Special thanks to Ainsley Bevis from BloomWebDesign.net for sending in this great Adobe Illustrator tutorial! She covers a number of good techniques good for beginner to intermediate Illustrator users, and some of the tricks are sheer genious!
Ainsley writes . . .

Learn how to make a Christmas theme print ready postcard in Photoshop! We'll be designing the Front & Back of the Postcard using various shapes and helpful methods & techniques.

Final Result shown at the left.

1. Create a new document to be your template. Use the settings below.  The resolution is set to 300 for high quality & CMYK is the Printing mode.

2. Size the cropping area: Press CTRL+R to bring up the rulers around the canvas. Drag out 2 horizontal & vertical lines and place them on the edge of the canvas like below:

3. Expand to create Bleed : Next go to Image > Canvas Size (ALT+CTRL+C) and expand the canvas using the settings below. These lines are now show the 'Cutting Risk Area'. Make sure your postcard design stays within the lines.

NEXT: Use the Template and build your card front

... continues on the next page!