Taking Your Own Christmas Card Photos

Merry Christmas ya Filthy Animal!!

But seriously, it's Christmas today!  I can't believe it is here already.  It seems like it really does sneak up on us sometimes.

I decided to do another Christmas card this year.  And I decided to show it to you all and show how we "took our own photos" for our Christmas card!

My husband doesn't really think they are necessary but I think they are adorable!  I love receiving them, so why not give them too!  I love seeing my friend's babies dressed in Santa hats next to the lit tree.  Or the adorable family pictures -- with their fur babies of course!  The screaming babies on Santa's lap.  And all the other family portraits in between!!  

So the debate came up about this year's Christmas card.  Send? Or not to send?  

Of course I said SEND!!  My husband was neutral!  But I was NOT going to spend money to get a professional photo taken just for a Christmas card!  Totally worth it if you have kids.  For me, not worth it for just a Christmas card sans kids!  And by NO means are these professional quality!!  A professional quality photographer is SO worth the money but just not in the budget this year! 

So I came up with this brilliant idea to gather my other siblings together and their families for a couple of hours and take each other's Christmas card photos!  My way of tricking them into taking my picture and then they get something out of it too!!  :)  

So enough talking....here's how our Christmas card photo shoot turned out!!!

The props.

You have to have props to make this a real Christmas card photo shoot!!  I gathered together some of my Christmas decor to use for the photos -- an antique quilt from my great grandma that I also use as my tree skirt, a couple banners I made last year, some red ornaments thrown in a wire basket, and a sign I picked up last year at Meijer.

The location.

Originally I thought it would be fun to go to a Christmas tree farm for the photos, but that seemed like a lot of work for all of us.  So off to Grandma's house we go!!  She has a ton of Christmas trees in their yard (they live out in the middle of no-where in the country) two ponds in the area, and the neighbors awesome red barn!  So it was the perfect location!  

 The photos.

It was a little tough to get all of our husbands to cooperate -- they just wanted to watch football and drink beer -- but I think they enjoyed it at the end of the day! ;)

My brother and his wife. 

I had so much fun taking these photos of my niece!  I love these detailed shots of her little moccasins with the fur rug and antique quilt.

My sister and her family.

I think after sending Christmas cards 3 years in a row, they are kind of expected by people now!  But I loved creating our photos this year at my mom's house, so it may just be a new family tradition of spending some quality time together creating fun Christmas card photos!

{Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!}

Quick & Easy DIY Christmas Card Display

Are you Christmas card people?

Do you send Christmas cards?  

Or just like to receive them?

Personally, I love receiving and seeing everyone's Christmas cards.  By December 1st they slowly start to trickle in the mail.  Let's be real, part of it is just the fun of getting something besides junk and bills in the mail, but the best part is seeing all the beautiful faces of the people I love most in my life!

As most of you will just hang your cards on the refrigerator, which is totally fine, I like to display them in a more fun, interesting way.  A place to really appreciate them more than just on my trips to the fridge!

This year I found a really easy way to display all of those Christmas cards.  It took no time at all and only cost a couple of bucks!  

This is what I started with.  A canvas wrapped artwork which is normally hanging in my bathroom.  It measures about 2 feet wide by 4 feet tall.  You will definitely need something big enough for lots of Christmas cards.  Or you could do the same with multiple canvas squares all hung together.

All I did here was attach my wrapping paper from Home Goods to the canvas artwork.  Luckily, some how, my wrapping paper was the exact same width as my artwork.  So I just had to cut it to the right height.  Leave a couple of inches at the top and bottom to wrap around and secure to the canvas frame.  Initially, I was going to staple the paper to the canvas frame, but once I tried a little tape and the paper stayed securely, I kept going with the tape.  

I used the same wrapping paper as I used to wrap gifts for a cohesive look.

This is what is looks like wrapped in paper and hung!  I even like it as is!

How should I attach the cards to the paper?!?  Washi tape!  I had this gold glitter washi tape that I had bought a while back.  It is perfect for this project.  I just cut two pieces at 2" each for the two corners of each card.  And wha-la!!

I love having these cards displayed in a more special way now.  They are in a central location to see all of these smiling faces of my beautiful friends and family.  And let's face it -- we all spend a lot of time deciding on which card design to choose.  There are so many gorgeous Christmas cards now.  So I love that they are really displayed like a piece of art!!