How to Create Personalized Stationery

Designing your own stationary is a creative way to express yourself through written correspondence.

Many people use personalized stationery to send letters and notes to family and friends. The main purpose of stationery is to allow the recipient of the letter to know who sent it without the need to view the sender’s signature at the end of the document. Stationery can be very functional and minimalist or creative and colorful, depending upon the personality of the people creating and using the stationery.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Printer
• Paper

1. Choose paper to use for your stationery. If you visit a craft or paper store, you will find that there are hundreds of different types, textures, weights and colors of paper available. Choose a type that fits your personality and your budget. You should plan on purchasing at least 50 sheets of paper or more depending upon the frequency with which you will be using your stationery.

2. Use a plain sheet of paper and a pencil to draw a basic design for your stationery. Sketching out your ideas on paper as opposed to creating them in your computer program will save time, since you can easily erase elements that you dislike and explore ideas.

3. Open a new document in your word processing application. Decide if you want to use a pre-made background for your stationery. There are hundreds of websites that provide free or low-cost background templates for stationery. Browse these sites before you begin placing text or images into your stationery template. If you find a template that you would like to use, click the option to download the template on the website where the template originated. After downloading, the template should automatically open in a Word document. Save this document on your computer by clicking the “File” option from your tool bar and selecting the “Save As” option from the drop-down menu. Name the file and click the “Save” option once again.

4. Type your name, address, telephone number, email address and website as a header in your stationery document. It is not necessary to include all of these components; however, these are the most common components on personalized stationery. Place your information according to the design that you sketched out in Step 2. Select fonts and font sizes by selecting the “Font” option on your tool bar. Scroll through the list of available fonts. Highlight the text that you wish to change and select your chosen fonts and sizes.

5. Insert any images that you have stored on your computer or clip art that you wish to include. Click the “Insert” option from your tool bar. Select the “Picture” option. Select either “Clip Art” or “From File.” Choose the saved or clip art image that you would like to use and click “OK.” This will cause the image to appear within your document. You can move the image to any location on your page by clicking on the image, holding down the button on your mouse, and dragging it to an alternative location.

6. Save your stationery template on your computer. Click the “File” option from your tool bar and select the “Save As” option from the drop-down menu. Name the file “Stationery” or something similar that will allow you to easily identify the file. Click the “Save” option once more to save the document. You can either print out your stationery at this point, if you will be handwriting your correspondences. Or you can type your letters directly into your stationery template and print them out once they are complete.

7. Print your stationery by inserting your stationery paper into your printer. Make sure that your printer is connected to your computer. Select the “File” option on your tool bar and select “Print” from the drop-down menu. Chose the number of copies that you wish to print and select “OK.” This will print your stationery.

References

• Stationery Nation: A Primer on Stationary.
• How to Create Your Own Personalized Stationery

Resources

• Free Printable Stationery