A personalised greetings card makes for an excellent gift. As well as demonstrating that you have made a special effort for another person, DIY cards are also affordable, and a good way to experiment with your creativity. There are several options available for making your own cards. The traditional way, with paper and pen, and the online way, with digital editing and printing. Moreover, there are several ways in which you can experiment with detailed designs, photo cards and post cards when working on personalised cards online. These methods are detailed below:
1) The Traditional Way
The traditional way of making a greetings card is actually, in some ways, the most complicated. Taking a sheet of paper or cardboard, you fold and measure the size you want for the card. Once cut into the right shape, the card can be stapled or glued for extra support, and can include an extra layer of paper on the inside of the main card, which allows you to experiment with different colours. The outside and the inside of the cards can be decorated and written on with a personal message. This kind of approach is particularly ideal as a craft activity with children.
2) Online Personalisation
Making your personalised cards online does, however, offer you some more options in terms of design. Websites offering card personalisation services make it easy to simply add in personal details and a message to an existing range of templates. Some of the more popular examples of this process involves adding in the recipient’s name to the punchline of a card, or putting their name on the cover. This can be completed in a few minutes via an online template, with the card printed and sent out by the website.
3) Full Design
Options are also available for designing e-cards that allow you to be more specific in terms of your designs. In this case, you can provide your own designs and scans, which can then be added to a basic paper template, with options for more extensive messages and jokes. This level of customisation offers the closest thing to the handcrafting of traditional cards. As well as websites, there are many software packages available that allow you to work with templates and print off your own cards.
4) Create A Simple Photo Card
Photo cards are also very popular. They involve adding captions and personal photographs to templates, and can be combined with slideshows of images for an interactive card that can be sent via email. This kind of card is particularly useful for social networking, as it combines a message and a carefully chosen set of photographs for the recipient, and can be as easy as going through the steps of an online template.
5) Postcards
A similar trend has also emerged for sending digital postcards. As long as you have access to the Internet on a trip, you can scan in your digital photographs from a phone or camera, add a message and captions, and forward these onto friends and family. This option is useful for people that don’t necessarily like using Facebook, but still want to send a quick and easy digital card while on holiday.
Lily Fox encourages creativity and designs greeting cards, collaborating with Scribbler, offering unique custom-made funny cards for all occasions.