DIY Valentine’s Day Cards

Create your own custom cards using Noun Project icons and Google Slides. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and clever, cute cards are a highlight of the holiday. With this easy tutorial, you can use Noun Project icons and Google Slides to create your own custom, printable Valentine’s Day cards for the special people […]

Create your own custom cards using Noun Project icons and Google Slides.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and clever, cute cards are a highlight of the holiday. With this easy tutorial, you can use Noun Project icons and Google Slides to create your own custom, printable Valentine’s Day cards for the special people in your life.

To create a single sheet with six one-sided cards:

First, open Google Slides. Select “Blank” from the “Start a new presentation” menu. Delete the pre-populated text boxes from your slide. Then, navigate to File > Page Setup, select “Custom” from the drop-down menu and adjust the slide size to 11 x 8.5 inches.

Adjust the page dimensions to 11 x 8.5.

After you’ve adjusted your page, you’ll need to insert two vertical lines and one horizontal line to divide it into spaces for six individual cards. Click the “Line Tool” and select “Line” from the menu.

Select the “Line” tool.

Using the ruler at the top of the page as your guide, insert two vertical lines on the page — one at 7.5 and at 15.

Tip: Hold the shift key while drawing your line to ensure it’s straight.

Place two vertical lines on your page — one at 7.5 and one at 15.

Next, add a horizontal line to the middle of the page. After adding your horizontal line, select all three lines, click the “Line Dash” tool and select the dotted line option.

Tip: In the “View” menu, you can select “Guides” and add horizontal and vertical guides to help you add your lines.

Make your lines dotted.

Then, click the “Line Color” tool and select a light gray option. These will be your cutting lines and changing the color will help ensure there are no remnants of the lines on your finished cards.

Change the color of your vertical and horizontal lines to a light gray so remnants of the lines don’t appear on your final cards.

Now that you’ve formatted your lines you should have six individual boxes on your page. These will be your six one-sided cards.

Next, click the “Insert” menu and select “Text Box.” Add a text box to the top of the upper left box on the page and center it. You can also add a text box to the bottom if you’d like two lines of text on the front of your card.

Add a text box to the upper left side of your page. Center it at the top of the box created by your vertical and horizontal lines.

Type the copy you’d like to use on the front of your card into your text boxes. Adjust the font to 24pt and select the font you’d like to use from the “Font” menu. For this tutorial, we’re creating a dinosaur-themed valentine and are using the “Impact” font.

Add your Valentine’s Day card text.

Now it’s time to select your icons! Use thenounproject.com, Noun Project’s Mac App or Google Slides plugin to add an icon or multiple icons to the front of your card.

Tip: With Noun Project’s Mac App, simply select, drag and drop icons onto your cards. If you’re a NounPro subscriber, you can change the color of your icons directly in the Mac App or at thenounproject.com before downloading.

Select an icon to add to your card. You can add multiple icons to your design.

Now, resize your icon and center it in between your text.

Center your icon between your text boxes and resize it to fit. This is a great time to add multiple icons to your card.

Consider adding multiple icons to your design.

You’ve now completed the first card on your page! Next, select the icon(s) and your text boxes, copy and paste them into the next card space. You can create a whole sheet of six cards using the same design, or create multiple designs using this formatting as your guide.

To print your cards:

Select File>Download> PDF to create a PDF copy of your coloring book. Open the PDF and print. Make sure you select one-sided printing.

Tip: Thicker paper works best for printing cards, particularly if you plan to write a message on one side.

Prepare your cards for printing by exporting your Google Slide to a PDF.

Once you print your cards, cut them out carefully using the gray dotted lines you added as your guides.

We chose to create dinosaur cards for this example, but you can use these steps as a starting point to create custom, printable Valentine’s Day cards for your friends, family and sweethearts. You can also download this free template and customize it.

We’d love to see what you create! Share your DIY icon Valentines with us in the comments or on Twitter @nounproject.


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Lindsay Stuart

VP, Brand Marketing & Communications at Noun Project

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