How to Create Greeting Cards

Have you ever thought about making your own greeting cards? They’re a great, entry-level design project that are easy to sell.  

Today I’ll walk you through the process of creating custom greeting cards that are ready for sale! Once you complete this project, you can sell them in local shops and online, or pitch them to companies that could license your designs.

How to Create Greeting Cards

​1. Coming up with a great card idea

First, you’ll come up with the concept of your card. Starting with a category of special occasions can help; focusing only on birthday cards or graduation cards, for example, can make brainstorming feel simpler.

I also recommend deciding on the tone during this step. Are you aiming for humorous, sentimental, or a mix of the two? What best fits your brand?

2. Sketch, illustrate, and letter your card

Now it's time for the fun part! Start working on your original artwork that will decorate your card. Try sketching your design, practice different types of lettering, and more.  

Remember, your design doesn’t have to be perfect from the start. Exploring different ideas and versions can help you find a design that fits your Signature Style. 

3. Choosing great colors and final details

Now that you've developed your designs, the next step is to try out different color schemes, fonts, and more to create variations of your card and find your personal favorite.

Don’t get stuck in this phase! If you find something you’re happy with, run with it!

4. Lay out your entire card in Procreate

​After you've developed your ideal design, make it official by laying it all out in Procreate. This is the part where you really get to see your vision come to life!

5. Print your cards at home or online

​The last step of making custom greeting cards is to print the final product. If you have a printer at home that takes card stock, glossy paper, or whatever style of paper you've chosen, you can absolutely print them at home. 

There's also custom greeting card printing options online, if you want especially vibrant colors and your ideal type of paper for greeting cards. 

Conclusion

Now that you know how to make greeting cards, you can really run with it! If you enjoyed the process, you can work on finding places that will sell your cards (or sell them yourself!). Keep creating cards and see where the road takes you! 

The main thing I’d advise is that you make sure the cards all fit your Signature Style. You can even create collections that match each other if you’d like, or let your mind go wild with other paper products!

For more money-making ideas, keep up to date with my blog– I’m always sharing tips and tricks that can help you grow your artistic empire.