Can you hear those sleigh bells jingle? Today I’m going to show you how to make Christmas cards from your Procreate art. But even if you don’t use Procreate, you can still print out and use the free card designs I have below. In this post, I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to create custom canvases to card sizes, how to design your own cards, and how to print them using your home printer. As well as a few tips for getting a nice professional look!
Why You’re Going to LOVE Procreate (if you don’t already)
You may feel like you can’t draw, but every day I see adults trying digital drawing for the first time- and falling in love with what they can do.
Drawing is so fun, it’s a great creative outlet and for the most part, is fairly relaxing! And Procreate takes a lot of the stress out of drawing with some killer features.
Plus, there’s so much you can do with a design that’s already digital. (hint- I use mine with my Cricut ALL THE TIME.)
Interested? I’d love to have you check out my Procreate Playbook for Cricut Crafters e-book. It’s 160+ pages of step-by-step tutorials that will teach you to create your own custom designs in Procreate!
Just Want to Print the Cute Gnome Cards and Don’t Have Procreate?
No judging! 😂 I LOVE Gnomes and would do the same! Feel free to just grab the Gnome Christmas Card designs from my Free Creative Resource Library.
Just download the free design files to your computer or iPad.
Then skip ahead to Step Seven if you want a little instruction on printing from an iPad. Voila! Christmas Gnome Cards you can print at home.
How to Make Christmas Cards with Your Procreate Art
Tools and Materials
- Gnome Printable Christmas Card Designs– download files from my Free Creative Resources Library I actually have several different color options.
- Cardstock (8.5″ x 11″ white)
- Envelopes to fit your card size (again I’m using 5″ x 7″ designs)
- A home inkjet printer (I have a Canon Crafter’s Printer)
- iPad with Procreate
- Small paper trimmer or craft knife with a ruler
- Bone folder and ruler (unless your paper trimmer has a scorer too!)
This post has affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you purchase through any of these links. Thank you!
Directions
Step One: Decide What Size Card You Want to Make
There are common sizes of cards and envelopes. The most common are-
- A2 ( 4.25″ x 5.5″)
- A6 (4.5″ x 6.25″)
- A7 (5″ x 7″)
- A9 (5.5″ x 8.5″)
- Square
For this tutorial, I’m going to be making a 5″x 7″ card. But you can create any size custom canvas you’d like.
Step Two: Create a Custom Canvas in Procreate
To create a custom canvas start in your Gallery and hit the + symbol in the upper right corner.
Change the measurements to “inches” and then change the width to 7″ and the height to 5″. Change the DPI to 300. And I’m keeping my Color Profile set to RGB (the default) because I’m planning to print with my home printer. Change the name of the canvas from Untitled to Greeting Card 5×7. Then Save!
Open up a new canvas in this size.
Step Three: Draw Your Image (or import from another design in your gallery)
For this tutorial, I’m using a gnome card design that I made. To create the card design I re-used the Gnomes from my Gnome Christmas Stickers and copied them into a new 5″ x 7″ canvas. Then I added the scenery on a new layer behind them.
I also played around with the background color on the same canvas by switching the visibility of the layers on and off.
The two I decided I liked best were a pink background that’s a little unexpected, and a wood grain background. But I just want to point out that this is one design, by switching out the background colors, they look really different.
Note: If you want a basic how-to-draw in Procreate tutorial, I go through my process in my post, How to Trace Photos to Make Stickers in Procreate. You can also join my Procreate for Cricut + Silhouette Facebook Group for replays of my Live tutorials!
Step Four: Duplicate Canvas and Resize
Go back out to the Gallery and swipe left on your image and choose duplicate.
Open up the canvas and in the upper left corner click on the wrench symbol. Choose the Crop and Resize.
Step Five: Move the Design
Open up the Layers Panel and swipe right on all your designs and then click on the Move Tool (arrow) in the top toolbar.
Note: Check the canvas size and change it to 1500 x 2100px ( 5″ x 7″ at 300 dpi ), as it may not have kept the original size when you resized the canvas.
Step Six: Position Your Design on Your Canvas
You can position your image to print in two different ways.
Option 1) No Margin
Because I know that my image is 5″ 7″ I can just move it into the lower-left corner to print it.
Option 2) With Margin
Option # 2 is a good idea if you are afraid your printer may not print completely straight or doesn’t print borderless. For this option move your layers to the center of your canvas.
