Sure, you can use clip art or photos “as is” but for that extra touch, consider a little editing. You don’t even have to be an expert with graphics software to turn canned clip art into custom creations for your greeting card.

This is Lesson 5 in the 9-Day Create a Greeting Card Class. If you did not receive or lost a previous lesson, retrieve it here: Missing Lessons

Definitions
Edit, Resize, Recolor
There are dozens of ways to modify graphics. We’ll tackle just a few.

Instruction
Simple Editing
In this lesson I’ll show you how the images selected for Grandma Baker’s greeting card can be easily edited to make three almost similar images look as if they are part of a matched set.

Assignment
Play With Your Graphics
Spend today learning some of the ways you can manipulate simple graphics in your software. Not all programs have the same features, but at the very least you should be able to resize, and possibly recolor, rotate or flip your graphics. Try it!

DTP Classroom
Come on into the forum to discuss the graphics tools in your page layout software or how to use other graphics software you own.

Definitions
What is a Graphic?
In addition to the basic definitions for graphics, clip art, and graphics style, explore the expanded definitions for Clip Art, Border, Dingbat, Downrule, End Sign, Graph, Lines, and Rule.

Instruction
A Matter of Style
In addition to sources for graphics, this lesson looks at how to mix and match multiple pieces of clip art or other images. Be sure to examine the images linked in the last few paragraphs of this lesson.

Assignment
Find Your Image
Take as long as you need to go through the clip art and photos that came with your software or other image collections you own. Find the graphics you want to use on your greeting card. Keep graphics style in mind. Don’t miss the exercise included near the end of this lesson.

DTP Classroom
Have questions about where to find the best clip art collections? Ask in the classroom forum.

Related Tutorials & Resources of Interest
Images for Desktop Publishing
Looking for more sources for clip art and photos for your greeting card and other projects? Start here. You’ll also find tutorials on how to pick the right pictures and how to place pictures into desktop publishing software.

Definitions
Orientation and Folds
In addition to the definitons for document setup, portrait and landscape orientation, and imposition I encourage you to check out the bonus material with expanded definitions and information on Margins, Crossfolds, and Imposition and Printer’s Spreads.Instruction
Setting Up Your Document
Some programs will have templates that do all the initial set up for you. If not, here are a couple of basic layouts to get you started.

Instruction
Setting Up Your Document
Some programs will have templates that do all the initial set up for you. If not, here are a couple of basic layouts to get you started.

Assignment
What Does Your Software Offer?
Today your assignment is to find out how many ways your software offers for setting up a basic greeting card. Spend time learning how to change the setup to suit you.

There’s a quick exercise/test associated with this assignment to help you visualize how to fold a card so all the “pages” are in order.

DTP Classroom
Some software programs do all the imposition work for you, especially on simple projects such as greeting cards. Whether yours does or not, hop on over to the forum to ask any questions you may have about imposition. And if you need help selecting a layout or setting up a greeting card in your specific software, post an inquiry and others familiar with your software will try to help.