I make shareable photo prayer cards for my Episcopal Prayers for Sharing project on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.  This a popular prayer card from the compline service in The Book of Common Prayer:

Here’s how to make a prayer card:

1. Choose a prayer to share.  The Book of Common Prayer is not copyrighted, so it is my main source of prayers.   Many versions of the Bible are copyrighted, so I stay away from Bible quotes.

2. Take a photo.  Find something to suite the mood of your prayer – candles, scenery, flowers, stained glass window, an abstract background etc.  I use my iPhone 4 to take photos, but sometimes I will be using non-copyrighted, public domain photos from NASA and other sources.

3. Crop and Edit your photo.   I have been using the free software from google called Picasa to store and edit photos for the over eight years, and it works well for my needs.  GIMP is another free photo editing software package. Adobe Photoshop is the top photo-editing product available for purchase.

4. Add Text.  For a short prayer, I add text using the text tools in Picasa. When I want to have the text of the prayer next to the photo, I use Powerpoint 2010 to make a slide.  I then save the slide as a .jpg image and then crop the .jpg image using Picasa again. Adobe Illustrator is a popular graphic design software package that can can also make prayer cards.

5.  Share it!  I post my photos to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. On Facebook, I write “Please feel free to “share” this prayer with your friends” to encourage people to share the prayers on their timelines.

6.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  Prayers are meant to be said over and over again, so find more photos and make more prayer cards.

Don’t Forget:  Add a footnote on your prayer card with your web address or facebook page address, so people can find more information on your organization or project.