Creating Greeting Cards & Calendars

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007

Stop digital waste! Don't let all your digital photos languish on your hard disk, sight unseen. Use them in creative print projects, like greeting cards, calendars, posters, gift tags and more. Not only will your friends and relatives treasure their personalized gifts, you and your family will enjoy making these fun projects. You can even save money over store-bought cards and tags. All you need is Easy Media Creator 10 and a color printer. Here's how to get started.

Creating a Greeting Card

To create your own unique cards for birthdays, graduations, holidays and other special occasions, simply open the Photo Projects task in Creator 10. You'll be presented with a list of possible project types. Select Cards, then click the Next button.

Roxio's Photo Project Assistant lets you create perfect printed cards and calendars in four quick steps.

Now you'll see a scrolling list of card templates, each of which is fully customizable with your own pictures, text, background artwork, font styles, and more. You can view all templates at once, or subcategories like Birthday and Holidays. Choose the card that comes closest to what you want, and click Next.

Choosing a greeting card template.

Now comes the fun part! Select the photo on your card, then click the Replace Placeholder button to import your own picture into the frame. Here we've replaced the picture on this baby announcement card with a photo of Daddy Santa and the baby (who was born a couple weeks before Christmas). We also typed our own text into the box on the left, and changed the text color to red to match the holiday theme. We could also have added more text boxes, or even replaced the background artwork with another photo of our own.

Customizing the front of the card with your own picture and text.

Next, customize the inside of the card. Click on the "Inside Bottom" tab to view the text placeholder, and type your own text in the box. Again, we changed the color to red, and also changed the font style using the tools at the top. That's all we did to this card. You could also customize the inside top and back of the card with additional photos and text if you like.

Customizing the inside of the card.

Printing Your Card

Now it's time to print! First, however, be sure to save your card project, in case you want to print more copies later. Then click the Print button. (You may also want to email the card to some recipients, click the Email button for that.)

Printing and saving your finished card.

In the Print Settings box, examine your card to be sure it's positioned properly on the page, then select the printer you want to use, and the number of copies. Now press the Print button to print the first side of the paper. (We recommend high quality photo card stock, which you can find in most big office supply stores.) Next, turn the paper over and reinsert it into your printer in the proper direction, and print the inside of the card. Do a single test page first to be sure you have the orientation correct and that the card folds properly. Finally, use a paper cutter (or ruler and x-acto knife) to trim the edges of your cards. Enjoy!

Customizing the print settings.

Creating a Photo Calendar

While making your own greeting cards is quick and easy, if you really want to impress people, give them a customized calendar that they can use every day. To start, open the Photo Project Assistant again, and select Calendars instead of Cards. You'll see a scrolling selection of templates for your calendar. Select the template that comes closest to your ideal, and click Next.

Choosing a calendar template.

Now replace the various calendar placeholders with your own pictures and text, as you did with the greeting cards. Also choose a start date for your calendar. Again, you can customize any of the page elements, and change fonts, styles and colors. Finally, save and print your project, and let the compliments roll in!

Customizing your calendar project.