Make Your Own Happy Halloween Cards

Why send generic cards? These days it is incredibly easy to create or customize greeting cards online in minutes for virtually any occasion, including Halloween. This page will show you three ways you can create Happy Halloween cards with your own personal flair. Create digital cards you can email or save to DVD, customize traditional cards that are professionally printed and mailed to you, or create your own printable cards right from your computer. Each method has its pros and cons, but all with give you great-looking personalized cards to send to your family and friends to celebrate the spookiest night of the year.

Make cards you can print or send with your own photos and text

Smilebox is one of my favorite sites because they offer the ability to create wonderful e-cards that you can personalize with your own photos and text. Here are some of the many designs they offer for Halloween. All of their electronic designs are available in a free (ad-supported) version that you can email to friends and family or post online and a premium ad-free version for only $2.99 that allows you to also print your creation, save it and burn it to DVD. You can pick your design, add your photos and customize the text within minutes from home. No waiting required!

The images on the right show just a few of the Smilebox designs available.

Digital cards feature your photos

Another site that lets you create personalized Halloween cards and videos using your own photos is JibJab.

At JibJab, you simply upload photos of your face or those of your friends and family and add them to funny video greetings or ecards.

The process is similar to the very popular Elf Yourself site, but instead of dancing elves, you can find a selection of wacky Halloween choices here, so you can become part of the Monster Mash, Zombie Party, Ghoulblasters (a spoof of Ghostbusters) and other spooky videos or ecards.

Some options are free, while others are available only to members ($1/month with a risk-free trial). They have cards and videos for all occasions, so search for Halloween to find the devilishly fun greetings for this holiday.

Zazzle is a great place to shop for Halloween cards because you can personalize virtually anything you find here. They have plenty of great designs you can buy without making any changes at all, but if you want to create your own personal card, you simply need to find a design you like and then look for the Customize It button below the image (See the Customize It button next to the arrow in the screenshot at right).

Here are just a few of the hundreds of designs you can find and customize on Zazzle. There are no minimum orders, so you can order as few or as many cards as you like. Zazzle will then print and send your personalized cards directly to you. You can also often find matching postage stamps or create your own to make your card even more festive!

Free templates for printing your own cards at home

You can also create your own "Happy Halloween!" cards at home using free templates you can find online. There's no charge for these services, and no waiting. You do everything yourself. Here are a few sites that offer printable cards.

Halloween cards at HP.com - Offers four different half-fold designs.

Halloween cards at GotFreeCards.com - Over 25 designs you can download and print from your own computer

Trick-or-Treat Ghosts Halloween card at Epson - This site has several projects, but the navigation isn't very good. This link will take you to a cute template for a card with ghosts, and from there you can earch for other Halloween cards.

Trick or Treat Halloween card at Microsoft - This download will work with MS Word 2003 or newer. Like the Epson site, you can find others here, but you'll have to search.

Amazon is a great place to shop for virtually anything, including Halloween cards.