Add a Personal Touch: Make Your Own Graduation Announcements

Graduation is an important time of life and is definitely a time to celebrate. However, before starting to celebrate, there's always the issue of coming up with the announcements so that everyone you love can celebrate with you. The best things are always things made by hand, so why not consider making your own graduation announcements? They're not only generally more cost-effective, but they add that personal touch that shows that it's really about you.

Here are some ideas to go about making your own graduation announcements:

Pre-Made Printable Announcements:

A very popular announcement plan, lately, seems to be using printable announcements from a site. There are many sites available for this, however, remember that it might be a bit less formal or less unique than you might want, if that's what you're going for.

However, it is indeed a fast and easy way to make announcements, and for that it is worth some mentioning. If you don't like the templates you find, you can always alter them to fit your own needs as well.

If you're thinking about simply printing pre-made graduation announcements, this is a good site for it, and so is printfree.com.

Personalized Printable Announcements:

If pre-made is not your avenue, but you still want that clean, professional look that printing offers, you can always make your own announcements from scratch.

Many programs are nice for this sort of thing, especially the Microsoft Office Package. There is a Microsoft Publisher geared specifically towards publications such as this. However, if you do not have this program, as many people (including myself) do not, then Microsoft Word works just fine, too.

Some things I would maybe suggest including in graduation announcements:

- A nice border or some sort of trim around the edges to really frame it. This gives a really nice visual effect if kept small and not too gaudy. Remember, the border is only there to frame the words and draw attention to the page, but you don't want to detract from the words, either, so use a border that is more reserved. If you're not sure how to make use borders in Word, there is a good tutorial that can be found here.

- Pictures are always nice when used in moderation. My suggestion would be to use personalized pictures, like maybe a picture of the graduate when they were younger, or their senior picture, or something that has meaning. Or, it could be as simple as taking a picture of the cap and gown that they'll be wearing at graduation, if you have it available. If you don't want to use a personal picture, Microsoft clipart in word has some nice pictures available for use. If none of those please you, there are many sites online that you can use pictures from, such as stock.xchng, morgue file, and iStockPhoto. Just remember to always check the terms and conditions of use to make sure your use does not violate anything.

- Unique fonts are always a nice way to really spice things up. Though Word does have a wide array of fonts and even word art, I would really suggest finding fonts elsewhere. These fonts tend to be more unique (anyone can open a Word document and use a Word font), and there's more of a chance that you will find one that you think is absolutely perfect for what you want. This site has a large list of font sites, so it's pretty much guaranteed you'll find something you like.

Ways to Decorate your Printed Announcements

If simply printing the announcements isn't enough for you and you want something a little more hand-made than that, then there are various ways that you can decorate them to make them a little more special.

Here are some suggestions:

- Use scrapbook stickers. Stickers might be a nice, small addition to the announcement to make it a little more colorful if it isn't always. Try to be restrained at how many stickers you use and what sort of sticker is used (the point isn't to clutter it or anything), but have fun with it as well and make sure that the stickers express who YOU are!

- Try some ribbon accessories. This is mostly for girls, but there is nothing excluding guys from this either. A nice bow at the top or some ribbon tied in a certain fashion might make a cute addition. You could tie the ribbon, or even cut it and glue it to give it that "wrapped up" appearance in the corners, if you wanted. If you want to get really fancy, you can try what people generally do on birthday presents to use that sort of ribbon (possibly even your school colors) and tie it at the top and curl it. The curly ribbons add a little movement to the card and are a nice touch.

- If you like art, draw! There's nothing better than receiving a graduation announcement with a personal drawing on it. Get creative. If art is your thing, exploit it, just remember that it takes time to draw that many designs. However, it is a nice way to show that you're taking the time to think of everyone, too, and that you really put effort into the announcements.

- Buy a decorated form of paper to print on. Sometimes regular white paper doesn't catch the effect you want, so for a simple added design, just buy some colored, motley, or other designed paper. It's a nice way to add some design without having to go out of your way to do so.