Free Card Making Programs

From LoveToKnow Crafts

If you enjoy using your computer to make your own greeting cards, you may find yourself searching for free card making programs. While free card making software is rather rare, there are several sites offering templates and free trial offers that you can use to design your own cards.

It's easy to use your computer to make handmade greeting cards.

Free Card Making Programs Online

Finding free card making programs can be a complicated task, since freeware is sometimes used as a host for spyware or malware. Whenever you're searching for software for your computer, it's best to stick to free card making programs from well-known companies and read the terms of use carefully.

If you're looking for free programs for making greeting cards, LoveToKnow Crafts suggests the following resources:

Avery Wizard makes it easy to design and print greeting cards using your favorite Avery stationery products. Extra clip art and templates are also available from the site.
Kodak Easy Share Software is primarily intended to help you manage your digital photos, but free card making templates are also available for this program so you can turn your favorite images into customized cards for family and friends.
Page Plus is an amazing free desktop publishing program that lets you design greeting cards as well as brochures, fliers, newsletters, and other documents. The basic version of the program is free, or you can choose to upgrade to the premium software by paying a small fee.
Scribus is an open-source version of the desktop publishing software used by professional graphic designers. Learning how to create your own cards in this program will require some time, but the results can be well worth the extra effort.

Card Making Templates for Microsoft Word

While most people associate Microsoft Word with basic word processing functions, this software can actually be used to design your own greeting cards. Free templates that can be customized to fit your project can found by visiting the following Web sites:

Microsoft Office Online is the best resource for finding free greeting card templates to use with Microsoft Word. A number of styles are available and the site is very easy to navigate.
Southworth has free templates covering a variety of themes, including birthday, anniversary, and graduation cards.
World Win Papers has blank templates you can download to show you how to make your own greeting cards in various sizes.

Free Trial Offers

Obviously, the most sophisticated greeting card makers are those that are commercially available. However, choosing which program to buy can be a difficult decision. Therefore, it's best to download a few free trial offers to see which software fits your needs. For example:

Greeting Card Studio 1.41 from AMS Software offers Windows users professionally designed templates and attractive graphics for all of the most common card themes and styles.
Belltech System's Greeting Card Designer 5.3 lets Windows users make unique cards that incorporate their family photos.
Art Explosion Greeting Card Factory 1.0.2 offers Mac OS X users more than 3,000 exclusive greeting cards, 45,000 graphics, 500 color photographs, and 300 fonts for an almost limitless number of projects.

Embellishing Printed Greeting Cards

While it's fine to simply print out the design of your choice on regular computer paper, there are a number of simple tricks you can use to when printing computer-generated cards to give them a distinct appearance. Here are a few ideas to try for your next project:

Use textured cardstock found in the scrapbooking section of your local craft store to print out your design.
Punch small holes along the side of your card, then add a festive ribbon bow.
Add swirls, dots, and small sparkles to the design using a glitter glue pen.

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