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Joined: 12/6/2011
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I'm so glad I found this post!  I've spent ages looking for programes that I can design greeting cards with, I should have come here first  I've made a note of the programes suggested on here, but my problem is that I'm finacially broke and was hoping to find a free programe that I can create intersting designs with, I've seen some wonderful cards and Ts with computer created images on them here on zazzle and would love to make some too At the moment I'm working with photo's of my original artwork, but I feel it's limited for greeting card  I'm using PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS for creating transparent images and tyding up stuff. I also use PHOPTOSCAPE(free)for making my pics sepia, cartooned, greyscale, antiqued and a few other things, but neither of these programs have the facility to actually create my own unique images or card borders, any ideas of free programs would be very, very helpful, even more helpful would be programs for the "computer challenged"  Thank you 
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/3/2010
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@artoriginals, I don't know if you've seen this thread; http://forum.zazzle.com/create/links_for_free_software_programsI use Gimp (free) for most of my image editing. When you say 'card borders' what exactly do you mean? Steve.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/30/2012
Posts: 32
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I don't see why you shouldn't be able to create your own card borders with Photoshop Elements, what functionality are you looking for? You should be able to just draw whatever you need in Elements.
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Joined: 7/26/2009
Posts: 729
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Serif Draw Plus X5
Photoshop Elements 6.0
Bamboo Craft Tablet
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/28/2011
Posts: 672
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ClementineDigitals wrote:I don't see why you shouldn't be able to create your own card borders with Photoshop Elements, what functionality are you looking for? You should be able to just draw whatever you need in Elements.
I agree, Elements is great, and you can certainly use it for creating original art. I used it for years before finally upgrading to CS5 a few months ago. If you want to do vector work for free, try Inkscape.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/6/2011
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Location: London
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Steve,by card borders O mean nice border edges to my greeting cards I'll have a look at the link you gave me, thanks I've got photoshop elements, but it`s taken meages and ages to eventually work out how to do the transparent stuff and other quite basic things, I still haven`t been able to work out how to create original images and designs with it its all a bit complicated looking, I did have a go with the paint brush tool and filler but nnnnnnope! I just didn`t get it, I would think there`s tons more to using photoshop than I (with my computer thickery ) have even begun to check out. I'd like to create childrens images, teddies, bunnies ect. I'll check out the other programs you've all so kindly suggested are they all okay to use with a mouse or do they need a graphics pen or am I sounding really thick now Thank you for your replies everyone
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Joined: 3/28/2011
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@artoriginals, if you did want to learn to use Elements you might find the book Photoshop Elements for Dummies helpful. I'm not suggesting you're a dummy  - but I used it when I was learning & it covers the basics very well, & is easy to follow.
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@artoriginals, All the software I've suggested here and elsewhere works fine with a mouse, if you want to actually 'draw' with your computer a tablet is a great thing to have, but not essential. For your borders you could look to buy some from various places, a good place to start would be Renderosity, the 2D stuff is here; http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?TopID=1.Most things on there tend to be reasonably priced, but just check that commercial use is allowed (this may mean downloading the read me file of anything you're interested in), commercial use seems to be allowed with pretty much with all the pay for stuff but there are freebies on there which often do not allow commercial use. I just searched for 'borders' but it came up with very little, I have seen sets with background textures and border elements there so you may need to just do some trawling. Steve.
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Joined: 11/5/2010
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Location: Reno
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@artoriginals, I highly recommend looking at tutorials on YouTube. That's how I've learned how to use my image editing software. Try typing in the search box "borders photoshop elements" and you will probably find all kinds of useful tutorials.
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Joined: 5/4/2009
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I was also going to suggest Youtube. I found very helpful videos on how to use photoshop elements on there. Some of them are not in English and some that are, do not explain it well, or use different versions, though. I prefer photogavin, he's excellent at explaining all the steps.
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Joined: 6/11/2012
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I use Illustrator and Photoshop. Youtube is a fantastic resource for helpful design tutorials, I'm always amazed at how there always seems to be an existing video addressing whatever topic I'm researching.
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Joined: 4/3/2011
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So much software in this thread, I was beginning to think I might be doing something wrong lol
I always use acrylic paint, ink, pens and a relatively cheap camera, then GIMP to edit.
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I'm probably a bit behind the times too, I use Microsoft digital editing suite 2006, but it does all I need it to.
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