While it’s now easier to simply send someone a quick text to greet them a “Happy Birthday!”, the greeting card business still remains popular among many people. For instance, did you know that about 7 billion birthday cards are still sold per year?
Luckily, if you’re looking to send a greeting card to someone from the other side of the world, it’s now much easier to do without the need to go to a store. In this article, I’m going to walk you through a simple and easy-to-follow guide that can help you design your own greeting cards right from the comfort of your home. Let’s dive in!
1. Choose a Template
The best part about purchasing a physical greeting card is that you no longer have to worry about designing it—you simply need to write out your message and you’re set to go!
These days, however, you can achieve the same effect without the need to spend a dime. Through online greeting card templates, you can now simply select a design that suits your fancy and type out your message for the recipient. It’s free, easy, and something you can achieve in less than 5 minutes!
2. Customize Your Design
While you can easily choose a template and write out your message, you can also take your design up a notch by further customizing your greeting card. Through free design tools online, you can easily play around with templates or even make your own greeting card from scratch.
Depending on how you see fit, you can even choose to create your greeting card using different dimensions, colors, and font styles!
3. Add Some Images or GIFs
Whether you are creating your greeting card based on a template or from scratch, I always recommend adding some images to give your design a little more flair.
Additionally, you can even play around with some GIFs if you’re looking to make your greeting more animated for your recipient. To do this, you simply need to copy an image or GIF you want to include and paste it onto your greeting card using a free design tool. Also, don’t forget to save your design as a video or GIF if you added some animation!
4. Personalize for the Recipient
Now that there are so many resources online that can allow for easy editing, the ways in which you can personalize your design are essentially limitless. To make the most out of this feature, I always recommend taking the time to design your greeting card and customizing it for your recipient. From personal pictures to custom color palettes, you can now make your greeting cards more meaningful for each recipient you have in mind.
5. Proofread Your Message
While not necessarily exclusive to electronic greeting cards, proofreading your message is always a helpful tip to remember. Spotting grammatical errors is a given priority, but you should also consider the font style and size you are choosing to ensure that your message is legible.
As a general tip, try to choose a font that’s bold and has a color that contrasts your background. Not only that, but you must also ensure that all the design elements in your card do not interfere with the text you place. If possible, you can assign one section in your card that only includes text, and reserve your designs for another section.
6. Download or Print Your Card
The best part about designing your own greeting card online is that you have the option to either print or download it to your device. When downloading, you simply need to ensure that you are exporting it in the right format (I always recommend a PNG), and you can immediately email or send it out to your recipient.
If the free online design tool you are using allows it, you can even have your design printed if you’re still looking to send out a physical copy to your recipient!
7. Save Your Design for Future Use
One great feature of online design tools is that you can easily save your designs for future reference. This is especially helpful if you’ve already created a greeting card you loved in the past, so you can just reuse the same design again by changing up the text.
Not only that, but you can also save various versions of a design you’ve previously created if you’re looking to further customize each one for different recipients.
Set to Design Your Own Greeting Card?
If you’re looking to create your own greeting cards in an easy and cost-efficient way, now is a great time to start. Simply refer to the tips mentioned above and scroll through some free templates to get started. Once you’re satisfied with your design, go ahead and send them out or have them printed for future use. Have fun!