Create your own postcard for mother’s day

Mother’s Day is just a few days away, your mother lives somewhere in the country and you haven’t sent her a greeting card yet. You should be ashamed of yourself! You might still get it in time if you act fast, but you still have the hassle of picking up a boring, boring card from the store. Why not email him something a little more personalized?

Here’s an idea to save your bacon. Take a cute photo from your childhood that will evoke a good memory and add some fun cartoon dialogue to it. Here are instructions on how to do this using Photoshop Elements, but you can use almost any image-editing software if you want. The first thing to do after finding and opening your photo image is to click File => Duplicate so the original is preserved. Now close the original file and use the copy to create your electronic card.

Next, Alt + Ctrl + I to resize the image so that it is easy to see on a computer screen. I chose 700 pixels for my width. Double-click the Zoom tool to view your document at 100% (actual pixels).

Add the cartoon bubble

In the Layers palette, click the New Layer button. Go to the Contents palette and double-click a cartoon speech bubble shape to add it to the new layer. If you don’t see the Contents palette, go to Window on the top navigation bar and click Contents to display it. With the cartoon speech bubble now on the new layer, click and drag a corner handle to fit your photo. If the cartoon bubble’s tail is facing upside down, click and drag one of the side handles until the image is flipped horizontally. Use the Move tool (press the V key or hold down the Ctrl key) to drag the bubble to the correct position.

Let’s add a stroke to the cartoon bubble. Make sure your layer with the cartoon bubble is still selected. Then, in the Effects palette, click the Layer Styles button and double-click the thumbnail you want to apply to the shape. I used Black Stroke at 2px.

Add the text

Now we add our smart text. In the Layers palette, click the New Layer button. Press T to select the text tool. I used a font called Digital Strip which has a cartoonish look. Add your selected text. Use the text alignment drop-down menu to center the text block. Then, hold down the CTRL key as you click and drag the text to align it within the cartoon bubble. Repeat these steps to add a traditional “Happy Mother’s Day” or other personal greeting.

Finally, go to File => Save for Web and choose JPEG as the file type. This saves the image in a compact file size, ideal for emailing or posting to your Facebook page. Your mom will really appreciate the personalized greeting and your procrastination ends up saving you a few bucks.

See what each step looks like once completed