Create and Use a Greeting Card Template in Procreate

1. Intro: Hi, I'm Kimberly, and I'm very excited to bring you this class. We're gonna create and use a greeting card template using Procreate. I've created many homemade greeting cards throughout the years since. I've absolutely loved Procreate. And I've been using Procreate for the last couple of years. I wanted to incorporate procreate into my homemade greeting cards. Although we'll be using 8.5 by 11 inch, its form for our templates. I'll provide an A4 size form for those that want to work along using a metric guide. This is for you if you love creating homemade greeting cards, and if you're a last minute kind of person, if you love to start selling digital or even physical greeting cards. If you ever even thought about selling a template for others to create their own greeting cards and procreate. This is definitely for you regarding to create our greeting card using an 8.5 by 11 inch guide. Our Baikal design will create a 5.5 by 8.5 inch size card. I'll show you a similar size by phone, with the end card being sized at five by seven. Then we'll go another step and create a quarter photo greeting card that will have a finished size, a foreigner quarter by 5.5. Once it's folded. Once we create our greeting card templates, we'll work up some greeting cards using pre-made designs that I already had. This way you can see how to use the templates you just created. Then I'll show you how to create a set of instructions that can be used with your templates. Should you want to start selling your template online. We'll also go over some instructions that should go along with your digital greeting card files. If you would like to start selling those as well. We'll be using the iPad, the Procreate app, and an Apple pencil. But you can use a stylus or your finger. If you're ready. Let's get started. 2. Class Project : For the class project, I would love to see your bifolio template along with the finished card showcasing your new template. I'll then show you step-by-step instructions for your quarter folded design template. This will be a great time to showcase a quarter folded card. I can't wait to see what you come up with if you happen to take the next step by posting your greeting card digital files or your greeting card template for sale online. I'd love to see what you created. Make sure you post it in the project section of this class. The rest of us can check it out. Up next, we'll talk about free resources that are supplied for this class. 3. Free Resources : In this lesson, we'll talk about the free resources I created for this class. You'll find them on the Skillshare website under the projects and resources section, rather than on the Skillshare app. I supply you with an 8.5 by 11 inch guide to help get your bio fold and quarter folded card template started. We'll be using an 8.5 by 11 inch document. I also supplied an A4 guide for those who want to work along using a metric template instead, I also included a checklist of things you should include if you want to create your very own template to sell online for others to use, as well as a checklist if you want to take your creations a step further by selling digital files of your created greeting cards online. Up next, we'll talk about considering the envelope before we start creating and using our greeting card template. 4. Consider the Envelope : In this lesson, we'll talk about considering the envelope before we start creating the greeting card template. I wanted to bring this up because I wanted to let you know some greeting card envelopes sizes for you to consider when creating your greeting cards and your greeting card template. I'm based in the US, so everything is gonna be based on inches. If you are in a metric country, you might have to do a little research and finding what are common envelope sizes in your country. Here are some common us envelope sizes. An a2 will use this envelope for four and a quarter by 5.5 inch card. This will be our quarter folded greeting card, an A7. This is used for a finished card, a five by seven A9. This is perfect for our 5.5 by 8.5 inch card. Being aware of some common envelope sizes, it's beneficial for yourself as well as an end-user, one creating a template and a greeting card size, you want to make sure that you yourself can find an envelope as well as an end-user. Up next, we'll start creating our bifocal design template. 5. Bifold Design Template: In this lesson, we'll create our Biodesign greeting card template, which will be used to create a 5.5 by 8.5 in size greeting card. Tap Import, import, the 8.5 by 11 inch guide into Procreate relabel. Make sure you label as you go. This makes the file more organized and easy to find which layer you need to be on. Pick a color. Make sure you use a monoline brush. Add a layer above the guide. We're starting at the 5.5, drawing across and filling. Add another layer. You can hand-write or you can use text to label this as cover. I'm just repositioning in the center. Now we're going to group these two layers together and rename. We're going to label it as cover. Add a layer above the Cover Group. Label it, insert here. Now let's group these and rename them cover. We're going to duplicate this group. Change the text to inside. Rename the group to inside. Turn the guide off. We're going to rename this group to inside. Up. Next, we'll talk about getting our template ready to sell. 6. Ready Template to Sell: In this lesson, we'll take the green card template that we just created and get it ready to sell by some instructions and getting the file ready. Now, I'm going to show you an example of instructions. Should you actually want to create a Procreate file template to sell in your online shop. Starting off with instructions, we're going to reposition