How to Celebrate Autumn With Handmade Greeting Cards
Autumn is the official end of summer fun and sunny days at the beach. A mark toward winter, autumn can be depressing for some people. Acknowledge the significance of the harvest season in a positive way by sending your friends a special greeting card you make yourself. Use your own photographs or some real autumn leaves to give your greetings a unique look. Ready to celebrate autumn? Here’s how to make your own autumn greeting cards to share with friends.
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Things You'll Need
- Computer with color printer
- Card stock for computer printers
- Photo paper
- Double-stick tape
- Autumn-related quotes
- Autumn leaves flattened
- Lamination paper (available everywhere in the office-supply section)
- Personal autumn photos
Instructions
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Gather Your Art.
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You don’t have to be an award-winning photographer to take some terrific autumn shots of the trees and beauty in your own neighborhood. Take a close-up of a pile of leaves, a dog frolicking in an autumn field or just you and your kids in the pumpkin patch!
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Press some leaves. Find some autumn leaves no bigger than the average greeting card front. Press them in a book for a few days to flatten, then laminate.
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Find some artwork online. Look through free clip art or go to stock.xchang and download some relevant photos. They are also free for personal use.
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Find some classic quotes to use in the card if you wish. You’ll find terrific quotes like “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower (Albert Camus-online). See below for some good sites to check out.
Create Your Card
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Set up your card using the instructions on your computer card stock. You can easily set up the card with Microsoft Publisher or Word.
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Insert your own photo or images on the card front using your software. Size to fit and insert at a high resolution to make a clear, perfect picture.
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Insert a quote or whatever you’d like to say on page 3, or the inside page of your card. You can print it or write it by hand.
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Use double-sided tape to tape your laminated leaf or photo image (if you decide to print it as a separate photo first) onto the card front.
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Don’t forget to include information about the photo you are using (for example, “Dan and Julie at the pumpkin farm…") and add a little something fun to the back of the card, like a piece crazy autumn clip art or humorous photo of yourself or a pet. Remember, traditionally, the back of the card is the first thing people see when removing it from the envelope.
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Customize the envelope as well. Hand-address it, but print out a fun autumn image just to make it extra special.
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Tips & Warnings
Take lots of photos so you can use them next year and send out your cards before the leaves turn.
Resources
- Photo Credit Cathy Kaplan ~ sxc
