Make Baby Photo Thank You Cards

These baby photo thank you cards are actually quite simple to make. Start with a thank you template, add some decorative paper, a baby photo and a little embellishment and you've got yourself a super cute card!

Tools used to make these baby photo thank you cards:
Cardstock or blank printable cards
decorative paper
baby picture (digital camera pic recommended)
paper punch (in this case heart shaped)

Step One: Getting the printed words on the cards. There are a couple ways to accomplish this feat - You can:

A: set up this thank you card text as a 2-up lay-out (or two cards to a page) using a desktop publishing software. If you're not picky about the font you can even print out a free 2-up layout from this site.
If you choose to go with a 2-up layout than once you have printed these onto a chosen cardstock you will need to have them cut in half to create two seperate cards. The easy way out would be to bring them to a local copy or print shop equipped with a hydraulic paper cutter and pay to have them cut for you. It is relatively cheap, definetly easy, and guaranteed to give you a perfect cut.
Otherwise you can cut them in half yourself using a good personal hand cutter. I, myself go for the hand cutter everytime unless I am making a very large quantity of cards, or if the card requires an extra complicated or tedious cut.

On to plan B: If you are using a blank printable card, or pre-cut cardstock, you can use desktop publishing or word processing software. Print directly onto the card and simply fold in half.
If you are using a word processor you will go to Document setup or Page setup then select the document's size to be that of the size of your paper. Make sure you choose the orientation as landscape.
Next choose Format > > Columns . A new window will open. Choose to have 2 columns with a space between them the same size as the margins on the sides of the document (usually 1"). Just enter the "Thank You" text into the right hand column at the top and center it. Viola!

Step Two: Decorative paper! Choose a decorative paper to offset your baby photo. This can be any kind of paper. Wrapping paper, plain construction paper, you could even choose to use fabric to add a little texture to the thank you cards. I like to use scrapbooking background paper the best. It is relatively inexpensive (especially when you find the sales! :) and it comes in a HUGE variety of different patterns and textures.
Cut the paper into squares. They can be as big or small as you want but your picture should fit inside of the square with a good bit of space around it. I cut mine sized at 3 1/2" by 3 1/2".

To make this step a good deal easier try making boxes in a wordprocessing or DTP document at the same size as you want to cut. Print it onto the back of the decorative paper and then use a good hand paper cutter to cut them all out.

Step Three: Baby Photo's! If you want to you can use actual photo prints for these thank you cards. I'm sure the recipients will be quite happy. But they will come out just as nice if you manipulate a digital camera picture and then print it onto plain white printer paper.
Most digital cameras have photo manipulation software that come with them. You can use this software to crop a photo close so you get only the area of the picture you want to see (as I have done in the photo in my card). Another good software to use for this sort of thing is Adobe Photoshop. You can download some software just like it for free on the web - go here

Crop the photo and try to copy and paste it, or duplicate it, so that you can print it as many times as possible onto one page. If not it is perfectly fine to print it as many times as you need to but will be a waste of paper of course. Next use your hand cutter to cut these baby pictures out so that they are cut perfectly straight to the edge.

* Keep in mind that if you are printing and cutting a 2-up format card that it is easiest to have all of your papers (including the baby photos) cut for you on a hydraulic cutter. It will save ALOT of time and hassle. You can even have your baby photo color coppied while your at it. The color copiers have a function to duplicate the picture many times on a page.

Step Four: Paper punch embellishments! I used two different sized heart shaped paper punches, but you can use any shape you want. I punched them out of two different colored papers.

Step Five: Assemble It! For the final step just use a good glue stick to put it all together. You definetly want to use a glue stick as opposed to craft glue, as craft glue is too heavy and will warp the card.
Start by attatching the decorative paper square centered towards the lower half of the card. Next attatch the baby photo to the upper right hand corner of the decorative paper leaving a small margin of decorative paper around the outer edge.
Lastly, attach the paper punch shapes arranged facing in all directions overlapping the edges where the photo meets the decorative paper.

More tips for making baby photo thank you cards

* Try to match all of the thank you cards colors to the photo you attatch to the front. For example, if you look closely at what the baby in my card is wearing, you will notice the colors of her sleeper match the colors on the card. This really makes the whole look and feel of the card.

* Switch things up! Change it to a boy themed card by using blue cardstock and boy themed decorative paper. Instead of heart paper punches try using a frog shape or something else boy themed.

* I like to use this as a baby gift thank you card but you can make it a birthday gift thank you card by using a picture of the birthday boy or girl blowing out the candles!

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