Design Cards That Make People Spit Out Their Coffee.
We’re looking for bold, hilarious, slightly unhinged designers and artists to create greeting cards for Sazzy Cards. If your design style is somewhere between “gallery-worthy” and “my therapist would have questions” — we want to talk.
Free ZIP · InDesign template + guides + specs · ~13 MB
Here’s the Deal
Sazzy Cards is a greeting card brand built on premium Hemp Heritage™ paper, rude humor, and zero interest in being boring. We sell cards in bundles (6-packs and 12-packs) through our website, and every card in our catalog is designed by someone with actual talent and a questionable sense of humor.
That someone could be you.
We partner with freelance designers and artists who want to create card designs, earn royalties on every sale, and have their work printed on paper that doesn’t suck. Below is everything you need to know about working with us — the templates, the specs, the rules, and the rewards.
💬 “But I’m not a professional designer, I just make fire art.” — Cool. If you can follow a template and make people laugh, you’re qualified. We don’t need your resume. We need your best six cards.
What’s in the Template Package
The download above is a ZIP file containing everything you need to start designing for Sazzy Cards. It’s built for Adobe Creative Suite workflows. Grab it, open it up, and get to work.
Inside the ZIP, you’ll find:
- InDesign Template (.indt / .indd) — Pre-configured with the correct dimensions, margins, bleeds, and guides for a Sazzy Card. This is your starting point.
- Bleed & Safety Guides — Marked clearly so your artwork doesn’t get chopped in production.
- Color Profile Info — CMYK settings for accurate print reproduction.
- Submission Checklist — A quick reference for final export requirements.
Photoshop may also be used as part of your design process — many of our artists build artwork in Photoshop and finalize layout in InDesign. Use whatever Adobe workflow works for you, as long as the final output meets our specs.
🎨 Pro tip: Don’t have InDesign? Adobe offers a single-app plan. Or design in Photoshop and export to PDF with proper settings. We’re flexible on your tool — we’re not flexible on the output.
Artwork & Setup Requirements
This is the part that separates the pros from the “I’ll figure it out later” crowd. Read this section like your royalties depend on it — because they do.
Card Dimensions
- Finished card size: 5 x 7 inches
- Resolution: 300 DPI (no exceptions)
- Pixel dimensions at 300 DPI: 1500 x 2100 pixels
- Bleed: Include 0.125″ bleed on all four sides
- Safe zone: Keep all critical text and artwork at least 0.25″ from the trim edge
Color & Print Specs
- Color mode: CMYK only. No RGB. No “I’ll convert it later.” CMYK from the start.
- Black text: Must be set to 100% K (CMYK: 0/0/0/100) for true print black. Rich black (40/40/40/100) is acceptable for large solid areas only — never for body text.
- White: If your design has white elements on a colored background, make sure they’re actually white and not “no fill” transparency.
- Fonts: All fonts must be outlined (converted to paths) or embedded in the final PDF.
Final Export Requirements
- File format: Print-Ready PDF (PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 preferred)
- Include crop marks and bleed marks in the exported PDF
- Embed all images — no linked files that live on your desktop named “final_FINAL_v3_real.psd”
- Flatten transparency if using PDF/X-1a
- No spot colors unless specifically discussed with us
⚠️ Fair Warning
If your file shows up in RGB, missing bleed, low-res, or looking like it was built during a personal crisis — we’ll send it back. No hard feelings. Fix it and resubmit. We print on premium hemp paper, and that paper deserves better than 72 DPI.
What Each Card Needs
Every Sazzy Card has two sides that customers see in our online builder:
🎨
Front Design
The cover — the big visual, the hook, the “I need to open this card” moment. This is what customers see first in our card picker.
💬
Inside Design
The punchline — the message, the follow-up, the part that makes people actually laugh (or cry, or both). This is shown when customers flip the card in our builder.
