DIY Christmas Card + Printable

Every Christmas, I try to send out some Christmas cards to family and close friends.
I don't tend to like buying cards at the store because it feels less thoughtful to me, however making twenty-something individual cards is just too time consuming.   Last Christmas, I decided to put my creativity to the computer about 6 handmade cards into the season.  I still made all of our cards, but this time I could mass produce the results much more efficiently.

After I designed the card, I printed it on craft colored card stock in black ink.  Printing the inside message is as simple as flipping the paper over and printing on the other side - unless you have a fancy printer that does the flipping for you.

Using the open source program Scribus, I took the design from one of my hand drawn cards and put it into effect on the computer.  It was very simple text placement, but allowed me to make some small handmade changes to each card to still give it a handmade approach. Handmade Inspiration

 Card in Scribus with Hand-Drawn Details

Interior card message.

  Using a straight edge, markers, and prismacolor pencils, you can use this generalized card to put some handmade touches to all of your cards.

Adding those embellishments are as easy as this - just make a mixture of horizontal, vertical, thick, and thin lines.

 
I tried to stick with Christmas or winter colors like reds, greens, blues, silver, and gold in the colors I used.  Let Christmassy patterns inspire you like candy canes, Christmas sweaters and snowflakes.

This year, maybe you're like me and like to add some handmade touches to your cards, but don't want to design them yourself?  You're in luck, because you can print this card for free at your home!


Below are two links, one for the front, the other for the inside of the card.   Link to Merry and Bright Card FRONT Link to Merry and Bright Card INTERIOR I hope the printable will serve you well, and get your creative juices flowing this holiday season!  Or maybe even hand it off to the kids to make and send out! Merry Christmas!

Belated 2014 Christmas Home Tour

December is almost over, but while we're still here, I'd like to share our Christmas apartment once again.  Life got away from me this December, and so as it should the blog was one of the first things that went to the backburner.

This December has been hard.  Between sheer busyness and normal chaos that comes with the season, we were hit with an unexpected loss of a dear family member.  While we are still processing the loss, we are so thankful for the time we were able to spend with our families this year.  

When we began to decorate our tree in late November, I decided to use the grapevine from a grapevine wreath as a garland around the tree.  Although our tree is a $25 as-fake-as-can-be Walmart tree, the grapevine really helps the tree come to life.  All of our decorations are either those that were given to me by my grandma on my first Christmas in a college apartment, or ornaments that I've made, or that others have made for me or given me.  

My mother-in-law taught me to make the swirly looking ornament on the left out of fabric, we made those this year together.

This ornament, however, she made us last year for our first Christmas.

This little bird was an ornament I made while living in China to decorate my little tree.

My pearl ornament I made in 2012.

This pine pearl ornament from 2013.

Tyler's aunt sent us this adorable little bird house ornament this Christmas.

And his sister made us this beautiful ornament.

She also made this one, but my picture doesn't do it justice.

Once again, we hung garland across the window and attached a large bow to the middle with lights.

But my absolute favorite detail for 2014 are these adorable pinecones hanging in the kitchen pass through window to the livingroom.  My love for pinecones is one thing, but these mini-chandeliers are simply the best simplistic but chic decoration that I'm into this year.

Don't you feel their charm?  I love pinecone charm.

Once again, we hung our kissing ball in the livingroom.  

I added some pine branches and my snowman scene with a tree made out of a...guess what...PINECONE!  (I actually refer to myself as the crazy pinecone resident at my complex.  I'm sure that's what other residents have secretly named me as well.  I have a real obsession.)

I added some pine branches that I found on the ground after a storm to a vase with cranberries floating to make the perfect winter centerpiece for our table.  It is surprising how long pine branches will look good indoors.

I like having a little Christmas at the coffee bar.  This year I went shopping with my mom and grandma, and after going our separate ways we all ended up telling each other about the same tree.  Needless to say, we checked out one by one, at the same register, each purchasing the same tree.  The clerk was slightly confused.  But that rustic tree was perfect for the coffee bar.

Our 2014 Christmas Photos

Wow, can you believe it is already here?!  It seems like last winter just ended, and here we are again approaching Christmas.  

If you're like me, you appreciate having some good holiday family photos.  I like to send a photo as a card or with a card to our family every year, and to have the photos to add to my album as well.  As many of you know, Tyler and I work opposite schedules, so finding time to take photos can be hard.  Those of you who work full time will probably feel me on this.

