This tutorial will guide you through how to make postcards using Creative Fabrica and Canva
Postcards have been around since the late 1800s. They started life as being plain both front and back with a stamp that was preprinted on them. They quickly became popular and they started to circulate with images on the front, such as buildings, trains, people, the seaside and even became quite saucy at one point. Typically rectangular and only printed on one side postcards are a great addition to your stationery business, or for you to design and send to family and friends on a personal level. So with Easter fast approaching this is the perfect time to get designing and making some postcards to add to your collection.
I started this by choosing a design I really liked the look of in Creative Fabrica. They have lots of variety and choice so I’m sure you will find something to suit your design style.
After downloading the images and extracting them to my PC, I then went to Canva to create my design. I always make my postcards with the dimensions of 10.5 cm by 14.8 cm. You will see this option in the right-hand corner of the computer screen.
Once in Canva on the left-hand side of the computer screen, there will be an upload media button in the uploads option.
Canva then asks where you would like to upload the images from. Mine are stored on my Windows PC so I selected the device option.
All of my files then popped up so I selected the desired folder.
Hold down the shift key on the keyboard and click all the images that you would like to use. Then press open. This will upload all the selected images into Canva in one attempt, saving you a lot of time and effort.
Now you will see all the images you selected from your pc in the panel on the left-hand side of your screen.
Decide which images you would like to use. Let your imagination run wild and inject your own personality into your postcards. This is time to really have a good play around with all the images you have. I decided to use these two images to start with. Click the image and use any corner to drag and resize the image.
I felt they were lacking something so I decided to add a little something extra using the Canva elements, found again on the left-hand side of the screen. I then selected the free option filter (orange circle) and found some grass. If you do not like any of those images go back to Creative Fabrica and take another look for some more, repeating the same process as before.
I resized the grass and had to use the same image three times to get the desired effect. Now I want to change the background colour so click the centre of the card and this will select the whole of the background.
Again on the left side of Canva, you will see a colour wheel (1). Click this and it shows colour options. I chose the pink option (2) but wanted it to be slightly lighter so went back to the colour wheel (3).
After a few seconds of moving the mouse, I decided on this pink colour. This colour option was #FFE8F0. This was the result and I thought it suited the Easter theme.
My own design style is quite simple so not wanting to overload the postcard now it’s now time to add some text. On the left side of Canva select the text option, then select add a subheading. Click the dropdown option to select your text option.
I selected Moontime for my postcard with a shadow effect. You can have some real fun with the fonts on Canva, such as curving text, shadow text, neon text and much more, so this is the time to really let your imagination run wild. You can also click the add and minus button for the font size or again you can simply drag the corners of the text box to your desired size.
If you are happy to stop here then you are ready to print and cut your postcard. You will find the available options in the right-hand corner of the Canva page. Click the Download button and the file types will pop up. I usually select the PDF print option.
This is the finished result. Why not make a selection of them and get them sent out to your family and friends? Get some feedback on them and then add them to your stationery business. They really are a great addition to a small business as they are quick and easy to make once you have your desired images and they are so versatile. Have a look around on marketplaces to see what is trending and get some ideas from there, but avoid copying as you will not sell many and people like to see original fresh ideas. There is always a place for postcards and lots of different occasions that they can be made for, or even just to say hi!
These postcards were made with images from Erabza on Creative Fabrica and also Canva.
Have fun!
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