We were late to order our chirstmas cards…they will be here just in the St. Nick of time! Eek!
Why the delay?
Well, I couldn’t decide which photo I liked better….so I made two cards. The first was pretty standard…baby between the legs shot. No…not a labor & delivery picture…which would have been hilarious now that I think about it. MERRY CHRISTMAS! (and here’s a little reminder of the reason for the season! enter vaginal birth photo here).
okay…now that I fully butchered this post – here is the first Christmas card:
And here is the second one…the one we ended up ordering for the masses:
It was inspired by a christmas card post I found on Erika’s blog. I love her twin sister Darby and just recently started blogstalking Erika and her cutie-patootie baby. And on the back of the card we included our yearly highlights. You know – the big stuff for each month that made up 2010. We also left a little empty spot on the side so that we could have space to hand write a message if we wanted.
So that is our christmas cards – oh and I did get an early christmas present…one of these bad boys:
Except our says “The Bowers” and has our address. I know. I know. If we end up moving, it’ll be a short-lived gift. But with 100+ christmas cards to send out, this will literally save my life (or at least my hand) this holiday season.
So have you done your Christmas cards? Anyone else include the yearly highlights? Or maybe you only include a couple big things for each person? Where do you print yours? Or perhaps you buy the photo-slip-in-style and handwrite each one? I’d love to hear all your card details…
Oh my gosh. That has to be the cutest Christmas card I have ever seen!
The first one is my favorite- it’s adorable!
I love the pics you chose but honestly my favorite part of the card is the back. That is so clever, I LOVE it!
Im terrible with Christmas cards. I love to receive them and I adore the photo cards but it seems like every year I fall behind and even if I intended to order photo cards, I dont have enough time. So everyone gets a store bought card. Funny, I hate doing that. You’d think I would learn from year to year.
P.S. Did you get your stamp on Etsy? Its really cute!
So cute!!! Where did you order these from??? The back is definitely a great idea!!
I think Jeremy ordered it from Etsy 🙂
xo – kb
I *just* ordered my cards 5 minutes ago from tinyprints.com and should arrive by next Tuesday. We included a picture of our puppy with reindeer antlers this year.
Love your two choices, especially with the year’s highlights! Oh, and I’m also a huge fan of Darby and Erika 🙂
Just sending ours out today. Woop woop! I get mine printed through http://www.nextdayflyers.com/ I’ve used them for years for business and personal use and love them. Their prices are ridiculously low, the turn around is amazing, and the print and paper quality is to die for. The last two years I’ve done postcards and love them. I order 100 but receive more like 200 because they send any overruns too. The printing, shipping, AND stamp costs total 65.5 cents per card. At that price there’s no excuse not to send out cards each year!
Hi Carla,
We ordered them from VistaPrint. We wait until they send out a ‘free’ infused email and then we jump on it. The total cost for 100 standard postcards during the freebie times (no envelopes because we have a huge stash here) with both front and back printed in color is $10. And then we got half off shipping so cost $17 total for us to get 100 of these bad boys 🙂
xo -kb
Thanks for the tip!
So the “boyfriend” ordered it? Im impressed… 😉
WOW!! That’s awesome!! They are adorable (I have yet to do mine due to our little arrival – seriously where does the time go?!)
Thanks for the tip!
Ha ha ha! You never cease to make me laugh! Your opener was hilarious. And your pics are so sweet. I love the card with Will’s bare feet…there’s maybe even a little wave in there too! :). Merry Christmas!
Being a graphic designer, I usually make my own. This year we took a photo and then I added some type in Photoshop and then just ordered them online from Target and picked them up in the store an hour later. I just print the regular 4×6 size, so it’s quick and painless. Then I just pop em in an envelope and mail em out. I was able to do it all in a single afternoon this past Sunday!
