Sending greetings cards via the post is a traditional and very useful way of communicating with loved ones to convey our feelings. We love to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries etc. as these are such important events in our life’s journey. We used to buy cards in bookstores or in the school-supply section of the shopping mall for that special card.

Nowadays, with the invention of the computer and the ubiquitous availability of the internet we can make our own greeting cards with our own special touch. We are all artists now! Thanks to Bill Gates.

It is easy to personalise a greeting card at home using the internet, a printer and photo paper/special paper:

1. Go to the web search engine of your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and type-in “occasion + picture”. Once you have chosen a picture, just press the right side of your mouse and click the “save image as” that will take you to a destination link i.e. desktop, document, picture etc. and if possible, rename the picture before saving it.
2. Open the Microsoft Office Word on your desktop and search for “File” and click “Page Set-up”. The page set-up consists of three columns namely: Margins, Paper and Layout. Go to “Margins”, change all the margin values to “1” (from top-bottom and from left - right) and choose either portrait or landscape orientation for your card(s). And then, go to “Paper” to change the preferred paper size and don’t forget to write down the measurement of your paper’s width and height. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
3. Look for the tab “Insert” located on the top-left portion of your Microsoft Office Word and go to “Picture” and click “From File” to search for the saved picture (refer to step 1). Click “Insert” to transfer the picture in your Word document.
4. Using your mouse, point the cursor at the picture and press the right side of the mouse and click, “Format Picture”. The format picture consists of colors and lines, size, layout, picture, text box and web. Go to “Layout” and select “Behind text” so that you can move the picture from left to right if you select landscape or from top to bottom if you set-up your paper/Word as portrait. There is an instance that the size of the picture is larger than the size of the paper and in this case, adjusts the picture until it fits to the paper/Word document. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
5. As we are making a folded card we need to find the center of the paper so you know where to place the fold. To outline the center of the paper, use this formula, C=TW-2÷2; C for Center, TW for Total Width, -2 for the margins (Landscape, from left to right and Portrait, from Top to Bottom) and the ÷2 for the crosswise boundary.
6. If you have calculated the center of the paper, adjust the picture in your Word document until it gets to the center. Once it is accurately moved, adjust again the top (if you are using portrait) by simply deducting -1 or adjust the left-side (if you are using landscape) by simply deducting -1. The -1 (subtrahend 1) is your space provided on the top or on the left-side of your paper once you fold the finish product into crosswise or a greeting cards’ folding.
7. To add words and make it a much personalised card, click “Insert WordArt Gallery” located at the bottom-left of the Word and choose your own style. If you have selected your own style just click “OK” button to go to “Edit WordArt Text”, in which you can choose your font- type and size. Click “OK” button and the personalised greetings is transferred in your Word document.
8. Point the cursor of your mouse to the personalised greetings, then press the right side of your mouse and click “Format Word Art” that will show you “Layout”, then select “Behind text”. Click “OK” button to save changes.
9. You can use your mouse or the cursors in your keyboard to move the personalised greetings from one side to another. If the greetings is long enough in your card, adjust it by simply moving the cursor of your mouse to the white-shaded dots. The green-shaded dot’s main function is to rotate the text up to 360º.
10. Turn-on your printer and place your photo paper. Just make sure that the glossy side of the photo paper is facing you.
11. Go to “File” tab again, search and click for “Print”. Once you have the “Print” interface, click “Properties” and select “Photo” as your quality image and change the paper’s “Type and Size” according to your paper. Click “OK” button to save all of the changes.
12. From your “Print” interface, go to “Pages” and type the page number of your greeting card. Click “OK” button to start the printing process of it.
13. If the finish product is printed already don’t touch the image and text to avoid damages or let it dry for 5-10 minutes in a safe place.
14. Once it is totally dry, fold your paper into crosswise or like a greeting cards’ folding.

The combined power of computers and internet is not just for one good purpose- communication. As it is also a tool to discover the creative side of us.