How to Make a Holiday Photo Card

You don’t need to have a page makeup program like Quark or Publisher to make a simple holiday greeting card. You can do it all inside Adobe Photoshop Elements and use your own photos to personalize the greeting. It is so easy to do; you can make different ones for relatives, friends and business connections. In order to make sure your cards look professional, print the cards on glossy card stock that you can find in any office supply store. The cards not only look good, but can be quite inexpensive. In this economy--every penny counts--so read the easy steps below to save some cash on your holiday greetings.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0
• A color ink jet or laser printer
• Card stock or other specialty printing stock

1. 
    
   Select Layout

   Open the Adobe Photoshop application and click on CREATE to find the Greeting Card wizard. You can make a 5 inch by 7 inch or 4 inch by 6 inch card. Browse the themes and layouts to find the ones that are suitable for your greeting. You can find additional themes and layouts at the Adobe website. When you have selected your theme and layout; click OK and the card will open in the editing window

2. 
    
   Size Art

   Notice the art is at the correct size and you can expand the canvas and put a border around the outside of the card if you desire. If your photo has not been opened in the BIN you can click on the card to open a browse window to find your image.

3. 
    
   Drag Photo

   Drag the Photo from the bin to the image editing window. The image will be placed in the editing window with handles for size control and movement.

4. 
    
   Place Image

   You may have to experiment with different photos to get the right look for your card. You will certainly have to resize it and move it to make it fit the design. Once the image is placed as desired; hit the image CHECK box to commit the layer to the design.

5. 
    
   Add Text

   Use the text tool from the toolbox to add and format your text greeting. You can select the font, size, color and attributes of the text during this operation. This will allow you to integrate the text color with your image and optional border if you decided to include one.

6. 
    
   Final Card

   Save the card file under a new name and load up the printer. You can print two 5 by 7 inch cards or one 8 by 10 sheet of paper. The cost of each card is about 50 cents including the cost of toner. Cards printed on ink jet printers will be slightly more expensive. Photo paper is coated on one side and flat on the other side, so you can write a personal greeting on each card. Not only is it cheaper to make your own, but you can personalize each card for your audience.

Tips & Warnings

• Additional designs and templates can be found online on a variety of websites.
• Remember to let ink jet cards dry before trimming them. Some glossy stocks may smear if they are handled too quickly.
• Remember to always use a copy of your image to preserve the integrity of your photo archive.

Resources

• Adobe Photoshop Elements

[nancycarol]

on 7/26/2009 This is really helpful to me since I make my cards every Christmas. Thanks

[eliptica]

on 2/23/2009 I am going to use this for my christmas cards this year. Thanks for the great idea.

[MariM]

on 2/11/2009 Very good instructions. I want to do this next year for Christmas. Great article 5*recmd

[Ladybugblue]

on 12/30/2008 Thanks for the good idea! Great article!

[PattiG]

on 12/21/2008 Fantastic article. Can't wait to try this!