Artistic effects in Word for your holiday cards

Word 2010 has a new set of artistic effects that you can apply to pictures to match the mood you want. With images and templates from Office.com, you can create your own custom cards--for the holidays or any occasion.

Let's walk through it step-by-step.

First, I want to open find a greeting card template, so I start Word, click the File tab, click New, and click Greeting cards.

Then I double click the Holiday cards folder.

I choose a template that I want to use as a starting point. Even though this template's for a different holiday, it has the layout and shapes that I want, so I'll click it, and then I'll click Download.

This particular template is in compatibility mode, so before I do anything else, I'm going to convert it. I click the File tab, and then I click Convert.

Now, I can right-click the image and click Change Picture.

I browse to an image that I downloaded from Office.com, click it, and I click Insert.

Now the fun starts!

With my new image selected, I click the Picture Tools Format tab, click the Picture Styles More button, and choose a style.

Next, I click Artistic Effects and choose an effect. I can see a preview of each effect as I move my mouse over it in the gallery. (I enjoy looking at all the different effects.)

But for this card to fold the right way when it's printed, my image needs to be upside down. In the Arrange group, I click Rotate, and then I click Flip Vertical.

Here's what it looks like.

Finally, I'll select the text that's on the inside of the card. I'll click the Font Dialog Box Launcher and change the font to Gabriola. On the Advanced tab of the Font dialog box, I'll choose stylistic set 5.

And now I have a card that I can print and send.

For more holiday ideas, see the Office Holiday Mailings page on Office.com.

-- Joannie Stangeland