizes and message positioning to get it to look good. Another good idea is to put the date of the event at the top right of the message page.

Printing Your Greeting Card

We've put the card cover and the message on different pages so we can run both of these separately through the printer to get them on the same piece of paper on the front and back sides. That way, when you fold the paper, it will look just like a real greeting card.

To start, print only page #1 on your color printer.
Once page #1 is printed, take that page and place it back into the printer. You'll likely want to put the paper in so the card cover portion is facing up with the top portion of the card facing your left. This will orientate page so that message part will be printed on the side opposite of the card cover.
Now you can print page #2 and wait a couple of minutes for the ink to dry.
Take the page and fold it so the card cover is on the top. You should now be able to open the card and see the message on the inside.

Make sure you save this file so you can use the page layout as a template for your next card.

Tips:

Microsoft Office Online has a great selection of free templates that will help you create cards for almost every occasion and holiday.
American Greetings offers an online service where you can create and print your own greeting cards.
Kodak has a wide variety of templates that can help you use your pictures to create and print greeting cards. Kodak Gallery can help you create photo greeting cards and invitations by simply uploading your digital pictures.

Making Homemade Greeting Cards

Making handmade greeting cards gives you the perfect way to express your feelings with a one-of-a-kind creation. Making greeting cards is a craft that many individuals and families enjoy doing together, and some people turn their hobby into a business.

There are several different techniques that can be used to create handmade greeting cards or personalized coupon books for any occasion. Below are a few tips to help you make your own greeting cards:

Materials Needed for Card Making

Blank Scored Card Stock or Card Stock Sheets to cut your own
Embellishments: Stickers, Die Cuts, Dried Flowers, Glitter, Textured Paper, Ribbon, Stamps and Ink Pads, etc.
- Recycle all the greeting cards you receive. You can cut-out and reuse the graphics and pretty embellishments when creating your greeting cards.

Standard Envelopes or Envelope Templates to create your own envelopes
Scissors or Paper Cutter
Craft Knife
Ruler
Cardboard or Cutting-Mat
- Use cardboard to protect your table when cutting with a craft knife. If you plan to create greeting cards as a hobby invest in a cutting-mat.
Two-sided Tape & Glue Sticks
Pen, Pencil, Markers, Colored Pencils

Greeting Card Ideas

DIY greeting cards showcase your creativity with unique cards that are designed the way you desire. You can design cards to resemble greeting cards from stores or you can sketch your own original designs. You can also find many websites with card making ideas and sketches to help you design a greeting card that will be perfect for any holiday, gift box or occasion.

Fingerprint Cards are a great greeting card that the kids can help create. These cards are perfect for Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Mother's Day. Stamp fingerprints on the front of the card for each family member. For Christmas you can use brown ink to make Reindeer, Easter use yellow ink to make chicks, Halloween use orange to make Jack-o-lanterns or black to make spiders, and for Mother's Day use pretty pastel ink or paint to make flower petals.

Collage Cards are great for any occasion or holiday. Cut out the images, quotes, words, pictures from magazines, pressed flowers, pretty paper, wrapping paper, items that hold special meaning or are related to the holiday to create your collage. Arrange the items on the card, once you have all the items placed on the card where you like you can then glue them down.

Tip: For help with wording or sayings for your greeting cards look online, you can find several website with quotes, poems, greeting card sayings, and bible verses.