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!
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.
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!
Before Christmas is too distant of a memory, I thought I'd share my own holiday cards. I chose my 'Paw Print' design from Minted, because I love that it's fun but still elegant at the same time. It was one of my favorites and everyone loved it. It was so nice to have an updated photo of our little family, so thanks to Kristie Clark for snapping some photos of us.
Receiving Christmas cards was especially fun this year because a fellow Minted designer organized a holiday card chain for a small group of us. It's safe to say that we received some of the most beautiful cards ever. Everyday my mailbox was full of awesome envelopes and cards. Trips to get the mail are decidedly less exciting now. Oh well, taking down the Christmas tree sucked too!
Do you wonder what some of the best stationery designers sent out themselves? My letterpress buddy Kimberly did a great recap of everyone's card, so you can see them all here!
The Holiday Collection is here! I've been working really hard to launch my holiday collection in coordination with my new stationery shop (oh by the way, I have a stationery shop now!), and while it's mostly holiday cards right now, I plan to spend the next couple of weeks adding a few more items that will be great gift ideas for the holidays. Think stamps, wine tags and notecards... I hope you enjoy!
