Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Personalized Flat Note Cards

Personalized Flat Note Cards Designed by Ann Tuck


When we moved into our house, our new next-door neighbor came and introduced herself and handed me a beautiful flat note card with her name embossed on the top. “Welcome to the neighborhood…” and her contact information were written on it in beautiful cursive.   I remember thinking how elegant that was, and I still have the card after all of these years even though her number has been programmed in our phone all this time.   She, of course, turned out to be the best next door neighbor anyone could have.

Her card inspired me to make note cards of my own and, even though most of us don't sit down and write letters the way we used to, I found them to be very handy as a nice way to write a quick hand-written note to a teacher, a thank you note, or a card enclosed with a gift.  Then I realized what a nice gift they would make—something that would actually be useful, and wouldn’t take up much space in the house.  Instead of making batches of fattening cookies to give to neighbors and friends during the holidays, I order a big stack of these note cards and personalize them for friends at home with my printer and they’ve always been a big hit.  At the end of the school year, I give a set to our children’s teachers because I know they can always use some personalized cards to send a quick note home to parents.  They would make great Mother’s day or bridesmaid gifts too.

Now my note card designs are available online to be shipped to you with your name on them--Just expand the “Personalize It” field to the left of the note card and enter your name and you can see how it will look.  There is a nice selection of papers to choose from, but I find that the “Basic” paper choice looks great.  (See my full tutorial showing how easy it is to personalize these on Zazzle HERE)



Technical Stuff:
If you’d like to customize your name with a different font or color, just click the orange “Customize” button under the note card.  (Tip: to raise or lower the name by small amounts, hold down Ctrl while you click the up and down arrows). 



Bulk Printing for the Holidays:

If you would like to do like I do during the holidays and personalize a bunch of note cards yourself at home (they are cheaper bought in bulk), just order some cards with no name.  I've provided name templates for lining things up correctly and a practice print guide that you can use to make sure that you get things right before printing on the real thing.

See below for instructions:


A stack of blank note cards to be personalized at home for gifts.



Instructions:

These are instructions for printing names on a batch of blank note cards to give as gifts during the holiday season. If you only have a few names to print, it is much easier to just order the cards with the name already printed on them. If you have several people that you want to give cards to though, it's less expensive to buy blank cards in bulk and print the names yourself.

Once you set up printing for your note cards, all of the personalization will be a breeze and you can use the name template for another batch next year as well. I suggest not doing that the night before you want to give your cards out though because sometimes the process is a little frustrating. You may even want to experiment with these print guides before you order.

1.  Print out the print guide I provided.  Make sure that no scaling is selected (make sure that the practice cards measure 4.25" by 5.5" after printing)












2.  Cut out the practice cards.



















3. For most printers, you will load the card upside-down.













4. Adjust the paper guides to fit the card size.












5. Open the Name Template that I provided.  Select the text box and type in the name (I suggest trying the longest name first).


















6.  Try printing the name on the practice card and see how it looks.  Select the text box (at the edge, not the sizing boxes) and move up or down as needed.  It may help to change the font or size to make a better fit.  If you need to try again, just print again on the same card because it may take a few tries.  When you think you have it right, try again on a blank practice card.  Make sure to save your Name Guide—now each name should be easy to print.  Save the guide to use next year for another batch of gift note cards.



          






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice work...very artistic :-)

Sammy