Our Holiday Cards - 2020 & 2021

I realized that I never shared my family’s holiday card from 2020. It was an interesting year for sure. It was also the first year we opted to skip the professional photos with Santa that we’d been doing for the past six years and instead we just put my iPhone on a tripod and took photos in our bedroom. It was a year of unintended togetherness and we all survived. The photo quality wasn’t great, but it kind of fit for how 2020 went.

On the back I shared a bit about what we were all up to during the year.

This year I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. 2021 was a year of road trips for us since my husband spent the whole year on sabbatical, so we traveled during every school break and a few times during the summer. Then the second half of the year was dedicated to my oldest and I training for our taekwondo black belt test.

So we decided to have our travels be the focus of our holiday card this year. I put together a collage of Polaroid photos from some of our adventures and then the back listed some of the highlights of our year and a salutation.

The photo on the back was taken at Sand Hollow State Park by the amazing Arika Bauer from Zion Adventure Photog. She took wonderful family photos for us just after Christmas last year and I adore how they turned out. If you’re ever in southern Utah and want some fantastic photos to document your travels, or even just a beautiful backdrop for family photos, give her a call. She works great with kids and she’s even done engagements and proposals.

Both this year and last year, I had my cards printed at my local Office Depot. They’ve done a good job every time I’ve had something printed and they get it done quickly; usually done the same day. When I have the time to place an online order, I usually go with Overnight Prints.

Here’s to getting further through a pandemic and hopefully moving closer to a life that’s closer to the normal we had before. Happy New Year!

Our Holiday Card - 2019, and more!

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 - 2017

I look forward to creating our holiday card every year. I do a lot of design work for clients throughout the year, but I don't do much for my little family. We don't have elaborate birthday parties for our boys, so our annual holiday card is the one thing I get to work on that's entirely personal. 

A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a local photography company called FotoFly. They do unique Santa photos every year where one of the parents wears the Santa suit, hopefully ensuring that the kids are calm and happy for photos. The results produce some really beautiful and unique holiday photos. 

My boys and Santa have been the feature image on all of our holiday cards since the very first card I created in 2013. You can see other years here: 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Here is the card I created for 2017:

I used the fun knitted sweater texture that I created last year. My oldest requested a dark green background. And since our cards hardly ever include my husband and me, I added a little snippet at the bottom, "Bill & Alex send their love too."

I had my cards printed with OvernightPrints for the first time this year. I've always used VistaPrint, but this year, both companies' pricing was comparable and a close friend of mine raved about the quality of her business cards that were printed with OvernightPrints. So I gave them a go. They didn't charge me extra to print my cards two-sided, which I love, so above is what I put on the back. Plus, only $1 to add rounded corners. Score!

When I shared my photos on my Instagram account, I was notified shortly after Christmas that I won their Art & Design contest! Woot!

Part of my prize was being featured on their blog. Click on the image below to read the blog post:

Thank you so much OvernightPrints for not only beautifully printed holiday cards, but for the feature! Pretty sure you've created a very loyal customer. 

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!