we planned ahead...

As crazy as it sounds, nearly every year for at least the last 10 years we have made our Christmas cards by hand. Yes, it is a lot of work, but we enjoy (almost) every moment. Because of how many we need to make, we are usually thinking about the cards early in the year, and making them by October or November.

This year we decided to do something a little different, but still with a handmade feel. This was the inspiration for the Nativity pattern that designed, called The Stable, which I began planning in JULY. I stitched it up, photographed it, and then made it into postcards.



We printed 250 of them. Our list isn't that large, but we are going to send cards out to the folks on my grandparents' list as well. This way, now that my Nanny is gone, my Papa doesn't have to think about it, but we can still send greetings to their friends. Believe it or not, custom printing these cards wasn't that expensive, and of course, we'll be saving on postage.



The back has a short greeting and room for us to hand sign (I offered to have that printed too, but my mom suggested that might look like the card was coming from a dentist's office!), and a space for us to address them, but our return address is already in place (cleared here for web viewing).

I'm sharing this early because I thought you all might find this to be a fun way to send out cards, and there's still plenty of time to do it! I had mine printed with a trade printer (a perk of being a graphic designer), but you can find good prices at uprinting.com, and they frequently have sales for even more savings!