Over the years, I’ve always used numerous card services for our family Christmas cards. Companies like Shutterstock, Snapfish and Minted depend on people like me to pay a premium for a service that is meant to simplify things. Except it never was a simple process — oh all the layouts to choose from!! I would waste so much time plugging in various pictures into different templates, only to be left with my head spinning.
Well last year I decided to use Canva for our Christmas cards. The templates are limited, but you can change anything you don’t like (like font, images, colors, etc). It’s super user friendly and only takes a few minutes to find a template. I already use Canva for all of my social media platforms so it only made sense to use Canva for our Christmas cards — and let me tell you, I easily saved us a $100 by doing it myself! Once the canva design was done, I saved as a PDF, emailed to my local printer and they printed for $16.00 on a nice bright white cardstock!
For our 2019 cards, I used family photos that had been taken by a professional photographer in the fall. But it’s so expensive to do that every year! So for 2020 I decided to stay more conservative and do it myself. All I needed to purchase was a backdrop from Amazon and some fake snow! Of course my husband and I aren’t in the picture, but that’s okay. I decided that every other year I’ll probably hire a photographer to do family pictures. During the off years, I’ll just take photos of the boys myself.
There are a ton of backdrops on Amazon and they aren’t expensive! To make this image happen, I used my iPhone and the following supplies:
- Backdrop I used size 8×6 ft. More Christmas backdrops here
- Fake Snow (the boys had SO much fun making this!)
- Backdrop Frame : I already owned this. You could probably just tape the backdrop to a wall so you don’t need to invest in this.
- Clamps (for frame)
- Mini outdoor Christmas trees (already had and use for our front steps) or similar here.
I used our garage to set up because the snow was messy Plus it has great natural light
- Envelopes were purchased off Amazon for $10 and I have more than enough to get me through next year.
- The labels are Avery, also purchased off Amazon — a nice touch and upgrade from my typical handwritten envelopes!
- If you need a return label stamper — I love these! I’ve been using ours for years!
The Comments
Michelle N.
I LOVE canva! I use it for my Christmas cards, too!
P.s. Your photo cards turned out great!
sweetmotherly
> Michelle N.Thank you! It’s a great free program!!