It's the biggest holiday challenge of the year over at Minted, and my absolute favorite category to design for! I have been designing holiday cards since, well, last Christmas, and always breath a sign of relief when I submit my final design...
The competition is intense - with a record 3, 348 entries! I will be attempting to vote for every. single. one. but just voting on some will help Minted know what they should sell this year so head on over to vote!
If I think it's hard to design for myself, it's even harder to design for my family and friends! A birth announcement or party invitation is fun and stress-free (or less stress anyways), but for an incredibly significant and important event like a wedding, the pressure is on! And to be clear, it is 100% self inflicted. I need it to be the best design I have EVER done! Okay, that's a little dramatic, but I definitely want it to be perfect and so I started thinking about what I could do for my baby sister, Carley's, save the dates... oh, like the moment they got engaged. After some pretty big (i.e. expensive to mail) ideas, I came up with an idea that everyone loved... and was completely reasonable to mail to 150+ guests.
The timing of her engagement photos finishing up and finalizing the design coincided with sending holiday cards, so I thought, why not do them both in one? I designed a holiday card and a separate save the date and we tied them together with twine and a tag. It's like a little present in the mail.
Having had a big year, they sent a little update to family and friends on the back of their holiday card which I liked. Great for friends and family of each to learn more about the other and their life together.
And then of course, the most important piece... the save the date card!
Carley's photographer, Arielle Doneson Photography, took some amazing photos of Carley and John and we had trouble picking because there were so many gorgeous images. In the end, I think we chose perfectly. I love this one!
On the back, we included their website and some beautiful black and white images. In the end, I loved everything and most importantly, so did the bride and groom.
And now.... I am in the process of trying to design 'the best wedding invitations I have ever done'. I know I know, I have a problem!
This year, I planned ahead and had ordered my business holiday cards by Thanksgiving. But my personal holiday cards where another story. I always find it hard to design for myself, but without any professional or particularly amazing photos of my husband and I (turns out we wear sunglasses in pretty much all of our vacation photos), I tried not to stress and just decided to go with something pretty clean with a really bright, eye catching backer.
This is just an instagram photo that someone took for us on or trip to San Francisco, but it's a favorite.
Wow, I almost feel like people have stopped saying that. It's the second week of 2013 and things are moving quickly! I feel a bit behind the curve on the happy new year blog posts, but it certainly took me those first few days of the new year to get back into things and I finally have had time to do a little blog post.
I thought the best way to start the new year is to show you my business holiday cards. I sent them to clients, designers, vendors and friends and I love love love them! Palm Papers is offering gold foil wedding invitations this year and this is my first foil stamped design. I know this certainly won't be my last, because it is BE-U-TI-FUL! I printed them on Arturo Stone Grey card stock in a nice small size. I really loved the unique combo of the gold and grey.
I have plenty left over, so if you want to receive one, shoot me an email at lauren@palmpapers.com.
Cheers!
Before I show of my new holiday designs, I thought I'd show you some of Minted's new features. If you've taken a look at the new holiday collection, you might notice that Minted now offers several new customization: postcards, die cuts and TRIPLE thick paper.
The post card option is a great one for a little more affordable option, and what's great about the die cuts is that you can see what shapes work with your design and actually see the card in the shape before you buy.
... and then there's the triple thick paper. I've seen it in person and it's really impressive. If you are a paper person and want your holiday card to really stand out, it certainly will with this luxurious paper option.
And now for the giveaway: together with Camille Styles, Minted is now giving away a $1,000 gift card on their site! Sign up now through September 25th!