Aww! I LOVE that first shot! So cute. The second one is really cute too, of course, but I really like that you and the BF are in the first.
he sure did….he knows how to work my wishlist like a pro. It may or may not work because I constantly remind him 🙂
xo – kb
Does it come with the ink too? I see you can order it in different colors and I want one!! ;o)
No it doesn’t…it’s just a stamp…but since I had my own ink pads, I liked it better that way. If it was self-inking I couldn’t clean it off before putting it away 🙂
xo – kb
CA-HUTE card! I would have had a hard time choosing too! Did you set the timer and take the picture on the pic of the 3 of you, or enlist someone else? I have to say, I know all of us (especially the Moms) are busy, but my #1 pet peeve this year has been the photo card, with NO signed names, and my name and address printed on a label from a computer. It feels SO impersonal, and is how most of our cards have come. I at least like to see our names written on the card..like they thought for a SPLIT second “I hope Lynn and Mike like this picture”. What do you all think? Am I being too nit picky? 🙂 This bother anyone else, or is it just how the world is these days with our Yule Tide rush?
I design ours each year, with some inspiration I see out on the interwebs! I usually print them in home (on a high quality printer, with some nice paper), and then we hand write little notes on the back, stuff ’em, and send ’em!
My great-uncle, who was a cartoonist, used to send each family member hand drawn cards every year. I miss those!
Unfortunately I think you’re totally right…its “just the way it is now.” But you can still make a difference by personalizing your cards when you send them. You never know when it might influence someone to re-think the way they send their impersonalized one the next year.
Writing is becoming a dying thing of the past everywhere though…I mean, when was the last time you rec’d a hand-written note from a friend in the mail? I miss it too!:( Funny how the little things can mean so much to us.
If I had thighs that didn’t touch on top like yours I’d be sending that first photo out to everyone I knew and a lot of people I didn’t!
Cute ideas.
My cards aren’t showing up until Dec. 18 at the earliest. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
those are both ADORABLE – your son is the cutest little photogenic sweetie!
I really like the first one.
This year I sent out an e-card in an attempt to go green. I posted it on Young House Love’s facebook page on Sunday if you want to check it out.
Both cards are adorable Katie! You’re so talented. Thanks for sharing
Im loving the xmas cards! – i said to my Fiance that next xmas were going to be on these like donkey kong.
It will be our first xmas as husband as wife in 2011, so personalised xmas decoration, personalised xmas cards… Hmmmmmmmmmm wonder what else we can personalise… hehe
xx
These are so cute!! My family always waits until the last minute to take our Christmas (I mean New Year) photo- aka Christmas Eve when everyone is together again…ha
Love the idea of the short synopsis on the back- much better than those lengthy holiday letters! 🙂
-Marissa
http://noraisinsonmyparade.com
Oh Lynn…I know how you feel but at the same time, I am sortof shocked that I have ANY christmas card at all 🙂
xo – kb
Wow Sara….THAT is a rarity!
xo – kb
Hi Erin,
It’s called ‘poppin the bootie’….my thighs touch too…
xo – kb
I love your cards! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten one that personal and fun. It will be so fun for your family and friends to open and post in their homes. You definitely give me some good ideas for next year. This year we just added a photo to a photo card and ordered them from Walgreens…not very creative…I know…but at least we got something out to everyone and it has our faces on it. I’m picking them up this evening and wondering if there was some way I could still incorporate your “year in review” idea on the back. Thoughts, anyone?
AAWWWW! I love it!
We just ordered (well, received) our save the date postcards – so we’re skipping a Christmas card this year.
And, fingers are still crossed about the house situation!
-Meg @ EMBIE {home}
What a tough choice to make! I LOVE both. This year I have been tempted to write one of those lengthy holiday letters–you know, the ‘funny ones’ that are written by the ‘baby’ or the ‘dog’? But since we have no baby or dog (or any pet for that matter!) I would have to write it myself, and unfortunately we haven’t had much exciting news-yawn. That said, thanks for sharing your short and sweet monthly synopsis–that is definitely something anyone could do! For my Dad’s side of the family (the Easters), I found really neat letterpress Christmas cards, with sledding bunnies on them. I hope they get the joke, although if I don’t send them soon, it might be Easter by the time they recieve them! Thank you, thank you for reminding me that it’s not too late to get moving on this before Christmas arrives!!
I love Will’s expression in the second one… and that first is just adorable too 🙂
This year we drew our own cartoon self portrait (including doggies) and added color in Photoshop. Our printer is crappy, so we are having them printed @ Kinkos. Then I plan on glueing each print to a pretty wrapping paper. We only send out about 30 cards, so it’s totally doable. I am sure if we had 100 cards to mail- I wouldn’t even be motivated enough to order online!
