There’s only one thing more personal than unique, niche birthday card designs — cards you craft yourself! Custom birthday cards are expressive in a way that even the finest mass-market products can’t match. They’re a part of you. They contain your thoughts, wit, and insights. They’re an expression of the relationship you share with your recipient, be it your wife, brother or best friend. Your card’s interior and exterior both speak directly from the heart. 

 Custom birthday cards can be daunting, a fact that sometimes frightens people away from giving them a try. But they don’t have to be complicated. All you need are the right tools and a little inspiration. We can provide both.

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TO HANDWRITE OR NOT TO HANDWRITE

Before you select your tools, you need to choose a direction — printed or handwritten cards. Printed cards are easier but lack the grace of a handwritten card. Handwriting adds credibility to a custom birthday card, mirroring the personal touches you’re placing in your card design. Sending a printed custom card makes a unique design feel like something mass-produced, damaging its emotional appeal. 

 Selecting between handwritten and printed cards, it would seem you have to trade style for convenience, but that’s not the case. Simply Noted stitches the two together seamlessly. We’ve automated the production of handwritten cards. 

 We don’t print cards using a handwriting font. We’ve designed robots that write your cards by hand, using real ballpoint pens. Their arms are driven by sophisticated, AI-powered smart fonts that introduce subtle variations into the text, shifting letter sizes, widening and narrowing gaps, and altering shapes and phrasing to create impeccable recreations of natural handwriting. 

 Once you’ve decided on handwritten cards — and you should — Simply Noted is the tool of choice.

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DESIGN IDEAS

Now the fun part! You can put considerable personality into your card’s cover. If you can dream it, you can design it. Best of all, you can design a new card for each recipient! Personalize every birthday card with images and messages that are meaningful to both parties. You’ll win on style AND substance every time. Heres are a few design ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Attach a Meaningful Photo

Photos are a surefire way to pluck your recipient’s heartstrings. Look for moments of shared joy, laughter, and camaraderie. Celebrate your relationship with an iconic image of some pivotal moment in your lives. Or just find a great photo of you and your recipient palling around and spread a little joy with each birthday card.

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Grab a Funny Meme

You don’t need artistic ability to send cards with cartoons and other funny images. The internet is swimming with memes. Grab something your recipient will find hilarious and “appopropriate” it for yourself. After all, sharing is what memes were created for!

Create a Graphic Text Treatment

You can layout text in a dynamic pattern using a number of online tools, a text layout program, or even Word! Take a meaningful quote, a shared joke, or a warm birthday wish and arrange the words to fill the page with bold shapes and vibrant colors. Once you have something you like, save it as a JPEG and you’ll be ready to upload your image.

Build a Scene With Clipart

Free clipart can be found in every corner of the internet. No matter your creative vision, you can find clipart to match. Grab a handful of elements and build a scene. Use this strategy to make custom comics, one-panel jokes, or anything else you can imagine. Custom birthday cards aren’t exclusive to the artistically-inclined. 

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Chat With the Animals

Using animal images as characters is an excellent way to repurpose nature photos. It’s easier than it sounds. Browse around Google for an animal picture that fits your mood. If you’re going for humor, look for over-the-top images of animals doing silly things. Then decide what they’re saying! Give the character a virtual voice and turn them into your spokesanimal.

Draw Something!

So far we’ve been assuming limited artistic ability, but if you’re blessed with skills call them into service! Pull out your pad (physical or digital) and start sketching out ideas. Imagine the look on your recipient’s face when they find a piece of hand-drawn art opening the show for a meaningful handwritten birthday message inside. It’s the ultimate expressions of “happy birthday FROM ME TO YOU.” 

 If you paint, paint. If you’re a collage artist, grab your source material. No matter your medium, you can scan or photograph your finished creation and upload the image to the front cover of a birthday card.

HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM CARD

It’s easy to create a custom card with Simply Noted. Once you have your card cover ready you simply add it to your handwritten custom birthday card order. For the full creation process, check this tutorial. Below you’ll find a simplified guide.

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Creating a Custom Card

To begin, visit Simply Noted and hover your mouse over “Send a Card” at the top of the screen. The select “Create a Card.”  

 After you decide between a flat or folded card the page will take you to the cover design center. Click “Add Image” to upload your final image and add it to the front of your card. You’ll have the ability to resize the image and toggle it between color and black and white. 

 Once you have the cover looking right, click “Go to Message Area” under the preview image to visit our message entry screen. Here you’ll type your message and choose an appropriate handwritten smart font. The message preview will update in real-time. Bear in mind that this is a simplified preview lacking the personality our AI adds when your card is created. 

 If you’re prepared, you can finish our entire custom birthday card creation process in under five minutes. It’s the fastest way to create a personalized birthday experience your recipient will remember. Don’t be surprised if you see your card stuck to the fridge the next time you visit. A custom handwritten card is piece of memorabilia people will keep!