I am a Christmas card junkie. There. I said it. I've outed myself. I love Christmas cards. And by love, I mean obsess over. I start thinking about cards long before Thanksgiving...and I have a HORRIBLE/WONDERFUL time choosing which styles to order...this year I surfed the net for 3 days before I even narrowed down the sites I wanted to order from.
And then...as if that wasn't enough...after I had already decided which cards to order, my girl Jamielyn from I Heart Naptime told me about Paper Coterie and I had to start all over (in this case, that was a good thing...Paper Coterie is da bomb).
I finally decided on 5 different card styles...yes...5. I ended up ordering 20 each (or approximately) of the 5 different designs...is that weird?
Here's what I got (the "befores")...
from Shutterfly...
also from Shutterfly...
from Paper Coterie - this one actually comes with scalloped edges...love.
another from Paper Coterie...and this one comes in this super-cool scroll-y shape...
I also have one more that I ordered from Snapfish, but I was having trouble with their site, so I can't show you a before (frowny face)... and I was too lazy to actually walk over to the scanner and scan one...(another frowny face).
I received the cards and thought - you know, I wanna try to make these a little more personalized...a little more special...maybe not so "I just went online, typed in our names, added a photo and bang-zoom here are our cards"-ish...so I busted out the scrapbook stuff and set to work...
Here's what I did (and let me tell you, this honestly took like no time at all...I finished half the cards while we were watching TV and I'll finish the other half later this week before I drop them all in the mail)...
Here I just cut out some scallop tags, added some rub-ons & a date stamp & attached them to the corner of the card with some twine...
With the second Shutterfly card I just wrapped a doily around the side and tied on some twine...easy peasy...
I love this Paper Coterie card just as it is (aren't those scalloped edges awesome???)...but I still wanted to add a little something...a little blue bow fit the bill perfectly (the back of the card is the same color blue)...
Another awesome-ly shaped card from Paper Coterie...I added some more baker's twine & a kraft tag and sticker and now it's just a little more special...
And here's the last one...from Snapfish...just your plain jane 4x8 photo card. I wrapped a piece of Tim Holtz glassine kraft paper around the card (after I'd embossed it with a snowflake) and attached the edges in the back with a Christmas sticker...voila. I especially like the look of these cards because I think the kraft glassine looks like leather...ooooh.
There you have it! With just a few embellishments and a couple of nights in front of the TV, my Chrismtas cards are just a touch more "me."
And the obsession lives on...
I plan on sending my cards on December 1...is this too early? Too late? What's your opinion?
I'll be sharing these cards at a few of these parties this week...
