A dvd/cd holiday greeting card template- from my computer to yours

We sure had fun making a holiday dvd last weekend!  Next, I designed the card portion of our holiday dvd video greeting, and have posted the template files online, for anyone who might wish to use it for their own dvd greeting card.  So if your creative juices are flowing, and think you might like to make a slideshow, put together movie footage, or even share pictures on a disc, please feel free to use this card design to package your disc greeting!

The card is designed to hold a standard disc sleeve measuring 4.96 inches square (12.55 square cm)  Here is the front of the card:

There are three files to this card: one page for the"outside" faces of the card, another for the "inside "faces, and another for the text greeting.  The "outside" and "inside" faces are printed on opposite sides of the same piece of paper.  The text greeting is cut out, and pasted to the disc sleeve on the inside of the card.

If you want to print the card exactly as it is, you can download the template as jpeg files, or as pdf files.  If you want to play with the card and make changes, and/ or add your own embellishments, then download the psd (Photoshop) template files.  Regular-click the appropriate link above, which will take you to to Google Docs for downloading.

Here is how you put the card together:

After downloading your fles, print them out on a paper of your choice.  I used a 176 g/m² (65 lb) linen cover stock.  Any card stock would be suitable, or even regular printer paper, as the cd or dvd provides a rigid structure to the card.

This is what the "outside face" of the card looks like.  Print it out.  Pay special attention to the orientation of the paper as it comes out of your printer.  When the printed page comes out of my printer, it is flipped to the unprinted side, and upside down.  So, I designed this card so I just put the paper back into the paper tray as orientated for printing on the other side. (this means that the printed side is flipped over from top to bottom)

So, as a recap,  print the "outside" face of the card,  and  then flip over the paper from top to bottom, so the printed side is down, and the previous top edge is now the bottom edge.

Now print the "inside" face of the card on this unprinted side.

 Here is what the "inside face" of the card looks like:

 If done correctly, the bird tree will be on one side , and the canvas with three snowflakes will be in the same position on the other side of the paper.

Now print out the text greeting, which contains the greetings for 4 cards:

Carefully trim away the white areas of the paper.

Then, score the narrow vertical space between the front and back cover with a  bone folder or a butter knife, while using a straight edge.  It isn't absolutely necessary to score this fold line, but it sure helps to make a crisp fold.

Then, carefully fold the card in half along the score mark, so that the bird tree is facing out.  Ta da!  A card!

Now apply a paste or adhesive to the disc sleeve, in order to fix it to the card.  Put your sticky material on the side you normally think of as the front side of the disc sleeve, so that the opening flap will face outward when pasted into the card.  My favorite adhesive is dry adhesive tape in an ATG (adhesive transfer:) gun.  The adhesive doesn't buckle the paper, it is pretty much a permanent seal, and it sticks right away- no waiting for glue to dry.

Now carefully place your glued disc sleeve onto the right inside page of the card.  My technique for mounting the sleeve on straight is to carefully put the left edge of the sleeve against the fold line, while lining up the top edge.  Then, carefully lower the sleeve to make contact with the entire card.  Carefully rub the sleeve so your adhesive makes complete contact.

This is what the inside of the card looks like at this point.  Notice that the disc sleeve's opening flap is accessible.

Lastly, paste the text greeting to the lower half of the disc sleeve, and insert your disc into the sleeve.

I tie up my cards with ribbon, gift-wrap style.  Happy, Happy greeting cards!

The artwork on the card is from two different vintage holiday cards, provided by Karen at The Graphics Fairy.  Karen searches high and low for historic items, and posts daily vintage images and ephemera that are free of copyright restrictions.  She  offers them as free downloads.  Every Monday, you can visit her blog to see how folks have used the images in their own crafty projects.  Thank you so much, Karen!  I love to think that my use of these images are breathing life back into them- by circulating them once again.  I think of the artists that made these images long ago, for Christmases long past , and wonder if they are still alive or not.  I hope to honor them  by bringing their work back out for people to see it this holiday season.

The canvas texture is a free download from Leslie Nicole of French Kiss Textures.  Thank you, Leslie Nicole, for sharing the products of your talents, so that we may enhance our own creative processes!

Happy Holidays!  If you do decide to use the card, and have any questions or difficulties, please email me.

I'm playing the link up at Graphics Fairy's "Brag Monday"- Go see what others have made with Karen's found images!