How to Create Free Photo Christmas Cards
During the Christmas holiday season, people create and send photo Christmas cards to friends, family and co-workers to add a personal touch to season greetings. Although photo subjects vary greatly by type and the personality of the card maker, many people choose to create photo Christmas cards for free using a family, Christmas or winter-related photo—family portrait, child in Christmas attire, decorated Christmas tree or a winter scene such as a snow-covered forest or meadow or a decorated home or other structure.
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Things You'll Need
- Photos
- Graphics (optional)
- Digital camera
- File storage device (optional)
- Scanner (optional)
- Photo-editing software
- Word processing software (optional)
- Desktop publishing software (optional)
- Print media (paper, cardstock or printable greeting card sheets)
- Printer
- Adhesive (optional)
- Tape (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
Instructions
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Choose a photo for the front or interior of your card. If you want graphics on your cards as well, review and choose Christmas-related graphic art such as snowmen, snowflakes, bells, reindeer, sleigh, candy canes, ribbons or presents from the clip art galleries in your photo editing, word processing or desktop publishing software.
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Save a copy of your photo to your computer. Upload directly from a digital camera or file storage device (for example, memory stick or DVD), or scan the photo using a scanner. If you only have a single hard copy of your photo and don't own a scanner, ask a friend, family member or co-worker who owns a scanner to scan the picture to a storage device for you.
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Open your photo editing, word processing or desktop publishing software, and select a bi-fold or tri-fold card template. If you can’t find a template that you like, select one from a free template site such as Microsoft Office Online Templates or Avery Dennison (see Resources).
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Insert your photo and/or graphics into the template to the front or interior sections of the card type that you chose.
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Add text to front and interior sections. For example, on the front of the card you might choose verbiage such as "Happy Holidays!" "Merry Christmas" or "Christmas Greetings from (individual family member first names or surname)."
In the card interior sections, you might include a scripture, poem or other sentiment. -
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Edit your design in the template. Resize or crop images and text, change text font styles or color, and/or re-position items as desired.
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Insert your print media into your printer and then print out your photo Christmas greeting cards.
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Tips & Warnings
If have a stack of identical pre-printed photos for your cards, create Christmas cards that don't have printed photos. Design your Christmas card layout with a blank space in the area where you want the photo to appear. Print the cards and then glue or tape the photos to the cards.
If you have silver or white glitter and your photos/graphics include snow, consider decorating/highlighting with glitter. For example, apply narrow beads of glue along tops of snowy hills or mountains or the edges of snowflakes and then sprinkle the glitter across the glue. Air-dry and then gently tap the excess glitter back into your glitter container.
