enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

meet our 2012 christmas card.

Card

This is going to come as a shock, but I LOVE photo grids! I went around and around on a 2012 card design and finally decided to just throw 20 photos of us at the problem instead of searching for ONE photo to compete with the magic that was last year.

Cards1

That's 18 photos of us that I pulled from Instagram and then another favorite of me alone (celebrating the Seafoam kit launch) and Paul alone (in DC). I created the grid in Photoshop and then layered the little red flag and text over the photos.

Cards4

On the backside, I stuck with a very similar look to our 2011 cards (I think I'll just keep this simple design forever) and once again used overnightprints.com. They ran a Black Friday sale so it was about $35 for 100 4.25×5.5 inch cards with rounded corners and rush shipping.

Cards3

I wanted them out early so I had the envelopes addressed, stamped and waiting for the cards themselves to get here last Monday. I used clover green A2 envelopes from Paper Source that were left over from another project.

Holidaycards

Out the door they went last week! Now comes the fun part of receiving Christmas cards!

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40 responses to “meet our 2012 christmas card.”

  1. Vera Avatar
    Vera

    Beautiful!

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  2. Sabine Avatar
    Sabine

    This is a really cool and beautiful idea for a Christmas card. Love the layout and the typo. And can’t believe how many cards you “wrote”!! WOW!

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  3. Antoinette Seminario-Skinner Avatar
    Antoinette Seminario-Skinner

    Hi Elise! I was wondering what exactly you ordered from overnightprints? I was looking at their postcard option, but not sure I can get the printing on both sides.
    Your cards look great!!!
    Thanks, and I just read that you are expecting in June. Congratulations!!!

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  4. melissa Avatar
    melissa

    This is the perfect idea for my son and I since I can’t think of the perfect photo that best represents our year! I wonder if I have time to pull it off….

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  5. Jenny Lynch Avatar
    Jenny Lynch

    I love these cards and your text on the back is so perfect! This year my hubby and I sent out our first photo cards for Christmas. Since we had our daughter in August…..i think photo cards will be the way to go from this point forward. love love love that you did a grid with lots of pics! Next year maybe. I will take it a step further and write a small blurb about our year too. Great job as always! Your friends and family will surely enjoy this update and pics!Merry Christmas.

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  6. Emily S Avatar
    Emily S

    I love, love, love this idea – the photo grid + the text on the back. I should try my hand at it next year.

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  7. Rose Avatar
    Rose

    Super cute – I love that there’s space for a message on the back, too.

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  8. markncarla@hotmail.com Avatar
    markncarla@hotmail.com

    Your cards rock! I too am a huge fan of photo grids! I don’t have Photoshop, but was wondering if you knew of another way to do something like this? Congrats on the baby news!! Thanks!

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  9. -Michelle Avatar
    -Michelle

    Very cute ! I ordered mine from them too and they got here and there was a huge promblematic typo on them — the wrong year! sob.
    I had to order again and get rush shipping, no sale. So my holiday cards have ended up costing me almost $100 this year. Not sure I can swing that again! But they did look nice… sigh

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  10. yours truly, melissa Avatar
    yours truly, melissa

    They look great! I love the message on the back.
    I designed our Christmas cards for the very first time this year and really like them as well.

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  11. Cynthia H Avatar
    Cynthia H

    Wow, $35! That’s awesome. And go you for having the envelopes addressed before the cards even arrived!

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  12. Annette Avatar
    Annette

    Love them! I appreciated your feedback regarding overnightprints.com on IG. And you’re absolutely right, a baby is a love like you have never known, amazing in every good way! Congrats again!

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  13. markncarla@hotmail.com Avatar
    markncarla@hotmail.com

    Oh yeah, one more question… Are the banner/flags from Photoshop too? 🙂

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  14. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    You could use bighugelabs.com and their mosaic maker to great a grid, but I do not think the resolution and quality would be as high. 😦 The flags are something I made from scratch in PSE. They are rectangles with triangles cut out. Wish I could be more help!

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  15. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    Here is a link – I ordered the 4.25 x 5.5 postcards and uploaded my own design. 🙂 And yep! They print on both sides, I think it is a slight markup. 🙂

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  16. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    blerg – here is the link : https://www.overnightprints.com/postcards
    On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Elise Blaha elise.blaha@gmail.com wrote:
    Here is a link – I ordered the 4.25 x 5.5 postcards and uploaded my own design. 🙂 And yep! They print on both sides, I think it is a slight markup. 🙂

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  17. Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon) Avatar
    Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon)

    i would love for you to create a video tutorial on how you created the banner. when i saw the peek of your card on instagram, i knew i had to create something similar. i made mine 5×7 and then uploaded to costco.com. it turned out pretty cool. thank you so much for the inspiration.

