Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holiday has been wonderful. We are enjoying a family ski trip to Utah again this year. It’s been wonderful to catch up with everyone. Family is the best.

Check out our 2018 family Christmas card. We love how it turned out. I designed and handcrafted around 80 cards / envelopes. I thought I’d share a little bit of the process and how the card came to be.

Every year I design a card and have it printed, but the last couple of years I’ve wanted to incorporate handmade elements into it.

This card came together in five phases and was assembled over a 2 week period.

1. Concept and prototype: Typically I start with a family photo. This year we did not take a group family photo and so I was a little perplexed where to start. We tried to snap a picture at Thanksgiving but it wasn’t the best. Instead I figured we could choose a few photos to collage. Then I started to think about how to organize the information to accompany the photos. After a few prototypes I came up with a layout that I liked inspired by a library card.

2. Design: After I knew how the card prototypes would work I set to create the computer designed elements. I laid out the card front (I cheated and used a pattern I found from Creative Market). I changed the colors to coordinate with the Stampin’ Up! Colors I wanted to use (Tranquil Tide, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral and Petal Pink). Second I designed the library card and added the years most memorable highlights. I searched through our various phone photo libraries to find decent companion photos for the back side. Then I designed the card back with all of the photos and dates. I set all of these all up to print 5x7. The library card was set up two cards to a 5x7 card. I planned to trim to size later.

3. Printing: I had the cards printed at COSTCO. It’s a super affordable option and you recieve envelopes as well. I chose front and back four color printing on an uncoated heavy paper stock. The printing is pretty color accurate and turns out great. Bonus for me … I had a 50$ voucher that covered almost all of the printing. Good deal. The cards were printed and delivered in just under a week.

4. Assembly: While I waited for the printed components to arrive I started to produce the handmade components. I die cut the word ‘Holidays"‘ from Tranquil Tide cardstock. I knew the library pocket would be the perfect place to incorporate a little bit of hand stamping. I cut and scored vanilla card stock that once folded could be adhered to the card front. Before I assembled the pocket I did all of the stamping using the Stamparatus (stamp alignment tool). I stamped and heat embossed the sentiments with gold emboss powder. The swirls and leaves are stamped in Petal Pink. I did all this x 80.

5. Addressing: The envelopes came with our address pre printed. I wanted to dress the up a little bit with stamping. The front side was also hand stamped with elements from the ‘Merry Christmas to All’ stamp set.

If you are interested, I have a few video stories of the card assembly on my instagram @i.heart.stamps

When I showed the card to Ben (our 16 year old) he didn’t get it. He never had to manually check out a book using a card and pocket. So this card is for the old fogies. LOL. Wishing you a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! Charlet