It warms my heart when friends and family tell me they look forward to our Christmas card every year or that ours was the coolest. The end of the year is the most stressful time for me, so making these cards as a “year in review” is a satisfying reflection that makes all the stress worth it. I tell my husband (and the rest of you, evidently): look at all the cool stuff we did this year! Are we really that busy?
Here’s the icing on the cake…we only spend about $0.20 per card by making our own. I know we could do a fancy family photo shoot, or wrap Christmas lights around the dogs for a lovely printed product, but other than silly selfies I don’t like being in front of the camera. And let’s be honest, our pups would freak out if we tied them up in Christmas lights and probably break a leg, maybe even knock the Christmas tree over. The alternative is a thrifty custom card that we can collect through the years.
I purchase blank scrapbook cards from Hobby Lobby every summer. That’s right…summer. While some of you complain about Christmas products being in the store before Halloween, I’m snatching up the things I need at 40-50% off. Why pay $40 for 200 cards when I can get them for about half that? So that’s about $0.11 per card. That includes the envelopes. That’s why they call it Christmas in July. Because SALE!
Throughout our adventures, we take some pretty goofy selfies. Some of these get selected for the silly montage we put on the front. Those who know me well know that I love PowerPoint for it’s design capabilities. I montage pictures to fit within a 4 x 6″ rectangle…because that’s the standard photo kiosk printing size at about $0.18 per print. Cut in half, we spend about $0.09 per photo per card.
Also in PowerPoint I design a layout that prints well on those 5.5 x 8.5″ cards (inside, open). This part is the most fun, where we reflect on our adventures for the year, silliness from the dogs, and what we look forward to in the coming year. We have a glass of wine, run everything through the printer, and just hope I didn’t misspell anything.
Cutting and taping the photos to the front isn’t rocket science. In fact, I purposely tape them at an angle just so my OCD doesn’t drive me bonkers trying to line them up perfectly in the center. Besides…I’m usually drinking wine while I’m doing this.
And at that, they’re ready to be stuffed into envelopes and sent off (or hand delivered). Maybe it’s more work than most, but it’s one of the highlights of my crafty year. Here are our Christmas cards from prior years (we started doing this in 2012). Next year, be on the lookout for a new layout on the inside.
And as always, be merry this Christmas.