Our 3 pieces of clip art from the front of the card went along with the 3R's theme of Grandma Baker's little poem. The first three verses are on the front. The last verse will appear on the inside. Here's the whole poem (be gentle, Grandma never claimed to be a poet!):
- When Grandma was a little girl the three R's were the rule.
Reading, 'riting, & 'rithmetic were what we learned in school.
From what my grandkids tell me now, the letter E is king.
E-books, E-mail, & E-commerce are the newest thing.
To go with the final verse, Grandma chose a computer graphic. Like two of our other pieces of clip art on the front, it has rounded edges. Use the same procedure from Lesson 5 -- add a sharp-cornered box in the same color -- to make the inside graphic more consistent with the other images on the front.
For an added touch, Grandma grabbed another piece of clip art to add to the computer. You might think the apple represents the Apple or Macintosh computer but actually Grandma was thinking more of the "apple for the teacher" to go with the school theme of the card. See the image in the sidebar.
You may notice that the graphics style of the apple is quite different from the other clip art used. That's OK. The different style and the color adds a bit of contrast and livens up the card.
When you open up your greeting card you are actually looking at a 2-page spread. Page two (inside front cover) is often left blank. It's a convenient place to allow the sender to write a brief letter. You might choose to use this space to provide a credit line for any photos used or add an inspirational quote. You could also use both inside pages to deliver your message with text and graphics. It's up to you.
In our Back to School Card page 2 is left blank. Our edited clip art and the last verse of the poem appear on page 3. Remember how, in Lesson 7, we used a 3 column grid for our layout? It might not be obvious but the inside uses that same layout -- only the columns on the left and right are empty. Both the graphic and the text are aligned in the center column.
For a little something extra Grandma added another message after her poem. As a play on the theme "Are you ready for School?" translates to "R you read-E for School?" Although the last verse of the poem uses the same format and font as the other verses on front, this extra message is set apart in four ways:
- Typeface (a more casual display face that contrasts with the slightly more formal font used in the rest of the card)
- Size (for further contrast the text is set larger)
- Alignment (broken into two lines that are centered on the page)
- Color (bright red stands out, just as the red apple stands out in the graphic)
Does contrast conflict with consistency? If everything on the page were chosen to contrast with everything else, consistency as well as the ability of the contrast to grab attention is lost. A small amount of contrast adds interest without compromising the overall consistency of the design. Use extreme contrast carefully.
Don't forget to leave room for a signature.
Create a Greeting Card > Lesson 8 Definitions | Instruction | Assignment