Since I'm pretty sure most everyone I sent cards out to this year has already gotten theirs, I wanted to share with you our 2014 holiday photos.

This year's Christmas photos only took us maybe 10 minutes.  I grabbed our camera and a tripod, and headed out to a field with some trees near our apartment.  I've always known about the field, but earlier this year ventured further and found a nice area with some cedar trees that looked like the perfect area for our Christmas pictures.  It had snowed the day before, but unfortunately most had melted before we had the chance to take our pictures.

 We just set up the tripod in a couple different locations, took a couple different poses, and one 'couple selfie' and called it good.  It was just before the sun went down, so the lighting was nice as well.  Our outfits consisted of both of us in brown jackets, matching scarves made for us by Tyler's mother, my Christmas-red pants, and off setting the red with Tyler's cream khaki dress pants.

I'm a firm believer that for outdoor Christmas card pictures, brown grass, dead trees, and green cedars are really a must for the card to really feel like the season.  I see so many green grass/hot sun pictures where people are just wearing sweaters in the summer for their Christmas pictures.  I just don't feel it when it just looks like summer, so we waited until the end of November to snap our photos so they would  be 'in-season.'  When you can take good pictures in just a short period of time, there's really no reason for the green grass Christmas photos.

Go ahead, just call me nitpicky.

I'm loving our photos this year.  I love when we take pictures these days, because it seems like the longer we've been together, the fewer pictures we actually take together.  Its a good thing the holidays come around so I'm conscious of taking some good pictures of the two of us.  Last year we took our Christmas pictures indoors by our Christmas tree.   Do you find that the longer you've been with your significant other, the fewer you take pictures together?  Do you make a point to take a holiday photo together?

Shout Out for Couple's Costumes!

This year, Susannah over at Simple Moments Stick invited me to send a submission to her annual couple's costume post!  My favorite costume that Tyler and I have ever dressed as by far was Carl and Ellie from the movie, UP!  

I mean, come on, we even played music from Up! in our wedding.  This costume was a MUST for us. Not only did Susannah feature our costumes as Carl and Ellie, but there are TONS of other great costume ideas from many other creative bloggers!!   LINK TO COUPLE'S COSTUMES 2014
I think my favorite may be Sheldon and Amy, which one is your favorite!?

Valentine's Decorations

Today I'm showing you some of our Valentine's decorations that I've got up around the apartment!  Tyler and I aren't huge into Valentine's, however I do like to add a few decorations.  In general I don't want to just put up something meaningless, so I've framed all the Valentine's cards that Tyler has given me (and one that I gave him) to hang up.

We've kept our Valentine's cards that we made for each other over the years, so I figured what better and cheaper way is there than to simply frame our old cards?  I selected cheap frames from Dollar Tree (you could also find better frames at good prices at thrift stores) and fill them with the cards.  

This is the first Valentine I made for Tyler back in 2011 on our first Valentine's Day!  I found it recently in Tyler's stuff (that I'm still organizing or "hiding" as Tyler calls it).  I just had to add it to the rest!

In the vase behind the frame I added a couple of the photobooth props from our wedding with red flowers! 

This was Tyler's Valentine to me in 2011, again our first Valentine's Day as a couple!  I love that he actually went out and bought supplies to make me a card!

And then this card is from 2012!  I feel like my hubby is pretty creative when he wants to be!

I keep our seasonal decorations on the kitchen peep through window, so two of the cards from Tyler are here, along with a ladybug garland and the Catalog Valentine Heart Garland I made earlier this year.

This was actually a birthday gift, but Tyler made this stained glass heart for me too...which is really cool!

Also for my birthday, however the reds just go great with the Valentine's Decorations...and ladybugs are just too sweet!

Tyler colored this page for me back when he worked for Novo Ministries (a really great OKC ministry for inner city children) and gave it to me for Valentine's in 2013!
If you haven't noticed, this is definitely the third ladybug in this post...so everyone who knows me in real life knows that I have had a ladybug obsession since I was a child.

Lastly, this always stays out but I like to add it to the Valentine's list because it has a special story!  

After we'd been dating about six months, I got to go to Tyler's grandparent's anniversary party which is when I also got to meet most of his family that I hadn't met already!  When we were cleaning up from the party Tyler's grandpa wanted me to take the rose home, which I just thought was sweet!

Do you exchange Valentine's cards with your significant other?   How do you decorate for Valentine's?