Three wise men—a caption our client wanted under a picture of three men from her church that she admires for their faith and generosity. Designing a personalized Christmas card to send to the congregation of the church was a new learning experience BoomerTECH Adventures was delighted to help her with. She created the original and went off to Staples to have the cards printed on colorful stock, smiling all the way. She had no idea that she had the power to create such a personally, meaningful message for her friends during this holiday season.
You can do the same!
All you need is …
- An image from your computer, tablet, or phone
- Patience
- Willingness to try new things
- Imagination
Let’s start with the image. Choose an image you like from your Photos app. If it is not quite as perfect that you would prefer, take time to edit. Remember, in Edit mode you can crop, fix the exposure, change the effect, and even write a message in markup. Below are before and after images altered with the editing function.
Original–Do you see the Lady Slippers?
Edited version–cropped, color enhanced, and text added
Your Apple devices have great editing options, however if you want to go beyond them, try Snapseed or Photoshop Express (PS Express) apps. Click here to read one of our posts on using these cool apps.
Another option is to use the free website, Canva. It allows you to add graphics, frames, texts, and special backgrounds. In the image below, I added a wreath to the deck railing.
Canva is fun to play with and pretty intuitive. You do need the patience to play around with different features and sizing. When done, simply download the image to your device. On your computer, you will see a dialog box to download the image and on your iPhone or iPad, the image goes directly to your Photos app.
Canva page
Once you have your image, a decision must be made. Use a commercial site like Snapfish or create your own card from scratch?
Sites like Snapfish do all of the design work. You simply provide the image(s) and text. They will print your cards and send them to you. Of course, there is a cost involved.
Here are all of the options you have at Snapfish for holiday cards. There are a multitude of websites that help you make cards. Just Google “card making sites.”
I used one of their templates. I added the image of the Duomo in Florence and the signature.
If you to start from scratch, check out the templates in your Pages app. There are several options of foldable cards and several more if you want to create a holiday newsletter.
The images above are of a Pages template. You add your own image, choose your colors, and write your text. Print, fold, and send. Below is a card I created using this template.
It’s only December 2, so there is plenty of time to get creative! Stores like Staples have all sorts of different colored papers to use for your printing. Make a batch or individualize for the special people in your life. Have fun and send personalized cards this holiday season.
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