About Snapping
Finding the center of your canvas is one of the things Procreate does really well with its snapping feature. You’ll see the snapping if you move your design and a vertical gold line appears at the center of your canvas.
If you do NOT see this line you may need to turn on Snapping. You can do this by tapping on it in the Transform (move) panel at the bottom of your screen. It’s on the far left. Tap on Magnetics too.
Step Seven: Export Design as PDF
All done? Let’s go back out to the Gallery and you’ll swipe left to get a Share option. Choose the PDF format. And you’ll be asked if you want to save it as Good/ Better/ Best. This is up to you, and I suggest you play around with what each looks like once you’ve printed them. Save to your files and change the file name if necessary.
Step Eight: Print Your Card
Open up your files and choose the Print option in the display window that pops up. Choose your printer and make sure you have cardstock loaded. I used a fairly thick cardstock, but I also have a rear-feed option on my printer, which makes bulkier papers easier to print.
Step Nine: Trim Your Card to Size!
–If you position your design in the lower-left corner in Procreate, all you have to do is trim it at the 5″ mark on your ruler and then again at the 10″.
–If you’re using the designs I provided, which are centered- Cut 3/4″ off the width on each side of the design so your paper is 7″ wide. Trim ” off the bottom of the design and then trim the top to make it 10″.
Note: I gave you a little extra room at the bottom so you’d have a little bit of a bleed in case your printer didn’t print borderless or if it didn’t print straight.
Step Ten: Score and Fold Your Card
Final step! Take your card (that is now 10″h. x 7″w.) using a ruler and a bone folder, or a paper cutter with a scorer, and create a scoreline at the center (5″ on the ruler.) Do this on the front side of the card.
Now fold the card, press the bone folder along the score line, and flatten it for a nice crisp fold! Place it in your envelope, and you’re done. Merry Procreate Christmas!
Whoo Hoo! Now You Can Make Cards from Your Procreate Art!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial! If you’re Procreate Curious and would like to know more about drawing in Procreate then I have a few tutorials with YouTube videos that you’ll be interested in. A good post is How to Trace Photos to Draw Stickers in Procreate.
Another fun one to start with is my How to Draw Snowflakes in Procreate. It’s more seasonal. ❄️
MORE FREE GNOME CARDS????
Loving the Gnomes? We can’t stop (won’t stop) all season long!
Here’s one of the sweet Gnome Week collaborations that my crafty friend Lucy Foxworth did last year. She makes little paper houses on Paper Glitter Glue and created this Gnome Home Pop-Up Christmas Card. Seriously, how cute is this?
She has a tutorial and the free design available on her blog!
SO CUTE RIGHT? The front of the card…..
… and the inside! Truly, there’s no place like Gnome for the Holidays! (too much pun? 😂)
Love this? Share it!
If you like this tutorial please consider sharing it on social media or pinning the images in it.❤️ This really helps me reach as many people as possible with my tutorials. Thank you!
Thanks for Reading,
![How to Draw Snowflakes in Procreate [Symmetry Tool]](https://wellcraftedstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/How-to-Draw-Snowflakes-square-1024x1024.jpg)
My designs dont print how they appear on screen, although my canvas size is correct and dpi 300! My light pastel colours come out red and yellow. I have good quality 250 matt paper etc.can you help. Do you edit your procreate designs on Adobe PS before printing?
You can edit in PS- in fact I’ve read you can export your procreate designs as PSD layers and open them in Photoshop. I kind of think it may be a printer problem though. Do you know what your color profile for your canvas is set at? Usually P3 is the default but you can do RGB or CYMK. I know my printer converts from RGB to CYMK automatically. Are you having trouble printing anything else? Is your printer running out of some ink?
What type of card stock are you using? I tried: Heavy Digital Smooth White Cover Card Stock, 8-1/2 x 11 Letter Size 100 lb., 270 gsm and when I fold it it cracks/torn-looking.
Hi! 100lb. Is considered heavy cardstock. For something like this you’re better off with 65 lb. Your printer will like you better too. The heavier cardstocks often don’t want to bend in the standard printers. Also, you want to make sure you’re scoring your paper first with a bone folder or scoring tool. It really makes all the difference!
Jen, another question please. If I use procreate to create a greeting card, and want to finish it on my Cricut, with the text and images filled in with color that was created in procreate, will Cricut print the filled in colored text and images?
Yes! Anything that is on your iPad and you import into Cricut Design Space as a Print then Cut in CDS.