xmas in july :: new home christmas card

Every year, my husband and I design our own Christmas cards. On Christmas Eve of last year (crazy, I know!), we moved into our new house. Since the timing coincided (and it reduced my workload!), we wanted to combine our holiday card with our moving announcement. I didn't know what I was going to do until I saw this design from my friend, and the always creative, Kim from The TomKat Studio. 

Along with the 3-D ornaments, I added "We are decking NEW halls this holiday season". I thought it captured both purposes of the correspondence beautifully.  

(As much as I love visitors, I want you to call before you come, hence fuzzing out the address. Ha!)

xmas in july :: holiday cards

It's never too early to start thinking about your Christmas cards - they always sneak up on me anyway. I was recently contacted by The American Cancer Society about their new holiday greeting cards launching this month. So timely with my Christmas in July series. I am really excited to share these with you. Not only can you accomplish an annual chore, but you will be donating to a great cause as well! A win-win.

It seems that just about everyone knows someone who has had cancer or who has been affected by cancer. The American Cancer Society has a greeting card website in which 100% of all proceeds go toward the fight against cancer: www.ACSgreetings.org. Most cards are customizable with personalized messages, photos, fonts, colors, styles and more. There are a number of holiday cards to choose from as well as invitations and thank you notes. A message stating that 100% of the proceeds of the card go to the ACS will appear on every card.

Here are a couple of my faves...

garland christmas card display

I'm back today with a couple pictures of how my neighbor displays her Christmas cards. Every year I admire it's simplistic creativity. She saw the idea in a magazine several years ago. It was hidden in the background of a photo, but she spotted and replicated it.

I really like the juxtaposition of the glamorous/rustic bead garland and the simple modern diagonal ribbon.   Note the card holders are key chain rings - brilliant!  Using those makes the cards easy to hang up, while still keeping them snug in their place. Strung across a window in her kitchen, Valerie essentially decorates the room with correspondence friends and family provide.

Every year when I see it, I swear I'm going to make one of these, too. Next year I will have to... I now have a kitchen window in my new house - It will be perfect! Thanks for sharing with us Valerie!

xmas in july :: eco-friendly holiday cards

This idea is from December 2010 Martha Stewart. I tore it out because I thought it was such a great idea. You use one piece of paper for the card/letter and then fold it into the envelope.  Not only is it one less piece for the sender to purchase, but the environment will thank you, too.

(image and how-to via Martha Stewart)

xmas in july :: christmas card

My husband and I design our Christmas cards every year. (And every year I say "why do we do this to ourselves?!") We are usually up until wee hours of the morning designing, printing, trimming, embellishing, etc. for several nights trying to get them out the door.  Last year I came so close to ending the annual tradition of making our own. Especially after I saw this simple, but funny card on etsy.

(image source)

Oh and for any new readers, if you're interested, you can check out a few of our past cards here, here, here and here.

xmas card

As I was talking about 2010 yesterday, I realized I never shared our Christmas card with you guys.  For those of you readers who are new, I had a Christmas in July series.  Along with other Christmas inspiration, I shared all our past Christmas card designs.  My husband and I are both designers by trade and several years ago we started a little tradition of designing our own cards every year.  (Why did we do that to ourselves??? Oh that's right, ahem, we didn't have children then!)  Anyway, we've had some cards that I love and some that just "get-out-the-door" in time for the holiday.  Well, 2010's was one of those years that we just had to get it done.  And done quick, since we didn't even start until December 20th.  Yikes!  (Every year, I swear we're going to have them designed and printed by early October. Yeah, that never happens!)

We were just too busy this year for a complex design - it had to be simple!  I thought of the holes in the two zeros of 2010 and thought, "hey, we have two kids, let's throw them in the holes!"  :)  So, simple it was!  Having the pictures towards the bottom afforded us plenty of white space to sign our names and write individual notes to our friends and family.  I will say hand-cutting the bottom edge of the numbers and the insides of the zeros with an Exacto was a pain - both figuratively and literally.  And yes, I hand cut them all.  Dear hubby fell victim to a stomach bug and was puking all night while I cut.  I shouldn't complain; I'll take achy fingers over throwing up any day!  Sorry for the full disclosure here, just keeping it real, but I can't believe I let vomit enter a post about Christmas cards!