handmade christmas challenge week 5: carded lately?

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been carded in quite a while, and I’m not just talking about my driver’s license. Seems that since I haven’t sent Christmas cards in the past few years (yes, I’m one of those), I’m receiving less cards every year. I guess there’s some holiday rule about how long you’re extended a grace period until you’re blacklisted from someone’s card list? Ruthless, people.

I’m not that official, folks. If I can, I try to mail cards to friends and family, especially those I don’t see often. And when I can’t, I don’t. (When I owned my own business, addressing and mailing holiday cards just didn’t happen.) And I don’t keep a running list of who sends them to me or not. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.

But this year is different. This year I do have time, and in the spirit of this Handmade Christmas challenge, I’m going to design my cards and dutifully hand address them all. After all, that is our challenge for this week – plan your holiday cards.

First of all, did you download the free Christmas Card List printable? Next, grab a cup of coffee and start making your list, collecting any addresses that are missing.

All done?

Now for the cards…

There’s lots of routes we could go with this. If the thought of designing your own cards is keeping you up at night, then by all means purchase some. And with cute shops like Papyrusonline.com, you don’t even have to leave your home. I even found these contemporary cards by Kate Spade there!

For those of you who equate Christmas cards with family photos, the possibilities are many. Check out Minted, Snapfish, and Vistaprint – just to name a few. I especially love this ornament card from Shutterfly.

Then, of course, if you’re up to the challenge, you can always choose to construct a completely handmade card. A tutorial for this little bird card can be found on bhg.com, and the mittens card is by JerseysFreshest.