How to Create Your Own Wacky Greeting Card!by Jessica Sellers

Creating and sending cards for unusual holidays is fun and easier than you may think! All you need is a free design program called Inkscape and a powerful yet simple connecting tool called SendOutCards...oh, and a little creativity!

For starts, it is easy to download Inkscape onto your computer. It is like Illustrator (in fact it does some things Illustrator won’t) but yet it’s free! Just go to http://www.Inkscape.org and click on the Downloads link. If you have a windows computer, click the link on the Downloads page that says .exe installer. There are other options for Linux users.

Once you click on the .exe installer link, you will be taken to another website where you will be able to download Inkscape. Just follow the prompts and you should have no trouble downloading and installing Inkscape.

When Inkscape is all the way downloaded, you will then be prompted to open up the program.

Congratulations! You now have Inkscape!

The next thing you will want to do is format your page so it is the correct size for your greeting card. I have created a template with the correct dimensions for a 5x7 greeting card, with room for trimming. You can adjust the size of your page by clicking File --> Document Properties.

It is important to remember that some of the card will be cut off, so in my template, I have placed a dotted line around the “Safe Zone.” (Make sure you delete the dotted line before you actually export your card design.)

At any rate, you are now ready to design your card! For this example, i am going to start out with some text, “Happy Make Up Your Own Holiday Day!”

The A icon on the left toolbar allows you to create a text box of any size that you want. You can also adjust the size later if you need to.

I have put my text into a text box and then started playing around with fonts and font sizes. FYI: Conglomerfont is a free font you can find online. It gives this card the festive look I want.

The top toolbar is where you find the font type and font size and font alignment boxes.

Note: You can mix and match fonts and font sizes within a text box--they don’t all have to be the same.

If you want to change the color of the font, click on Object --> Fill and Stroke. From here you can change the color of the fill using the CMYK slider bars, on the first tab. If you want to add an outline to the text, click on the second tab, Stroke. The third tab lets you adjust the thickness and style of the outline.

Notice that you can also adjust the line spacing by opening the Text and Font box, found under the Text menu at top, or by pushing Shift + Ctrl + T. Make sure your whole line is highlighted when changing the line spacing.

Now that we have some text, let’s find a picture.http://www.iStockphoto.com is one of my favorite places to find images in a hurry.

This morning I did a search for party and I found this excellent confetti image on the second page of the searches.

One nice thing about iStock is that you can download a sample image before you buy it, to see if it is really going to work in your design. Then, if you like it, you can purchase it in the size that you want. It is important to get the right size, and it is better to go larger if you are not sure, because you should never enlarge a photo.

You can add a picture to any Inkscape document by clicking File -->Import ...and then choose the picture you want to insert.

Once you have imported your picture, you can shrink it by holding down Ctrl and then pulling on any of the resizing arrows. You can also adjust the layer to go behind the text by pushing PgDn (move down one layer) or End (move layer to the bottom.

When you have everything how you like it, you are ready to export your image to a file that printers know how to read...in our case, a PNG. This might also be a good time to save your document if you haven’t done so already.

To export your file, click on File --> Export Bitmap. Make sure you have Page selected as the Export Area, and that you change the dpi to 300. This is a good resolution file size for printing, as opposed to 72 dpi for web images.

Choose the file name and location where you want the PNG to be saved.

One note about PNGs--they are transparent by nature, but this sometimes causes problems with printers. One way to get around this, is to create a big white square and put it behind your entire design, as I have done for you in my template.

Once you have PNG file, you are ready to upload your image into SendOutCards’ card creation program, Picture Plus (Note: if you do not have SendOutCards yet, you may get a free trial, including Picture Plus, at http://www.SendOutCards.com/19087 ).

When you log into SendOutCards, you will see the Card Manager Main Menu. At the bottom of the middle-left column is the Picture Plus link. Click on that.

You will be prompted to browse for the image that you want to upload into Picture Plus. Do so, and then click the button that says “Create Picture Plus Card.” Another window will open and you can make adjustments, add extra text or borders, and center your image. When you are finished, click “Save Card.”

Congratulations! You have just created your very own custom card!

When you are ready to print and mail your new greeting card, go into SendOutCards and click on the Card Catalog link on the upper red bar of the website. Your card has been saved in the Picture Plus category of the My Cards section. Click on this Picture Plus link and you will find your card design.

Notice that you have three choices of cards you can make: Postcard, Greeting Card, and 3-Panel Card. Let’s click on the middle icon for now to create a greeting card.

Now you are at the card editor. You can type your message in one or both of the boxes labeled “Edit inside...” You can also change the alignment, color, and type of font here. You won’t see the actual font preview until the next page.

Whew! We are almost done! After you have typed in your message, fill out the name and address of the person you want to send the card to.

This is also a good time to double-check your return address.

Go ahead and check the Gloss finish while you are at it. This will give your coat a nice shiny coating of UV protectant.

When you are finished, click on the Preview button at the bottom of the page...

If everything looks good, hit the Send Card button. Otherwise, click the Back button to edit your card.

After you click Send Card, you’re DONE!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Your one of a kind greeting card is now on its way through the postal system to your happy recipient!