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  18. markncarla@hotmail.com Avatar
    markncarla@hotmail.com

    Thanks, I’ll give it a look.

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  19. markncarla@hotmail.com Avatar
    markncarla@hotmail.com

    Did you make a grid on a 5×7? Thats what I’m looking for… Thanks.

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  20. Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon) Avatar
    Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon)

    yes… i made a 5×7 grid in photoshop.

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  21. Skye Avatar
    Skye

    I love them even more than last year’s! I, too, have a soft spot for photo grids. 🙂

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  22. susi davis Avatar
    susi davis

    I loved your fun Christmas card last year because it captured the essence of E&P for 2011. I love this year’s card for the same reason as well as your great design details. I am 48, but I want to be you when I grow up! Happy Holidays to you and your growing family!

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  23. Carla Avatar
    Carla

    Awesome, thx so much for the info.. If I may ask, how many rows/columns did you have on that size? Also, I order a lot of prints from Costco… We’re you able to have them printed on card stock?

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  24. kris Avatar
    kris

    Wait until the baby comes—then you will have lots of great photos to put on the card. i love seeing babies and kids on the cards 🙂

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  25. Molly Avatar
    Molly

    just saw your new workshop with BPC. you’re having the best internet week ever !!!

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  26. Kelli Avatar
    Kelli

    best ever, doing that next year! I love it!!!!! I love my cards every year and work hard to buy 100 cards for less then $50. This year I got the groupon from Razzle, which was great, but limited choices on designs. I love this and the concept of creating something myself! Super awesome, thanks for the link of overnight prints! YAY!

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  27. J3SS1C4 Avatar
    J3SS1C4

    Thanks for sharing your cards! Way too cute! It’s pretty good value for them too. For me to get the cards I want to make they’re going to cost me $1.50 each… At least I only want to make about 12 or so! I might look at these guys next year for cards if they ship to Aust.

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  28. Ali Avatar
    Ali

    love these. i considered making my own this year – but printing in australia is expensive – as someone else mentioned – a quote for around $1 each for about 40. EEP!

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  29. -Michelle Avatar
    -Michelle

    This is the last year of a just you two card. Next year it will be ALL BABY PICS!

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  30. -Michelle Avatar
    -Michelle

    I ordered these as well. TWICE (thank you, typo). And I still can’t send them out bcx they arrived today with no envelopes! aaarrrggghhh
    Hopefully Wednesday. WEDNESDAY. I want to send these out!

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  31. Pink Ronnie Avatar
    Pink Ronnie

    This holiday card is so very you. Love it!!
    How exciting to be sending our news of your pregnancy with this lovely card.
    Ronnie xo

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  32. Lindsay Avatar
    Lindsay

    I just love this design – seems just your style. & the message on the back is too sweet.

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  33. Brooke Avatar
    Brooke

    I went with a bunch of photos on our card too. I thought it was more fun to show us in action throughout the year than have just one posed shot. We are so much more natural in that way!

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  34. Koko @ Koko Likes Avatar
    Koko @ Koko Likes

    LOVE so much

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  35. Fiona Avatar
    Fiona

    Great cards! I’ll have to be more organized next year so I can make something like that. Hopefully you’ll get lots of nice Christmas cards too 🙂

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  36. Katie Avatar
    Katie

    Awesome cards and just think…next year there will be a cute little baby featured! I used to send generic shop-bought cards but when my wee one came along I didn’t care how much the photo cards cost – I was showing him off!

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  37. Mike Cornelia Avatar
    Mike Cornelia

    Those are really nice cards! This year my family used a company called Home Direct Shipping to send out our cards because they promised that they would all be delivered in the SAME DAY. It was something I was skeptical over, but they came through and sent me an update that every card had made it to it’s address.

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  38. Brianna Avatar
    Brianna

    It’s so cute. It almost makes me wish I sent out Christmas cards.

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  39. Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon) Avatar
    Libbi M. (Ashland, Oregon)

    i had four rows across and 5 rows down for a total of 20 photos. No Costco does not print on card stock. If you want me to send you a photo of my completed card, you can send me an e-mail at libbimoore@gmail.com

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  40. Carter Madson Avatar
    Carter Madson

    These worked great! Are there going to be similar designs for shipping next year?
    http://www.shipmts.com

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