Instant Gratification: The Honest Holiday Card Collection

We are keeping it real this year in our family holiday card. Note that I am gritting my teeth in the photo on the left, and that fifteen minutes into the family card photo taking experience, both of my children are so bored with the idea that they can’t even fake happiness for the season of joy and family togetherness. And THIS is why I wasn’t even on our card last year… Just kidding. As tempted as I was to actually print and mail this card, gritted teeth and all, I didn’t. And, like so many, many things, it only tells part of the story. We actually had a TON of fun taking pictures together. Since it was a DIY project, I grabbed everyone for about two minutes at a time with breaks for me to empty the memory cards and see what we had- and there was a fair bit of clowning and tomfoolery. And now you know why it took 109 images to get enough for one measly card.

A professional photographer would no doubt have turned this silliness into technical perfection, but we are a bit too “on the fly” to actually nail ourselves down to a photography appointment during the busiest time of the year, so we fake it.

For faking it, we didn’t do too badly. I also missed the best photo card deals this year. (Pro tip: They come as early as the end of OCTOBER! I know this and I was still not ready.) Never fear! If you have a color printer and entirely too many office supplies (*ahem*) you can start printing your cards at home about five minutes after you upload your photos. You can create your own from scratch, particularly if you have a digital scrapbooking program like this free Craft Artist software from Daisy Trail, or you can use one of the many adorable templates and customize it. (You can use the Craft Artist program I just mentioned, which is intuitive and user friendly, or for extra credit, try Gimp. It has more features but also comes with a steeper learning curve.)

You might find these 5×7 photo Cards for your inkjet  With Envelopes {Aff link} helpful if you haven’t spent the last decade amassing printer supplies. I used full sheet photo paper and cut my cards down… these would have been faster. The good news is, these are still very budget friendly, even if you have to buy supplies. When I calculated the cost of printing these, I left out the ink because that equation is just not worth doing, but my cost WITH STAMPS came out to less than $1 per card. (Not as good as free, but still pretty good!)

Looking for more printables? You’ll find all of ours here!

Free Printable Holiday Card Template Roundup

• Pumpkins and Posies 2010– one of these should look familiar. Also check out 2011, 2012 2013, and 2014. (It was a close call between the one I picked and one of this year’s designs! Love, love, love it.)
•  Shutterfly digital card templates
• Snapfish printable holiday cards: Upload, create, and print, all in one place.
• iheartfaces free photoshop templates 2012 (You can open photoshop templates in Gimp, but NOT in Craft Artist.)
• these templates from Simple As That Blog include a vertical, a horizontal, and a multi-photo layout.
• Lovely Little Snippets provides their files in PNG format, which is compatible with both the image editors I mention above. Each one is available in 2 sizes!
• Choose one of four free templates from Mom & Camera
• I love the vintage styling on these templates from Summertime Designs.
• HP Print at home Holiday Cards

Free Printable Holiday Cards by Joy Makin’ Mamas

Here are some free templates I’ve created for you. Click on each Honest Holiday Card Preview, below to get the full size, PNG file, and merry merry, jingle jingle, don’t let the light go out, and the yadda yadda, whatever that may be. Oh, and as a bonus, here’s a HO HO HO … or something overlay for your favorite outtake. (Click for full size image.)