Holiday Card Ideas

Christmas cards are my jam. I enjoy creating them every year, and even if it sometimes feels like a chore to put them together, we can all agree that we love receiving them, right? And I’ve said it before, they make great meaningful holiday decor! As well as year-round decor, which I will talk about in this post. 🙂

This year I used Persnickety Prints for the first time, and I loved how they turned out!

A few things I love about Persnickety Prints (I’ve recently started using them for my photo printing as well):

• No logo on the card.
• Paper quality: pearl, art, linen and smooth matte (I chose smooth matte).
• Ability to DIY: There is a design template, but I was able to tweak and add some text, too. Love that!
• Cards ship in 24 hours.
• Silver-lined envelopes.

I picked this design because I really liked the “be joyful” message, so appropriate for the Christmas hustle-bustle, a reminder to be focused and present on what’s most important (I need that reminder daily!).

Loved the pewter (they also have copper) so I tried to match our outfits and told our photographer that I needed some space at the top for “be joyful”. I loved how it turned out and fits perfectly with the cross.

I added the three photo boxes on the back to plug in some individual shots of the kids.

Last year I wrote some holiday cards tips, and mentioned I don’t think you have to use professional photos in your card, but I am a big proponent of annual family photos because kids change so quickly, so this year I decided to use ours.

I found Kimberly Daniels Photography through a mutual friend and she is so amazing! If you’re like me and get anxiety symptoms just thinking about family photos, you would love Kimberly. She is wonderful and knows the perfect balance of getting great composition shots quickly while engaging the kiddos to get some natural smiles.

I went in with the expectation that we just get a couple poses, but Kimberly gracefully managed to get way more than I expected and we even had leftover time for some candids at the end. And she made sure to get many different poses since it’s sometimes hard to get everyone to cooperate. I won’t name any names, haha…

There is always one in every family, right? Gotta love it. In full disclosure, I did bribe my boys with being able to pick out a toy afterward and gave them all-you-can-eat M&Ms during the shoot, but even with those bribes it’s often still hard to corral them, but Kimberly did such a great job!

Some of the shots she got melted my heart.

And I loved the details and candid shots.

 

Such sweet moments that she caught before they were off and running again!

And equally great are the ones that show some personality…

And since I’m typically the one who’s behind the camera, I really love these candids with my girl.

  

And I loved this one with Daddy, too.

It was her idea to do the shoot at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, so many rich background options!

I went with more neutral outfits so we can enjoy them year round, and my card will work for that as well – I can just throw it in a frame. (Isn’t this frame great? It was made by my friend Kari over at Clean Slate Designs. Stay tuned for a fun giveaway!)

But I love how it’s versatile for Christmas, too.

There is still time to get cards out – Persnickety Prints will print and ship in-house within 24 hours. They also have some super cute New Year’s card templates, too! Use code “SHIP40” for orders over $40 and get free shipping until 12/31.

If you’re looking for a photographer, Kimberly goes back and forth between California and Texas, but she also travels a lot nationwide – this year she’s shot weddings in GA, FL, IL, CO, AZ, WA, OK, and MI. Check out her work at Kimberly Daniels Photography.