this to the top center. I'm going to add a layer beneath and fill it with a color. I'm using white, grouping them and renaming them. We're going to want to get rid of the guide. I'm flagging my layers. There's less layers. I'm making sure I relabeled these. I'm going to highlight, Insert here layer. Then I'm going to take a screenshot. Now I'm going to do the same for the inside. I'm going to highlight Insert here and take a screenshot, will be using these for the instructions. Now I'm going to import the screenshots that I just took. Make sure I add them in the instructions group. You're going to add the other photo. You can position these however you want. You just want to make sure you have enough room to add some clear instructions. We're going to add some type, letting the end-user know where they need to insert their photos, what layers will need to be checked off? I'm just repositioning. Getting the right layout may take a little bit of time. That's why you definitely want to keep an original file in case you have to come back for any reason in case you miss something. This is just an example of what I added. You can use these instructions for yourself when you're creating your greeting cards, as well as the template itself. You also want to make sure that the end-user knows that they need to save each page separately as a JPEG or PDF. Wherever they can find these options. Just repositioning. Now I'm just going to duplicate that. Move it next to the inside photo. I will have to go back and change some wording. Because for this we want to make sure they have the cover checked off as well. The instructions. Here's an example of what I added for the inside instructions. I'm just finishing typing this out. Now. I'm keeping the pictures with their instructions together so that way I can move accordingly. I've included a checklist with some suggestions on what to add with these two instructions. You'll find it in the projects and resources section. Then don't forget to add your information as well as a thank you. Makes it a little personal. If you have a logo, you can add it here, your website, any information that they can find you online. I'm just going to add thank you in my name for right now. You can use this, keep this as this, or we can even add a screenshot. How and where they can find the JPEG PDF options. We do a screenshot and add instructions just like we did with the inside and the cover above. The insertive position. It I'm just trying to resize it roughly about the same. You can also add some folding and size instructions as well. Here's an example of what I used for my saving instructions. I personally prefer to save my greeting card files as PDFs. Now that you have it pretty much where you want to save a copy, we're going to duplicate the file. Because we're going to want to flatten these instructions and label them. It's less layers for the end user as well as yourself when you're creating your greeting card. Here's another example of instructions that I've actually used with my greeting card templates. Remember to purge your time-lapse video before saving it as a procreate file to sell. You can do this by going under the wrench icon video and slide the time-lapse recording to the left. Add your name and photo to the template. You can do this by going to the Actions menu. This is a wrench icon, top-left tab on Canvas. Then at the bottom canvas information. Make sure it's the one about this artwork. You can sign it or just plug-in your name. Then add a photo. Then we'll save it as appropriate file. Go to the Wrench icon, go to Share, then tap Procreate. Remember to label as precise as possible. This helps the end-user find it once it's downloaded. Up. Next, we'll create our by folded greeting card using the template we just created. 7. Bifolded Greeting Card: In this lesson, we'll create a greeting card using our previously created by full design template. I'll do this by importing some previously created designs. And I'll show you how to actually save the finished greeting card so that way it can be exported and printed. Now we're just going to use our template that we just created. I'm just importing a design I had already created and move it into position. Add your design to the insert here layer or above it. Make sure you stay within the cover placement area. From just adding some text and positioning. We've got to make sure we check that layer also does not show when we save and print. If you're using your greeting card designs to sell online, make sure the font that you are using has a commercial license. Some fonts don't automatically come with commercial use licenses. Just typing out a saying here. Make sure it is moved in place. And you want to save each layer separately and use the top part of your Sarah image when you choose a PDF. Not want all the layers saved when you are exporting this. You definitely want to choose best quality because you will be printing this. You're going to want to label and habit in a folder that you can easily find. Make sure each page inside is saved separately, labeled accordingly. If you've never printed on the backside of a piece of paper before using your printer. Just pay attention on how it comes out of your printer. Because you are going to want to know that placement when you're reinserting your paper again, put that in with my printer. I have to insert my cover face up. Since it was actually printed face up, my printer flips the paper inside the machine. You can see that it is printed out. Let me show you. All we do for the Beauford design is just fold in half. Just like this. Here's the outside. Here's the inside. Now that we created and used our first greeting card template, I would love to see your by folded greeting card in the project section of this class. Next, we'll create a before to design with a size adjustment template. 