How to Design Your Own Birth Announcement Cards

Announcing a new baby is one of the pleasures of parenthood - your new bundle of joy safely delivered; it's time to spread the news with birth announcement cards. Many parents today are skipping the prefabricated, impersonal birth announcement cards found on gift store racks and instead opting to design and print their own birth announcement cards. For those who are not so tech-savvy, here's a quick lesson on how to design and print your own birth announcement cards quick and easy.

Design your own birth announcement cards

Everything begins with your design. If you have experience with professional design tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, this part should be a piece of cake. If you don't have professional design software, no problem - you can design great-looking birth announcement cards using any one of a number of free design programs that are easy to use. Your computer probably has one already installed. If not, you can make greeting cards using Open Office or Microsoft Word, or get a free design program such as Paint.NET or Picasa. To get the proper resolution, document size, bleed areas, safe area, and cut lines, download a free birth announcement card design template from PsPrint. These templates can be viewed in any PDF reader and will help you ensure that your birth announcements look as great off the press as they do on your computer.

Print your own birth announcement cards

It's clear why you would want to design your own birth announcement cards, but why would you want to both design and print your own birth announcement cards through a professional printing company instead of on your desktop printer? For starters, your birth announcement cards represent one of the most special moments in your life - and the first moment in your newborn baby's life - so you want to commemorate the event with the highest quality. Second, printing birth announcement cards with an online printing company such as PsPrint is actually cheaper than or comparable in price to store-bought pre-scored greeting card paper and the ink it takes to print on all four card panels. Of course, not having the headaches and hassle of dealing with low-quality inkjet printers that jam is worth even a modest expense to most. Once you decide to print your own birth announcement cards, you have a few options to consider. First, decide which paper stock you want to use. A super-thick 16-point gloss cover stock will brim with brilliance as the glossy sheen makes colors pop of the page. A 13-point  recycled matte cover stock will have a more refined look that enhances deep colors and lends poignancy. You can also choose to have your birth announcement cards scored and folded so you don't have to spend countless hours fold them yourself. You should additionally order matching envelopes for consistency. Order a hard copy proof so you can see your birth announcement card before you send it to everyone else. It's a good idea to have your closest family look it over to make sure the photos and colors look great and that there are no typos. Last but not least, have fun with designing and printing your own birth announcement cards. This is a very special event, so don't squander too much time fretting over every small detail. Remember that nobody's perfect - nobody, that is, except your perfect newborn baby.