Card Making Software

Free Card Making Software

Why would you need card making software? Read on...

Card making really can be a pretty expensive hobby can't it? Many crafters have turned to digital downloads for their background papers and embellishments. That's where card making software comes in...

If you have downloaded a beautiful background paper or element for your card making or digital scrapbook, you might wish to change it a little. Maybe it's not quite what you want and it needs a little tweaking.

But how do you do that?

Answer: You use digital scrapbook and/or card making software...

Digital Scrapbook And Card Making Software

There are lots of different types of image manipulation software out there. Many can help you change, tweak, sharpen, and crop your images. Others can even help you create your own backing papers and embellishments.

We'll be covering the best software package for card making and digital scrapbooking in this section, very soon. You can be notified of udpates to this section by signing up to our free card making e- magazine here...

But in the meantime...

Cool Free Card Making Software

Here's some fantastic FREE card making software for you.

It's called 'Picasa' and it comes free in the free 'Google Pack'. To get Picasa free, you need to get the free Google Pack. Here's the link...

You can get Picasa by downloading the free Google Pack:

Picasa comes in the free 'Google Pack' (link above) and it's usually used to change and tweak photos. But...

...it's absolutely brilliant for tweaking your card making printables and digital scrapbook downloads. Especially because it's free!

You can get a gorgeous, free kit that's full of digital floral backing papers here. It's a perfect kit for printing out for your card making, or for using in your digital scrapbook layouts. And it's FREE.

Get the free kit here...

What Can You Do With The Free Picasa Software For Card Making?

OK so how can Picasa help you create beautiful cards?

• Change colors - Want to change the color of your pink floral backing paper? Picasa makes it easy for you to change the color of your digital backing paper and embellishments at the click of a button. It's dead simple to use.
• Add stunning effects to change the look instantly - Not happy with the overall look of your backing paper or digital embellishment? Use Picasa to change it's appearance.
  
  
  • Sepia effect - Maybe you'd like to go for an old, aged look? Use Picasa's sepia effect.
  • Black & white - Maybe you love the design, and want to go for a classical black and white look. Use Picasa's black and white effect to get rid of all the color in a jiffy.
  • Give your cards a glow - Maybe you want everything in 'soft focus'? Picasa can do that too.
  • Sharpen it - Maybe your digital backing paper or embellishment is a little too blurry? Use Picasa to sharpen your images up.
  • Zoom. Pan. Tilt.. I could go on. There are lots more effects that you can play about with, to get completely different, sharper looks from your digital scrapbook and card making downloads.
• Brighten things up - Is a background paper that you've downloaded looking a bit too dull? Maybe you've got a digital embellishment (element) that looks a little washed out? Use Picasa to brighten your images up.
• Crop and save ink - Don't want to print out a whole sheet of backing paper? Use Picasa to crop it before you print! And you can be specific too so you really can home in on the part you want to print out, without having to print out all the rest.
• Remove red eye - Are you using a photo of a person in your card making or digital scrapbook design? Has the person got the dreaded 'red-eye'? Doesn't look too good in your creative work does it? Go ahead and use Picasa to sort that pesky red-eye out, pronto!
• Copy effects from one image to another - There have been times when I've been editing a background paper and have spent ages fiddling around with the image settings and tweaking the effects. When I had finished, I'd sit back, satisfied with my creation. Perfect! Until I start on a new one...
  
  What I would have given for a piece of software that let me just copy over the effects I had slaved over, to my new image! Well now we all can. Just use Picasa's 'Copy All Effects' feature, and voila! Instant snazziness.
• Turn your creative efforts into a movie - Yep, you heard right. If you're an avid card maker, you can simply take pictures of your favorite handmade cards and upload them to your computer. If you're a digital scrapbooker, you can select your favorites straight away. Then let Picasa help you put your beautiful creations into a slideshow movie, complete with title page.
• Organize your digital library - Let's face it. When you become addicted to card making and digital scrapbooking, your digital library of background papers, embellishments and so forth can get a little out of control! Use Picasa to organize it all with it's in-built and totally fab image organizing features.
  
  This feature is just fantastic for helping you to plan your card designs. You can actually label your digital images by categories. So for example, I might label all my 'stripy' digital backing papers 'Stripy', or all my Christmassy images 'Christmas'.
  
  So say I want to make a Christmas card. Within a few seconds, I can view all my 'Christmas' images and backing papers in one place, and browse through them to see which ones I might like to use for my card.
  
  Heck, you can even sort your images by color. Want to make a purple card? You can view all your purple images and backing papers altogether, to see which one might suit the card design you had in mind. How cool is that?

To be honest, I can't believe they're giving this away. Yep, Picasa is free folks.

I'm totally addicted to it, and just love how easy it is to use. Picasa definitely gets the big thumbs up from me - it's one of the best free card making software packages for image manipulation.

So go snap it up while you can!

You can download Picasa by clicking the 'Google Pack' link above...