Tips & Tricks : Print Your Own Greeting Cards

In today’s highly digitized world, getting a paper greeting card can be a special treat. Sure, posting the sentiment on a social network would have been easier (and far more convenient), but instead someone took the time to think about what you would like to see, hear, and hold on this occasion. To give others this one-of-a-kind sensation, and save some money in the process, use greeting card creation software.

Print your own greeting cards

Equipment checklist

In truth, all you really need to make your own greeting cards, invitations, announcements, and more is some sort of writing utensil and paper. Optional extras include uncooked pasta, glue, and a box of crayons. Then again, if you want personalized and professional-looking greeting cards that make lasting impressions, you’ll need a bit more than your average kindergartener’s craft kit. The bare essentials include a PC; a printer to print out your touching, funny, or thoughtful observations and designs; and a little something to help you with ideas and designs.

Say it with software

One of the easiest ways to make your own greeting cards is with the aid of software. Multiple options exist, and almost all include large collections of images and illustrations, dozens of project templates for almost every holiday or special occasion you will ever celebrate, multiple fonts and many that convey moods, and much more. For the most part, any card creation suite will give you all the tools you need to ensure you never have to buy another grocery store greeting card again. Many greeting card creation suites also let you import digital images so you can give your creations a more familiar face.

Greeting card creation software typically lets you choose your layout, designs, text, and fonts

Some of the occasions for which you’ll likely find images and easy-to-customize templates include all manner of holiday cards, as well as cards for anniversaries, birthdays for any age, sympathy and get well, congratulations, graduations, baptisms, Bar/ Bat Mitzvahs, invitations, wedding announcements and invitations, and more. You can also often use this type of software to create calendars, CD and DVD labels, stationery, envelopes, email greetings, popup cards, crafts and more. You’re really only limited by your imagination.

How to use greeting card software

Most greeting card creation software offers you a main dashboard of some sort that lets you start a new project, such as a greeting card or calendar, and further submenus that let you quickly and easily find the right card for the occasion you have in mind. Take some time to explore the menus to familiarize yourself with the software’s interface, and don’t hesitate to seek out a Help menu or follow any available tutorials to make sure you get your sentiments exactly right. Most software of this type comes with large databases of images, but sometimes an expanded image database is available online. If this is the case, make sure to access these images to get a wider selection of project templates, cards, images, fonts, and more.

Some of the more full-featured greeting card creation suites also let you create CD and DVD labels

Quality counts

When you’re ready to print, make sure the printer is configured to use its highest-quality setting. If you plan to use a heavy cardstock, make sure your printer can handle it, and configure the printer accordingly.

No printer, no problem

Uou can use a portable storage device, such as a USB flash drive, on which you can load your ready-to-print creations and take them to your nearest Staples, where you can print off the cards on a variety of paper and cardstock. An even more convenient option is to visit www.staplescopycenter.com, which lets you order copy and print services right from home and arrange to pick them up at your nearest Staples. Better yet, you can even have the printed and finished results shipped to your door.