Laura's Holiday Card - 2023

2023 marked 10 years that I’ve been working with Laura on all of her creative and fun holiday cards. Here you can see every fun holiday card Laura and I have worked on together.

2023 was no exception when it came to something fun. Laura joked about doing a traditional card with just a family photo. I told her their family would wonder if something was wrong or if there was a hidden meaning.

This year was simpler than previous years; minimal Photoshop this time. She just sent me the photos of her family and I went to work with the Polaroid concept and the simple wood background.

What a fun holiday card!! Thanks, Laura!

Laura's Holiday Card - 2022

Laura’s ideas for amazing and creative holiday cards never disappoints. This year was no exception. She’s been honing her skills as a makeup artist lately and she used that for her family’s holiday card this year.

Laura did all of the awesome makeup and her daughter happily got dressed up as Cindy Lou from the Grinch. I just cut everyone out in Photoshop and made it all pretty with text. I love how it turned out!!

Here you can see every fun holiday card Laura and I have worked on together.

I’m more impressed that Laura has been able to convince her family to go along with these ideas year after year! Kudos!

Holiday Season 2019

It’s December 20th and we’re winding down the school week and getting ready to head to northern California to spend Christmas with family. As of today, I’m no longer accepting custom orders for holiday cards for 2019. If you card is already in progress, then I’ll get your order finished before we leave. All listings in my Etsy shop are either Instant Downloads or calendars. I can still handle orders for custom family calendars since I will have my laptop with me when traveling.

In the meantime, both my Hanukkah and Christmas cootie catchers are on sale for just $1 in my Etsy shop. Show your kids how much fun these were when you were a kid. The Christmas cootie catcher will remain $1 until December 25th and the Hanukkah cootie catcher will be $1 until December 30th. A page of folding instructions is included with your instant download. You know… in case it’s been a while since you’ve folded one of these. They look best and are easiest to fold when printed on plain paper.

Click on either image to get to the listings in my Etsy shop.

For our family holiday card, we’ve been going to a local photo studio for Santa photos for the last six years called FotoFly. They have one of the parents wear the Santa suit so the kids are comfortable and your chances of getting smiling faces is much higher. It’s been a family tradition to figure out whether our boys will wear matching clothes or PJs or if we’ll do a theme or not. This year, both boys wanted to wear their taekwondo uniforms and we borrowed a black belt from our studio so Santa could wear it. Because, of course Santa would be a black belt.

I had actually created a more traditional design with a lovely script font and Christmas-y plaid background, but it was way too serious for the photo. A comic book theme just worked the best. I had these printed at Office Depot instead of my usual Overnight Prints because I ran out of time. Gotta love having them ready in an hour.

Wishing you and yours a joyful and peaceful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate.

Our Holiday Card 2018

With another year, came another fun holiday card for my family. Every year for the last 6 years we’ve had Santa photos taken with FotoFly, and it’s become a fun, family tradition. I make a point to schedule the photos right before Thanksgiving so I have time to design a card!

My boys love to dress in the same outfit and they now give input on how they want to pose with Santa too. This year, my 9yo had the idea for his brother and him to wear their “wedding clothes” and sunglasses and pretend to be Santa’s bodyguards. I thought it was a cute idea and we went with it. Of course, the night of the shoot I completely forgot the suit jacket for my youngest (In my defense, I was suffering from a nasty head cold). Even without the jackets, the photos turned out cute.

I have to give a shoutout to my friend Amanda for coming up with the fantastic words for the front of our card. That part is always the hardest for me!

Here’s the back of our card:

I had these printed with Overnight Prints. They turned out great and were very affordable. When it was time to mail them, I really like to get colored envelopes, so I picked some up from my local Paper Source in their Clover color. I would have preferred a shade of red, but they didn’t have enough on the day I went. I should have thought of that ahead of time and ordered from their website.

Relax, that’s not really the Wiselka Family’s address.

I printed names and addresses onto the envelopes using the same fonts I used on the card. My trusty HP laser printer, that I’m sure is more than 10 years old, but it still does a great job.

I don’t get to do much design work for my own family, so our annual holiday card is one thing I really look forward to designing every year. I think my kids love getting to add their input too.

Merry Christmas!

Our Holiday Card - 2016

We were back at FotoFly this past fall to take some fun photos with Santa. I donned the Santa suit this year as we brainstormed with our photographer some new poses that would work for our two boys. My oldest asked he we could take a selfie with Santa and it ended up being the best photo.

For some reason, we were busier than usual this year and failed to get matching PJs figured out in time for the photo shoot. I asked my boys what they wanted to wear and Hawaiian shirts won. I only wish I had thought to throw a "hang loose" sign with my right hand when we shot this.  

The back was kept simple with my boys showing off their goofball selves.

This holiday card design is available in my Etsy shop in the fall where I use your family photos. You can see the listing here. Merry Christmas!