Tutorial ~ Make your own Note Cards

You are the ARTISTE! Grab your paint smock and funny shaped hat. This super easy tutorial will show you how to make your own Bible note cards. Your paints and easel are your computer. For this tutorial, I’ll keep it really basic. Once you’ve got the basics, then you can have a play and jazz them up. Feel free to ask anything you want if you would like more information. Ready? Let’s get started…

DIY TUTORIAL ~ MAKE YOUR OWN NOTE CARDS

1. SET UP YOUR PAGE: Open a blank document in a program like MS Publisher, Gimp, Photoshop, or any program that allows you to add text boxes, shapes, and format them. These instructions are for MS Publisher. Set page orientation to A4 landscape (click ‘file’ – ‘page set up’ or ‘print set up’).

2. DRAW YOUR NOTE CARDS: Draw four equal sized rectangles on your page (click ‘insert’ – picture – autoshapes – basic shapes). They should end up somewhere around 5.3” (13.5cm) long and 3.6” (9.2cm) wide. To get them exact, you may like to draw one rectangle, then copy and paste it. Or left click, then hold your CTRL key down and drag it. The top two rectangles will be the backs of your note cards. The bottom two rectangles will be the fronts. This will become your palette.

3. ARRANGE THEM in groups of two… with a strip of white space between them… like so. You could print them at this stage, fold them over and trim them ~ and they would be blank cards.

4. FRONT OF CARD: Click on the bottom left rectangle. Choose your colour and border. Or maybe you would like to add a photo. Then do the same for the bottom right rectangle. These will be the fronts of your two note cards. You can also colour the backs of your cards if you wish.

5. ADD A BIBLE VERSE: Insert a text box ~ type in one of your favourite Bible verses. Choose the font and colour of your text, and place it where you want it. You can also fill in your text box with colour and/or put a border around it if you wish. I usually draw separate shapes for my frames, so that I can move them around independently of the text and put them precisely where I want them.

6. DECORATE: Insert clip art or a photo if you wish. To keep things simple for this tutorial, I have gone back to my autoshape menu and selected a simple heart shape and put a border around it.

7. BACK OF CARD: Again, you could easily finish your note cards here ~ just print, trim and fold. However, first you may want to add your signature to the back of your masterpiece. Insert a text box on the top left rectangle and write whatever you want in it. Repeat for the top right rectangle. Choose font, colour and border as you wish. Now you will need to flip them over. Left click each rectangle – click ‘arrange’ (up on the top menu) – click on ‘rotate or flip’ – flip vertical. Like so…

8. PRINT: Have a play and make sure everything is exactly where you want it. This is the beauty of designing on computer. Don’t like that colour? That picture doesn’t work? Just click and change it. Check it in print preview. When you are happy with your masterpiece ~ print, trim and fold.

Voila!

ADDITIONAL TIPS

REMEMBER, IT’S JUST LIKE SHUFFLING PAPER: I find it helpful to think of designing on the computer as sitting at a desk and shuffling bits of paper. If you want to add another shape or frame or colour, it’s just like adding another bit of paper, cutting it to size and shuffling the pieces around until you get them where you want them. Let me show you what I mean. Let’s take the above design, have a close look at it, and then see if you can work out what I did with it below… That’s right. I coloured the text box on the front of the cards white; added another rectangle shape, coloured it, gave it a jaunty tilt, then shuffled it behind the text box.

ROTATE SHAPES: There are a couple of different ways to rotate shapes or text boxes. Here are two of them. Left click the shape and a green dot will appear at the top of it. Hover your mouse over the green dot and a circle arrow will appear. Left click the green dot and rotate it. Alternatively: right click the shape – click ‘format autoshape’ – select ‘size’ tab. The rotate angle ~ and many other functions ~ are in there. Push those buttons and check them out.
SHUFFLING SHAPES: To shuffle shapes or text boxes, left click the shape or text box you want to move (to select it), then click arrange (up on your top menu) – order – send backward / forward, etc.
SHORTCUT KEYS: There is a shortcut button for most of these menu actions. If they are not showing on the edges of your screen, right click the menu bar at the top of your screen (in a blank area). A menu will appear. Click the selections you want. The ones showing will have a tick next to them. If in doubt, click them all.
FILL COLOUR / LINE COLOUR: Left click the object you wish to ‘paint’. Then click the tiny arrow next to the fill colour option (at the top of your screen) to experiment with ‘fill effects’ and ‘sample colour options’ ~ fabulous tools. This is where you add photos, textured, patterned or tinted backgrounds to your whole shape.
PRINTING TIPS: Plain paper works just fine, but you may like to experiment with photo paper, craft card, textured paper, or craft paper. Remember, quality paper or card is best, and will drastically affect how your final masterpiece looks. Metallic craft card makes beautiful cards. Or print your design on photo paper and attach it to a metallic craft card. You may need to score your card lightly before folding it, so you don’t end up with extra creases where you don’t want them. If you don’t have a scorer, running a blunt bread-and-butter knife along a ruler will work just fine. Your finished masterpiece should look something like this, and then they will be ready for you to print, trim, fold… and then enjoy!

DIY GREETING CARDS ~ OTHER OPTIONS

DIY Greeting Card Online (avery) hundreds of templates to choose from where you can upload images, customize text, design your greeting card online then print your masterpiece as a pdf, or arrange for them to print it for you; free printable

3 Free Card Templates (crafts.lovetoknow) add your message and print; or use these 3 card templates – purse card, high heel shoe, exploding box – for making your own cards with your paper crafting supplies; free printable

RELATED LINKS

Biomimetics ~ Freebies to download the gorgeous butterfly note card at the top of the page; free printable

FREE note cards ready for you to download and print!

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