Katie Bower, you crack me up…and never cease to amaze me with your talents! We went with Pear Tree Greetings this year. Our photo was less-than-stellar (I ordered the cards literally 2 days before I saw that you could’ve helped our family pic with your magic Photoshop touch…), but they are here and nearly addressed. Falalalalalalalala!!
Maybe you could just print out a little highlights thing on paper and slip it inside the card! I have friends that do it that way 🙂
xo – kb
I love your Christmas cards! And your intro into the post totally cracked me up. Happy holidays!!
HAHAHAHA!!!!!I love you Katie Bower:)
Katie, I just got one of those stampers for my wedding. Mine is a little different, but I love them!! I can’t wait until next year to get a holiday insert. I just finished blogging about our card this year and the great stamper. You can check them out here if you get time.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390101024286&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I love the Christmas card you picked, but I also love the first one too! I love how Will is peaking out behind his parent’s legs. You got such a great deal!! I will have to look into that for next year.
Happy Holidays!!!
adorable cards! can you post the link to your inspiration?? I couldn’t find it on the blog you linked to.
I feel the same way, although our names are printed on our cards! I do hand write the person’s name/address on the envelope and use a label for the return address 🙂
So cute! I love both! I made my own cards this year and included a photo of our son (Dallas, born 5-14-10, same day as another little girl you know) it was fun, but I have to admit a lot of work, good thing I became a stay at home mom this year too so I had the time. I also used to write letters, but we started our blog this year so I just wrote “visit our blog at … to see what we’ve been up to this year”, hopefully our family will check it out and see lots more pics of our monkey! Will is adorable by the way;)
My husband is in love with Groundhog Day (Feb 2), so back when we got married we started a tradition of sending out our cards on Groundhog Day instead of Christmas. It’s been a lot of fun, and our friends and family always get a kick out of receiving our card in late January. It helps me out a lot, too, because it’s one less thing on my to-do list before Christmas time. And, after all the dozens of Christmas cards have been removed from our friends’ and families’ fridges after January 1st, our family’s picture arrives in their mailbox and gets center-stage on everyone’s fridge. 🙂
I ordered our cards using Shutterfly’s freebie for bloggers. I just received an email this morning that the cards have shipped and should arrive at my house tomorrow. Of course that means I’ll be spending my Friday evening addressing cards so that they can get out in the mail on Saturday. Hopefully, most of the cards make it to their respective destinations before the actual Holidays!
Ohh! We get ours from Vistaprint, too! This year I got 100 5x7s for $18. I was psyched.
The photocards are great! I usually design ours in photoshop & have vistaprint print them, too. Love your little highlights note on the back – I’ll have to borrow that idea for our cards next year!
I LOVE both cards – and the year of highlights is great. So cute!
Hello! I saw on your FY10 highlights that you began as a stay at home wife/mom – and I know you’ve referenced that Jeremy works from home. Would you mind sharing what he does for work, and what you used to do? I’m not sure if you’ve posted about it before and I just missed it…
Thanks for always entertaining and sharing your great ideas!
I love the “highlights” section…so cute! Would you mind telling me (please!!) what font you used for each month’s highlight description? For instance, the part that reads, “bought a new car.” I love that font…too cute!
Hi Jaclyn,
I love it too…The font is called Whackadoo – and I forget which free site I found it…probably dafont.com 🙂
xo – kb
Hi KimberlyH…
actually Jeremy works for a little company called Equifax and I used to work as a reinsurance intermediary. I know, we are a couple of nerds.
xo – kb
LOL< I was thinking the same thing! Nice! I'm gonna have to try that 🙂
I LOVE your cards! so adorable!
I actually used your tutorial “how to make a white background” on my Christmas cards. I dont have a kid, but i have a baby (goldendoodle) he’s 9mo old and 80 lbs! i stuck him in some reindeer antlers, followed your tutorial, got the pictures printed at target and glued them on Cardstock notecards and voila! i’ve gotten tons of compliments! so thanks for your guidance!
Thank you!!