You may not know this about me, but I designed custom Christmas cards for the first 10 years of my business.
By fortunate connections between my sister and a very talented local photographer in Seattle, I worked on projects for some wonderful Seattle families including a pretty famous one by the name of Gates. Each year they ordered 750 handmade cards with handwritten front and return addresses. I did this nine years in a row. Those nine years were insane.
One year, I finalized a design with The Family, gave birth the next day to our son, then worked non-stop on cards for the following 4 weeks. Needless to say, I can’t really remember much about November 2007.
This was all during the time when handmade cards were the rage. Layers of paper, ribbons, vellum, cutouts, a real photo (here’s a sample of some of my past projects). I loved the families I created for and loved the way it helped support our family, but 10 years in and with JDC moving in a different direction, it was time to say no to custom work.
But even after no longer taking custom clients, I continued to design our family’s yearly Christmas cards. It felt wrong for a stationery designer to not design her own cards!
Then one year, I just didn’t have it in me. With four little ones and a blog to keep up with and a hundred other Christmas traditions to carry on, creating our Christmas cards felt like something I needed to let go of. Rather than giving up on the tradition altogether, I decided to let someone else design our cards. That year was the first time I ordered through Minted.
Honestly, I’ll probably never go back to making Christmas cards myself :)
I’m not saying you shouldn’t if that is something you love to do. In fact, I love receiving handmade cards and so appreciate all the time and effort that goes in to putting your creative touch on your cards. Being your own designer can save you money and you get to create exactly what you want. Plus, it can be very fun.
But if you’re not as inclined to design your own (or you’re feeling a little overwhelmed with all the to-dos already stacking up this holiday season!) may I suggest taking a peek at the wonderfulness over on Minted?
I had so much fun looking through all the designs this year, trying out our photo in each one and finally made a selection (they should arrive any day!) There are so many great designs to pick from and I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorites this year:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
So cute, right? There are hundreds of other great designs with fun options for colors and shapes and they even offer envelope addressing for free.
You can order your cards now
// OR //
enter to win a $250 Minted gift card!
Click here to enter. Minted will select TWO winners.
Giveaway ends Friday November 27th. Good luck!
What’s not to LOVE about watercolor hearts, arrows, rain clouds raining down hearts?
templates printed on thick white paper / scissors / adhesive (like this) / washi tape (here’s my favorite source)
STEP TWO / fold in sides, press firmly to crease
STEP THREE / fold up bottom, press firmly to crease
STEP FOUR / use glue dots (or other adhesive) to attach bottom flap to sides
STEP FIVE / write a love note and slip it in
STEP SIX / fold down top flap and seal with washi tape
Add a name to the front and send to your valentine!
There are four designs with matching note cards + envelopes, but feel free to mix & match!
