Our Christmas Cards

I can finally say that my Christmas cards are addressed and in the mail! I finished them up yesterday and it was great to cross that off of my 'to-do' list! Do you remember when I asked you all to let me know which Christmas card design you thought I would pick, based off of this blog post about shopping for cards? Well I am sharing with you all today, which design I picked! Did you guess correctly?

I am not sure about you, but I love sending & receiving Christmas cards every year, event though I am finding that I receive less and less every year. Most people refuse to pay the cost of stamps to send them out but I just decided to limit my list of recipients to a book of stamps and that's it. Nevertheless, I love taking the time to figure out what I want my cards to look like, decide on a photo and then what feeling I wish to convey when a person is holding our cards . . . classic, whimsical, humorous!

This year I got my Christmas cards from Minted as I have been wanting to give them a try for awhile and this year was the year! So how did I decide on the design that I chose? Well it's simple. I decided that since this was the first FULL year that my daughter has had with her new puppy Chili, that they would be the focus of the card this year and we'd go for more of a whimsical feel, since that's how we do Christmas too!

The photo has a kind of a retro feel to it and when I got these cards back from Minted, the finish on the cards was very matte and printed in thick cardstock so it all blended well together and I was happy with the way they turned out!

Quite honestly I picked the card design I did because once I got done editing the photos, I decided this photo looked the best with this design. I simply uploaded the picture to their website and typed in our names and ordered them. They arrived pretty quick (within a few days) and then I was anxious to sit down and do some nice hand lettering on the envelopes before sending out.

We had an extremely busy week and weekend so instead of inking the envelopes with some fancy hand lettering, I simply wrote them out quickly to save on time and get these babies in the mail. I still think they look pretty good. I of course, at least, matched the pen color to the color of the cards. Duh! ;)

Do you send out Christmas cards still? I would love to hear whether you design your own or order them from somewhere. Or perhaps you simply go 'old school' and send out actual cards that have a pre-printed message inside. I do those every few years too as I still love them.

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Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

SHOPPING :: for Christmas Cards

My favorite holiday is fast approaching. As in only 5 more weekends before it is here. Yeah . . . I just said that. Can you believe that?! One of the things I look forward to every year about this time is choosing my Christmas card design to send out to my family and friends. I have designed my own in the past as well as have someone else do it for me. I have chosen cards with a photo of the family and sometimes I choose ones without a photo - it's whatever I am feeling at the moment, ya know? Well, this is one of those years that I find myself trying to work smarter not harder with my limited time to get everything I want to do accomplished, so I am enlisting the help of someone else to do it for me. Sometimes you just have to admit you can't 'do it all' and ask for help! So I decided to start looking around online to see what my options were and to ask my friends who they were loving for Christmas card designs. After looking around awhile, I decided on a company that I have been wanting to try out for awhile as I have always heard great things about them: Minted.

These are the three designs that I narrowed it down to, can you guess which one I chose? Comment below your guess as I would love to see who is correct! One thing I loved about the ordering process was I was able to upload my own photos before I started trying to pick the one that I wanted for this year - it made it sooooo nice to be able to do that. You can upload just one photo or several at a time, it was pretty cool and fun to see the pics in the different designs. I would highly recommend doing this as I actually changed my mind on the designs I narrowed it down to, once I saw my own picture in the design. Sometimes your photo will look better in some than others. Just upload and play around with it, as you can even change colors on some of the designs, which is very helpful to see.

I think the hardest part of the process is choosing the right photo for your cards. Do you choose a nice family portrait, a shot of your family pet or a goofy pose from a family gathering? Sometimes it's nice to take the opportunity to have a formal family pose done with a photographer and I found this article on their blog about how to take great family portraits for your holiday cards. But if you don't have time this year, like I don't, to have that arranged, maybe choosing one you already have is the way to go. I am leaning towards one with our family pup, Chili. He is quite the character and everyone loves him plus it gives me a chance to maybe think about doing a whimsical card design instead of a more glamorous one. That's what I love about sending cards up, is changing it up every year!

While I was on Minted's site, I had no idea all of the other items they have that you can buy. You all know I LOVE art prints and I spent quite a bit of time perusing through all of the great artwork on the site and actually thinking about getting a print or two for a couple areas in my home. What do you all think of these two prints? I'm kinda crushing on them. ;)

Make sure to watch for me sharing which Christmas card design I decided on as I will definitely let you all know. Plus I will be sure and share which art prints I decided on and pics of them in my home. Have you purchased anything from Minted before? Let me know below as I would love to check it out!

Disclaimer: I received compensation/product from Minted in exchange for this post review, but as always, all opinions are my own and I only recommend and stand behind products I would actually love, trust or use.

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!

Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

{NEW Christmas DESIGNS} How To Order & Print Christmas Photo cards

I LOVE the holiday season as it is MY favorite time of year, as I am sure it is for most! But this year, I have especially LOVED designing for it & wanted to share some of the FUN, modern designs I have added to my shop for YOU this season.

These are the 4 NEW designs I have added this year. Have you ever done photo cards before? People you send them to LOVE them as they enjoy seeing pics of your children or family. 

It is really simple to order & ALL DESIGNS can be CUSTOMIZED with YOUR colors & text & is INCLUDED in the pricing.

Introducing my 2011 Christmas Photo Card Designs:

You can choose this "From Our Family to Yours" argyle design

Or choose this "Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas" chevron design

And this "Wishing you LOVE" photo card design

And finally this "Wishing you a Merry Christmas" traditional photo card design

If you want to order photo cards this year, here's some tips on how you can:

Step 1: select the design you wish to purchase & add it to your cart

Step 2: in the notes section - request YOUR color combo & type out the text of exactly what you want it to say

Step 3: find your most FAB photo & attach it to your order (uncropped & 300 pixels is BEST) or email it to me at laura@eyecandyeventdetails.com

Step 4: You will receive a proof from me within 24-48 hours with ALL of the requests you have made for your approval

Step 5: I send you the file right away (after approval) & just simply upload it to your favorite photo processing site & pick up when ready!

It REALLY is THAT simple. People have asked me who I recommend for printing & I would suggest someplace like Sam's or Costcos's as they do a fabulous job & many people have told me the same thing (and their prices are GREAT!)

Some additional design choices from last year:

The "Mod Snowflake" photo card design

The "Penguin" photo card design

And the last one,  "Damask" photo card design

Have a custom design request in mind? I can do that too - just email me for a quote. Please let me know if you have any questions about ordering any of the designs as I would be more than happy to help you out. 

  Just post it here or send me an email at laura@eyecandyeventdetails.com

So which one is YOUR favorite? I would love to hear! =)

Thanks for being here & I hope you have a fabulous holiday season!