Sara Jane: Christmas Cards

I know you're thinking, "Did she just name her post 'Christmas Cards'?"

Yep, I did.

I have Christmas cards on my mind right now. I am getting ready to order Christmas cards for my dad's business (Did I tell you I work a day a week at my dad's office?  Its pretty fun!) and have been playing around with my own Christmas cards for the last few weeks.  I thought I would share with you what I have been up to.

Recently my good friend, Annie, took some family photos for us.  It was a cold, rainy day but we went for it and got some really great shots.

This picture is perhaps my favorite of all she took because it captures, 100%, my little Penelope.  This picture makes me smile whenever I see it.

For our family Christmas card, I chose my favorite group shot, added some text and am now preparing to send it off to the lab so I have my cards plenty early and don't have to worry about them anymore.  I tend to like simple cards.  I have seen some beautiful elaborate cards but they just aren't me.  So, I did my own Christmas card using Photoshop and here is how they turned out...

I will have them printed on metallic paper.  If you've never seen black and white photos on metallic paper, you need to.  They are quite stunning!  My SIL, Amy, did my son's birth announcements on metallic paper.  At first, I was a little worried, having never seen it done before, but she told me to trust her and man, am I glad I did.  Anyway...I did a couple of test cards this past week where I had the lab send me the photos done a few different way which really helped me figure out what I wanted.

You're probably thinking that this is an awful lot of worry about just a little Christmas card.  It probably is but why send out Christmas cards to friends and family if it doesn't represent you and your family 100%?

Here are a few of my favorite sites to use when preparing my Christmas cards and when getting prints.

Tiny Prints - When I don't "make" my own cards, I always buy my cards from Tiny Prints.  I love all the different styles of cards they have for every occasion.  Their prices are pretty reasonable, too.

Replicolor - This is the lab I used to order my prints on metallic paper.  VERY reasonable pricing (trust me...I have done all the comparing) and the prints turned out very true to the original.  I have tried ordering from Walmart and other "local" photo labs recently and I am ALWAYS disappointed and end up having to go back in and return the pictures.  Replicolor lab is a great lab!

Winkflash - This is the lab I use to order my prints the rest of the year.  Their canvases are a great price and their photos never disappoint.

Photoshop - I do realize that Photoshop is not in everyone's budget but if you can buy it (or know someone who has it and will let you edit some photos on it), you can do some really fun projects with your pictures.  They have free month-long trials...check it out.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Sara Jane