8. Bifold Design with Size Adjustment Template : In this lesson, we'll create an adjusted size by full greeting card template. We'll do this by creating a seven by ten inside an 8.5 by 11 inch sized form. This way, we can create a five by seven inch greeting card. We're going to use our 8.5 by 11 inch guide. Again for our adjusted size greeting card template, we're going to create a seven by ten inch form. By folate will give us a seven by five inch greeting card. You want the five inch mark? The 10-inch. You want to fill a rectangle like this. We're going to label this like we previously done. Gonna label this one cover. Again, we're gonna make sure the layers are labeled. We're going to group them at a layer inside the group above the text that says insert here. This gives your end-user as well as yourself someplace to start when you're adding your design. We're going to label it cover, duplicate, and change covered two inside now, since it's gonna be trimmed after it's printed, the inside actually has to be positioned differently than the cover setting. This work gets a little bit confusing, but I'll show you in the end result why it has to be that way. So I'm just sliding it down to the very edge. Now if your printer is different than mine, you're still going to want to position this here because the finished side is still going to be ten by seven. We're going to trim an inch off the very bottom. So basically this is what your form will look like before we trim off the excess will be cutting an inch out the bottom and an inch off the right side. If you were looking at the cover face on if we were to turn this page, like return a page in a book. Here, we're looking at the backside as if we could see through the sheet of paper are inside print. Would it be at the top of your paper once it's flipped over? This way, we are now looking at the backside, upside down once we turn the inside image around. So you are looking at the inside, quote, face on into position where it needs to be. You're going to have the quote all the way at the bottom of the page, even after return the top. And the side. Here is a side-by-side example of the cover, where we trim the bottom and the side where you have the image in place using the template. And here is the inside side-by-side of wherever it will be trimming the side and the top when you're looking at the inside face on the template showing that the inside quote is right where it needs to be. You'll be able to see this visually in the next lesson when we create a greeting card and trim it offline. Up. Next, we'll create an adjusted by folded greeting card. 9. Adjusted Sized Bifold Greeting Card: In this lesson, we'll create an adjusted size greeting card, which will give us a five by seven inch greeting card. Now we're going to use the template we just created to create adjusted size greeting card. I'm going to do this with a pre-existing design that I had already created. Greeting cards are great repurpose idea for all the artwork that you work so hard in creating. I'm going to want to turn the grass off that. I'm just moving this in place over top of my cover placement image. I just want to reposition so I can have room to add some type. Moving it in position, still inside my cover placement area. Make sure I turn off the cover layer. I want to clean this up a little bit by erasing some of the grass. My printer has some limitations, so I try to stay away from bleeding off the side of my greeting card. Otherwise, my printer is going to give me a border that I don't want, which is a reason I removed most of the grass on this fox image. I'm going to print this directly to my printer. I'm going to choose PDF. Here's where you can choose to save it directly to your files or printed. I'm going to repeat the same steps for the inside. We're going to turn off the inside placement layer. Once we have our inside text positioned where you want it to be. I already have my paper with my cover on it, already flipped over and reinsert it into my printer because that's what it requires in order to print on the backside. I'm going to choose PDF again. Best. Then print. Or you can choose to save it. I already have my cover page flipped over inside my printer because that's what my printer requires when I need to print on the backside. Now I'm going to trim an inch off the bottom and the side. The backside is where it needs to be. We're going to measure out seven. I'm using. But you can certainly use a pair of scissors. We want to trim the bottom, so we want to measure 107 by ten. In this paper is 20 pound paper. You may want to use 24 pound or a card stock if your printer can handle it. This will help with show through. Up. Next, we'll create our quarter voted design template. 10. Quarter-Folded Design Template: In this lesson, we'll be creating a quarter folded greeting card template. We're still using the 8.5 by 11 inch size template, but we're going to quarter it off so that way the finished size card will be four and a quarter by 5.5 inches. Just like we do with the other two templates. We're going to draw this out. Starting at the 5.5 inch. Doing the bottom-right corner. I will duplicate it. We're going to label it hover. Want to group these? Label them, cover bottom-right. Move the second layer up to the top-left, and we're going to have to flip the text upside down. You can do this by grabbing the Move tool and rotating it 45 degrees, four times until it's in place. This is crucial. So when you refold it will be folding it in 1.5th, then in half again. Now I'm just grouping, re-labeling to inside, top-left, upside down. I'm gonna remove the guide. I'm going to add instructions just like I previously done. Getting our template ready to sell