How to make your own photo greeting card – in MS Paint!

Here are some simple ways to make your own greeting card by editing your photo in Microsoft Paint.  I made a halloween Greeting, a vacation momento, and a photo card for Birthday Thank Yous in just a few minutes.  Photo greeting cards often cost $.60-$1.00 each.  If you make your own, you can order them for the cost of a 4×6 or 5×7 print.  And since there are lots of Free Prints Offers right now, you can get yours free!

I recommend cropping your photo to your desired size first.  I do this in Windows Photo Gallery.  Some companies will automatically crop your photos when you order them, and if you haven't done it beforehand, your text may be affected, and any borders definitely will.

Once you've sized your photo, open it in Microsoft Paint.  Here are a few fun ideas to add.

To add a speech bubble:

• Under shapes, pick the speech or thought bubble.
• Create the shape, then select a fill.  I used the natural pencil fill for the birthday thank yous
• Under tools, click on the A to create a text box.  Create the text box on top of your speech bubble.  Add your text, adjust size, color, and font as desired.  Make sure the background of the text box is transparent.

To create a border:

• Under shapes, select the rectangle, or the rounded edge rectangle.
• Create your shape around the photo, leaving a small border outside the shape if desired.
• For the Halloween Greeting, I just added the text in a text box in the white space of the sky.

To create an arrow:

• Choose which direction you want your arrow to go and select the appropriate arrow under “shapes”.
• Select a fill, if desired.
• Under tools, click on the A to create a text box.  Create the text box on top of your speech bubble.  Add your text, adjust size, color, and font as desired.  Make sure the background of the text box is transparent.

Do “Save As” so you can keep your original photo, and upload your edited photo to your photo processing site.  Order as many photo greetings as you need, and save!

Does anyone have any other fun ideas for fixing up a photo into a photo card?