This is a sponsored post and giveaway in partnership with Nakturnal.
Every year I make our own Christmas Card with family pictures. For the past two years I have been entrusted with doing the same for my parents’ Christmas Card (pressure, I know). Sometimes I use our own pictures taken throughout the year, and this has mixed results. It certainly does the trick, but I recently came across a few sites that give me some new ideas to make your own Christmas Card. I’ll have to implement some of these ideas for next year!
Plan your Outfits
I am starting with the clothes because of our Christmas card picture from last year. It looks nice, right? My talented sister in law took pictures for us and did a nice job.
But THEN a family member pointed out that it looked like my legs really belonged to Daddy O., and I can see that since the color of my pants match his sweater. Oops. I guess that it does look a bit weird. Maybe I should have used a black and white image instead. All in all, everyone is smiling, so I am okay with it. For next time, I will plan outfits a bit better!
One year I really want to have matching outfits or pajamas with my entire family. Daddy O. is not yet convinced of this plan. Maybe we could go with some family ugly sweaters, like I saw from Target on Pinterest. With a Star Wars theme, I may be able to talk my entire family into it.
Brush up on Photography Skills
We haven’t planned well enough in advance to have professional photos taken, but I always drool over the professional pictures that are featured on the beautiful holiday card sites. How cute is this picture below? I also love the gold foil.
I love the adorable grin and nose wrinkle in this photo card.
If you’re a DIY photographer, check out this post on Making Lemonade called “Tips for Amazing Holiday Photos.” I definitely pinned it, as it has so many links and ideas to try.
This infographic from Skyes Cottages reminds me a lot of my high school photography classes and is another excellent resource.
Tell a Story
While we went with pictures from this past year, I found a card that told a story that fit a “Year in Review” theme. I included the pictures below from our family trip to Arizona and Big Sister’s big accomplishment: riding her bike without training wheels!
I love these two pictures from this year, as they tell a story about fun things that we did together as a family. Pictures like this are ideal for holiday cards. A year in review card, like this one below, is a great way to combine a family photo with more text than other photo cards, which is a nice hybrid between just a greeting and a full fledged newsletter.
I also like this Calm and Bright Card for something that I could have done with a picture from vacation.
I think this is another nice choice for a vacation photo that you have on hand, but just set to black and white. It looks very glam with the gold foil!
How to Save or Display Holiday Cards
With all of the work that goes into making Christmas cards, you should find a nice way to display them during the holidays. Currently I place the cards that we receive in a festive looking basket, but I am thinking of trying a new way to display cards after finding this pin on Pinterest from Hip2Save.
She has covered canvas with ribbon to display cards in her picture above and shares a lot of other cool ideas from around the blogosphere – hanging them from a banister, attaching ribbons to kitchen cabinets and clipping cards on with a clothespin, and more.
I really like the idea of hole punching all of your photo cards from each year, and putting them on binder rings, as blogger Oh Louise does. Aren’t they cute?
She gives step by step instructions on her blog post.
Now that we’ve talked about outfit planning, photo composition and selection tips, shared some great holiday card options, and gave a few display ideas, it’s your turn:
What are YOUR Favorite Ideas for Making your own Christmas Cards?
What did you think of these tips and ideas for making your own Christmas cards? What will you try for sure? Your comments on this post will enter you in my giveaway!
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Disclaimer: I received compensation in exchange for writing this post. Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.
go mama o. 
I think with young kids the best idea is to take advantage of the occasions when the family is already dressed up to take pictures instead of trying to pick a day and have them dress up just for a picture. Great tips and tricks here, such an informative post!
YES, this is a great suggestion. Thanks for reading & commenting, as always!
LOL! I had to use Photoshop to do some head swapping on my Christmas cards this year. There was not one picture where everyone was looking the same direction! ArgH!!
Love it! Yeah, it is so hard to get a good picture sometimes. Photoshop to the rescue.
These are great tips! Fabulous read!
Thank you so much! This is great!
Thumbs up for this post. Very inspiring!
I love these ideas. I used to make cards when my kids were little.
Thanks, yes the pictures of the kids are more fun than just us adults!!
Love the gold foil.
Thanks for commenting! It does look so festive, right?
I agree about the coordinating outfits. Wearing some of the same colors but not too matchy matchy. You rock!
Thanks, yeah, I don’t think I will ever have my family agree to matchy-matchy. Maybe just me and my mini-me…but I agree, a coordinating color palette is nice.