lesson. Emerging down, I'm renaming, adding my insert cover here, highlighting the insert here layers, and taking screenshots. So I can prepare my instructions for this template. Going to flat in my instructions, purge my video. And here's where we can also add our name to the canvas information. Here's an example of a set of instructions I use for a quarter folded greeting card that I have in my own shop. Up next, we'll create our quarter folded greeting card. 11. Quarter-Folded Greeting Card: In this lesson, we'll create a greeting card using the core of folded greeting card template that we just created. I'll do this by importing previously done designs. Showing you how to save a file correctly and fold it. Once it's complete. I'm going to check the instructions layer off. I'm going to the Insert cover here layer grabbing my cover image that I've already created, pasting it and moving it in position inside the cover placement area. Now I'm going to check the cover placement in beach off. Go up to my inside, insert here layer. Go grab my inside quote. And pasting it. I'm going to move it. So it's centered within the inside image. I need to flip it upside down. And I can do this by using the Move tool and rotating it 45 degrees, four times. You can see if I turn around the type for the inside will show up as the correct image at the top left and upside down. And my cover is bottom-right. And this gets saved as a one-page PDF. Since I've already saved this, I'm going to go and print it from my saved file. This is just gonna be one page printing. I'm going to buy fold it in half. My cover will be on the right-hand side facing up. I'm going to fold it in half again so my cover stays on the outside and the inside core is on the inside. There's my cover. I open it up. There's my inside. Now that we used our quarter photo greeting card template to create a quarter folded greeting card. I would love to see what you came up with in the project section of this class. Up next, we'll get our greeting card files ready to sell. 12. Ready Your Greeting Card Files to Sell: In this lesson, we'll go over what we need to add and what we need to adjust to our digital greeting card files so we can get them ready to sell. If you're creating a greeting card file to sell online, make sure the font you are using counts with the commercial license. License may come with limitations. So make sure you double-check the allowed uses before placing it on your greeting card and placing it for sale in your online shop. Saving each layer and page with a clear title so the end user, as well as yourself can find it easily. I'm doing the same for the inside by labeling it exactly like I did the cover, but making it inside the cover was labeled cover. Remember to save each page inside separately. Here's an example of some greeting card instructions I came up with. So my end-user knows how to print from the file supplied. I want to save it as the same title as my previous cover and inside, but I want to label it as instructions. I am going to save this as a JPEG. I'm going to create a folder so I can include all of my files in one and then I'm going to compress it to a zip file. It makes it easier to upload to my online shop by having only one compressed file. You may want to also consider a curated by logo. I've added a curated by commercial, this brands and credits this file as my own. Should. The customer wanted to come back and search for more items by me. I've added on the opposite side of your cover. When either the left side of your cover, the top side of your cover. Here's a set of greeting card instructions for a quarter full load card. This is just me at creating it from scratch. You might want to pause this video here when creating your own greeting card instructions. That way you have an idea of what you may want to add for your own greeting card instructions. And don't forget to check out the greeting card digital file checklist that's included with this class under the projects and resources section. Up next, we'll discuss multipurpose our greeting cards into other uses. 13. Multi-Purpose Your Cards: In this lesson, we will discuss some multiple purposes for your greeting card that you created. You've worked so hard at so many projects here on Skillshare. Why not re-purpose them into some greeting cards? When you're creating your greeting cards, there's multiple uses that you can use for these. You can not only repurpose each element that you are using for a greeting card, for another greeting card. But you can also change the colors, the fonts, the quotes, even the holiday that you're planning on using the greeting card board. It can create an online shop selling your green cards as digital downloads. This means no direct shipping on your end. You can also showcase your designs in your portfolio. Should you ever want to license something similar for a company? If you happen to take the next step by posting your greeting card template online to sell or any other digital greeting cards. Please share a screenshot or the link in the project section of this class. I can't wait to check it out and see what you created. Up next is a heartfelt thank you. 14. Thank You: I want to thank you for taking the time and watching this class. You'll learn to how to create some greeting card templates as well as use them. You also learned how to add instructions. Should you want to sell these templates online? Some instructions that can be used to sell your digital greeting cards as well. If you have a moment, please make sure you share your project. Leave a review, follow me to get notified at my next class. If you're on Instagram, follow me at Cambridge. I hope you check out my other classes here on Skillshare. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in my next class.