Spread the love this Valentine’s Day with Designer and Copilot

Hello there, Microsoft 365 Insiders! At any age, Valentine’s Day cards can be special. After all, there’s maybe no better feeling than giving and receiving love and affection. But how to properly express it in writing? This Valentine’s Day, consider letting Microsoft Designer and Copilot design the perfect messages. Not only will this make sending valentines a lot easier and more creative, but it can be a wonderful activity to do with your children. We tried it out with our loved ones and had so much fun in the process – check out what we came up with, and how we did it!

Bonding with a best friend

Our first mother-daughter duo is Crystal and her daughter, Addy. They created a card for Addy’s best friend using Copilot that includes characters her bestie loves, and plenty of hearts.

They started with this prompt:

Copilot, make me a Valentine’s Day card with Anya (from “Spy x Family”), Dovewing from “Warrior Cats“ (a book series), and Leafeon from Pokémon for a best friend and text saying, “Sending love to my bestest bestie.”

After the first round of results, Addy determined that Copilot was probably not familiar with the characters requested, and she should ask for something more specific. She also wanted to change the look of the cards. So, she altered her prompt to:

Make me a Valentine’s Day card with cats, sprinkles, and rainbows for a best friend and text saying, “Sending love to my bestest bestie.”

This resulted in several card options she was happy with, but she decided to go with the one below!

Celebrating for a class party

Heather partnered with her two elementary school children – a girl and a boy – to create Valentine’s Day cards for their class parties in Designer.

Her daughter wanted her card to include elephants, but they soon realized she would get a better (and more interesting!) result if she clarified the color of the elephants. She also discovered that she had to be specific about what the text read – or else it might generate something that didn’t fit her audience. “My daughter’s first card came back with a big ‘I love you’ on it, and she said she could not give that to the boys in her class!” Heather said.

Here’s the prompt they used to come up with an invitation they loved:

A Valentine’s card for third graders. It should include pink elephants eating pink food at a party.

And here’s how it turned out:

Heather’s son wanted his card to have warriors on it, so they crafted the following prompt:

A Valentine’s card for a first grader. It should include fancy warriors fighting other warriors, using hearts as their weapons.

Here’s what Designer came up with:

Adding a personal touch

Susan helped her 11-year-old daughter create a Valentine’s Day card that properly expressed her personality and passions. “Without hesitation, Briar decided she wanted to create an anime-themed card because of her love for anime,” Susan said.

They started by asking Copilot to make a card filled with bright colors, cute characters, and lots of hearts and sparkles. However, the first results they got Susan’s daughter thought were too basic and lacked the personal touch she was looking for. So, they asked for Copilot to help them refine their prompt (yes, it can do this, too!), and after several iterations this is what they decided on:

Make a Valentine’s Day card with anime stuff! Use bright colors like pink and red. Put cute anime characters, like a boy and girl holding hands or giving each other a heart. Add lots of hearts, stars, and sparkles. The background should be light with cherry blossom petals falling. Write “Happy Valentine’s Day” in a fun, bubbly font at the top.

And here’s what Copilot delivered:

“We learned that being specific in our prompts made a significant difference in the output,” Susan said, adding, “It showed us that creativity often requires multiple attempts and adjustments to get things just right.”

Pairing the perfect message and visuals

Michelle sat down with her first grader and fifth grader to make Valentine’s Day cards they could send to friends.

With her fifth grader, Michelle started by using Copilot to come up with a fun and personalized greeting:

Write a Valentine’s Day greeting card to a female friend named Charlotte. Make it sound cutesy and funny with references to bunnies. Include rhyming words and provide at least 2 sentences.

Then, they headed over to Designer to complement their message with relevant imagery:

A simple illustration of a bunny sending a friend a paper airplane to another bunny friend. Background should be light pastel yellow, and they are standing in a patch of grass with a variety of colors. Paper airplane should include a heart in the middle.

This is how it turned out:

For the second card for Michelle’s first grader, they followed the same process, beginning with a message brainstorm with Copilot:

Come up with a Valentine’s Day greetings for my friend Aryan and make it funny with a joke about race cars.

They had to refine this prompt a bit to get exactly what they were looking for – a pun and rhyme – but after a few tries they were ready to jump into Designer to craft the card:

A realistic image of a blue race car that has hearts on it driving down a race track. Make the background blend of color sky blue and orange. Add the greetings “Happy Valentine’s Day, Aryan!”

Here’s what resulted:

Michelle said her kids really enjoyed what Designer’s AI came up with based on their interests, and were happy that they also had the option to add stylistic elements to the Copilot text they wrote into the card. “It’s really neat seeing their reactions as it showed what they were envisioning,” she added.

How it works

1. Open Microsoft Designer and navigate to Greeting Cards. Or, open Copilot to begin a new request.
2. Sign into your Microsoft account, or create one for free. 
3. If you see a card design you like in Designer, select it to customize the same prompt with your own information.
4. To create a design from scratch, select the Description box and add your prompt, then select Generate in Designer. Or, type your idea into the prompt box in Copilot.
5. Once you’re done iterating on your design, select Download to save the card to your desktop to print, email, or share on social media.

Tips and tricks

As you draft your own Designer and Copilot prompts this Valentine’s Day (and beyond!), use these tips to improve their effectiveness:

• Be specific: Instead of asking, “Create a Valentine’s Day card for a mom,” you could ask, “Create a Valentine’s Day card for my mom who loves golfing, baking, and birds.”
• Provide context: Make it clear what the card is celebrating, whom it’s for, and who you are in relation to the person. If you’d prefer it didn’t include something or said a specific phrase, clarify that in your prompt.
• Ask clear questions: Instead of a broad question like, “What should I write in a Valentine’s Day card for my boyfriend?”, try, “What are some sweet, short messages I could write in a Valentine’s Day card for my boyfriend that I’ve been with for 3 years?”
• Break down complex requests: If you have a multi-part request, break it into smaller parts: “First, make a Valentine’s Day card with chocolates on it. Then, include a food-themed message sharing my love for my wife.”
• Specify desired format: If you need the text to come in a list or quotations, mention that. For example, “Write a funny list of Valentine’s Day to-dos for my husband that I can put in my card for him.”
• Indicate your preferences: Let Designer or Copilot know if you have a preference for the type of information or tone: “A professional Valentine’s Day card for a coworker/friend.”
• Provide examples: If you’re looking for creative ideas, give an example of what you like: “I need a funny note for a Valentine’s Day card around dogs, similar to, ‘You are paw-sitively the best!’”
• Make follow-up requests: If the initial response isn’t quite what you need, make a follow-up request to narrow down the design: “Make the heart appear in the lower half of the card.”
• Be patient and iterative: Sometimes it takes a few tries to get the perfect result. Feel free to refine your prompt based on the initial designs you receive.

 

We hope your Valentine’s Day is filled with quality time, delicious treats, and lots of love!

 

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