Holiday Cards — by Guest Mom Zanne Blair

Bonjour! Bonjour!

Are you thinking about them yet? I've been thinking about them since June. Well probably earlier. I know, I know, it's not even Halloween, but if I don't think about it now, we'll be making these the week before New Years, when I'd really like to mail them early in December, this year, for once...

I used to make my own holiday cards. It started in college, when I was but a poor college student, yet I had plenty of art supplies, paper and fabric scraps, glitter and metallic paint around. I've made them just about every year, until I became pregnant. Now, with my 2.5 year old babe, I really want us to make cards again, with her. I used to make ornaments that would go in the cards (sorry...can you believe NO pictures, what was I thinking?), but with 100+ people on my list, I've had to re-think the card thing while being a mom, starting a business and just trying to keep the laundry done and well..you know.

It's on my wish list this year, that our family sit down and make cards together. Izzy is at the point where the glue or paint or glitter won't end up in her mouth (ok, maybe her hair, but we can do punk for a few days, that's ok). Plus, with the nights getting cooler, we'll be inside after dinner, and art is a fun family thing for us. I've started going through our art supply stash (we've been trying to use what we have, not buy more of things we don't really need), it's huge with an artist/painter/printmaker/sculptor Dad and me with paper, fabric, buttons, yarn etc. and wondering what are we going to do?

So...I've been snooping around on the world wide web (one of my favorite past times, I love information....) and thought I'd share some link love:


Pop-Up Card tutorial

Plant Prints
Painting with Leaves
Printing with Leaves
This could be fun with glitter or metallic paint or great color combos. Evergreen trees, poinsettia leaves, pinecones, small branches.


We've been painting beads, but this could probably translate to wooden shapes that could be glued or strung to the card and perfect for mailing.


we could make our own envelopes out of our art


We will add in a family photo (one's like these always prompt a call from a few family members :-). We like to keep in touch, and maybe this year we'll write a letter to our family and friends.

Don't want to make your own, or just don't have the time to make 100s of cards? Some of these seemed pretty cool:


Did you know that you could order cards through the United States Postal System? I had no idea.


And I've always been inspired by the MOMA Holiday Cards


Next to handmade cards, I love receiving photo cards. These from tinyprints.com are tasty.

And maybe we'll make this in January when it's time to put the cards away...