Before baby was born, I used to finish all of my Christmas cards on the day after Thanksgiving. It was an important holiday tradition for me. I used Christmas cards to get in touch with old friends and to send photos to those elderly relatives and friends who just haven’t gotten the hang of email. This year, I waited until the last-minute to get started…but my cards will still arrive before Christmas Day.
Even if you haven’t started on your Christmas cards yet, it is not too late to make and send a personalized holiday card. Here are my suggestions for making a great homemade Christmas card at the last minute.
– Pick out your favorites photos! You take hundreds of pictures of your beautiful children. So either pose baby for a Christmas-themed shot or select some of your favorite pics from the past year.
– How to make a photo card at the last-minute: Warehouse Club Option.If you don’t want to get stuck with hefty shipping charges, it’s probably too late to order photo cards by mail from one of the big internet sites like Snapfish. If you have a warehouse club membership, order online and pickup instore. I’m a Costco member. I took my Christmas photos last Friday, submitted a card order on Saturday and picked it up on Sunday! It was easy and affordable.
– How to make a photo card at the last-minute: Do It Yourself.If you own a photo printer, you can make a 4×6 photo card easily. Just buy some photo paper and download a free card template online. I own an Epson printer, so I used these free card templates. Once you’ve dropped your photo into the template, just print as many cards as you need. You can find envelopes easily at any office supply store or at your local Walmart.
–How to make a photo card at the last-minute: The Green Option. It’s environmentally-friendly to send digital cards. Plus you’ll save money and time. While you can’t send e-cards to elderly relatives who don’t use the internet, they are the best way to send a card to your environmentalist or techie friends. Since I’m really into scrapbooking, I use www.scrapblog.com, a free service to create and send electronic photo cards. Scrapblog has all the tools you need for sophisticated digital scrapbooking– for free! You can publish your scrapblog online, email it to your friends, post to your blog or facebook page and even add motion and music.
–Personalize Your Cards: A heartfelt note, your child’s signature in crayon…little things make a difference. This year, I’m personalizing my holiday cards with photo stamps. They’re a bit of a splurge (20 regular stamps cost $16.95)…but it’s a fun way to celebrate baby’s first Christmas. I found my photo stamps atPictureItPostage, which I picked since they offer the most customization and stamps about 3x the size of regular stamps.
