I hang all my Christmas cards up on a clothesline in the living room and usually don't take them down until well after the New Year, because I just love looking at them. (In fact, I'm pretty sure my mom teased me a few times about still having them up in the middle of the summer...) I also put all the pictures up on our fridge so we can enjoy them all year round.
A friend of mine told me once that she loved getting Christmas cards, so she could pray over each and every one of her loved ones. And I know she meant it too, because she is an amazing prayer warrior. So, this year, I am looking forward to using Christmas cards as a reminder to pray for the people who sent them.
The first two years we were married, I handmade our Christmas cards with stamps and card stock. Here is one of the cards I made:
After Valerie was born, I decided it was much more fun just to print out a picture (and a lot less work too!) and send it along with a letter. Here is the picture we sent out that year:
Can you believe how little she is?
Last year, I used Scrapblog to create our Christmas card using photos I had taken of each of the kids along with a picture of Ted and I. I then used Picnik to make sure the photo was 4x6 so I could print them out at Walgreens.
I seriously can't believe how fast these little ones have grown!
One of the high school seniors at our church, Christine, took family photos of us a few weeks ago. She's the one who took Valerie's one year photos and she does amazing work. I can't wait to see the photos and to use them for our Christmas cards!
This year, I'm excited to be able to use Shutterfly to make our cards. I have printed photos through Shutterfly before and I love how the colors are so much brighter and clearer than Walgreens. They also have some cute photo gifts that would make great Christmas gifts.
Shutterfly is offering an awesome promotion for bloggers - 50 FREE photo cards! Plus, right now all their photo cards are 20% off and, if you signed up for their emails you can get $10 off an order of $30 or more (until the 17th), and there's also FREE shipping on orders over $30. I can't wait to order our Christmas cards from Shutterfly. The only problem is there are SO many to choose from! Here are just a few that I love:
Which design would you choose? I'd love to hear how you do Christmas cards too!
That's a wonderful idea to pray for each card you get!
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