Both the front and inside should be submitted as separate Print-Ready PDFs per card. Name your files clearly: YourName_CardTitle_Front.pdf and YourName_CardTitle_Inside.pdf
Minimum Bundle: 6 Cards
We don’t accept one-offs. Every designer submission must include a minimum of 6 completed card designs (that’s 6 fronts + 6 insides = 12 Print-Ready PDFs).
Why? Because our customers buy in bundles, and a collection of cards from one artist hits different than a random grab bag. Your 6 cards can share a theme (e.g., all birthday, all holiday) or mix it up — as long as they all feel unmistakably you.
Think of it as your audition tape. Except instead of singing, you’re making strangers laugh with paper.
Royalties & Getting Paid
Yes, you get paid. Sazzy Cards offers royalties for every approved card design that sells through our website. Your art goes on real cards, gets shipped to real people, and you earn real money every time someone picks your design.
We don’t publish exact royalty rates publicly — because every partnership is a little different depending on scope, volume, and whether you bring your own fan base or we’re introducing you to ours.
To get the full details on royalties, rates, and partnership terms: email us at hello@sazzycards.com and we’ll walk you through everything before you commit a single pixel.
💰 “So I design cards, they sell, and I get paid every time?” — Yes. That’s literally how this works. Welcome to passive income that’s actually fun.
How to Export & Submit
Step-by-Step
- Download the template package from the button at the top of this page.
- Design your cards using the provided InDesign template (or Photoshop, exported properly).
- Export each card side as a separate Print-Ready PDF — CMYK, 300 DPI, with bleed and crop marks.
- Name your files clearly:
YourName_CardTitle_Front.pdf/YourName_CardTitle_Inside.pdf - Double-check your files against the submission checklist in your template package.
- ZIP all your PDFs into one folder.
- Email your ZIP to: hello@sazzycards.com
- Include in your email: Your name, a short bio (2-3 sentences), and your Instagram or portfolio link if you have one.
We review all submissions within 5-7 business days. If your work is accepted, we’ll reach out with next steps, royalty details, and probably a few compliments. If it’s not quite there yet, we’ll give you honest feedback so you can come back swinging.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a professional designer?
Nope. You need to be able to follow a template, export a proper PDF, and make people laugh. If you can do those three things, you’re in. Formal design degrees are cool but not required — talent is talent.
Can I submit more than 6 cards?
Absolutely. 6 is the minimum. If you’ve got 12, 20, or 50 — send them all. More cards = more chances to sell = more royalties. We love overachievers.
What kind of humor works?
Rude, crude, and hilarious. Think: the card your friend would actually want to receive, not the one they’d politely recycle. Cannabis humor, dark humor, sarcasm, adult wit — all welcome. Hate speech, slurs, and genuinely hurtful content are not. There’s a line. It’s just further out than most brands put it.
Do I keep the rights to my artwork?
We’ll cover all of this in the partnership agreement. Generally, you retain credit as the artist, and we get a license to print and sell the designs. Specifics are discussed on a per-partnership basis — email us and we’ll walk you through it.
How do royalties actually work?
You earn a royalty every time a card you designed is sold through our website. Payments are tracked per card, and we settle on a regular schedule. For exact rates and terms, reach out to hello@sazzycards.com — we’ll give you the full breakdown before you start designing.
What if my submission gets rejected?
It happens. We’ll tell you why, give you notes, and you’re welcome to resubmit. We’re not looking for perfection on the first try — we’re looking for potential. Some of our best-selling cards were second or third drafts.
Ready to Make Cards That Don’t Suck?
Email us. Introduce yourself. We’ll send you the template package and let’s see what you’ve got.
Or just say hi. We don’t bite. (The cards might.)
Contact & Submissions
Email: hello@sazzycards.com
Subject line for submissions: “Card Design Submission — [Your Name]”
Subject line for inquiries: “Designer Inquiry — [Your Name]”
Instagram: @sazzycards — Tag us in your work. We notice.
Sazzy Cards — Rude, Crude & Hilarious. Powered by Hemp Heritage™.