Great Ideas for Your 2014 Holiday Cards

The holidays are coming. It's time to be merry and bright! One family tradition that I just love is sending holiday cards to family and friends. I love sending and receiving them, and also save the cards from years passed.

Lucky for us, my husband is a photographer. Most years, we set up a holiday scene and simply snap our pictures at home. Based on my obsessive love for holiday cards ... I offer you these ideas.

TOP IDEAS FOR 2014 HOLIDAY CARDS

1. Vacation Picture: Did you and the family spend some time away from it all this year? Did you fly from ABE to ORL to meet the Mouse? Have a shot of the kids on the beach to share? I just love when friends and family share vacation pictures on their holiday cards.

2. Top 10 List: We have a friend that includes a "top 10" moments list on her card. This is such a special glimpse into their year. I love this idea so much, that we actually did this on our cards last year and will most likely do it again.

3. Family Letter: When family and friends are scattered all over the world, it's great to send a little extra something. For years, we've included a short family letter. It's on 1/2 a page and includes major milestones from the year. We often recieve similar letters; we read them together and save them in our family memory box.

4. QR Code: I heard about this and think it's a great idea for tech and social media savvy families ... take a short holiday video, upload it to YouTube and then create a QR code to include on your card. To create a QR code, you can use bitly.com and then save the image as a .jpeg to your computer.

5. Ornament Cards: A fairly new card trend is the ornament card. You can make these yourself with fun scrap paper,  add a photo on to the front, print out a note for the back, pop a hole in the top and add some ribbon. I think this would be a fun (but time consuming) craft to do with the kids.


HOLIDAY CARDS FROM SHUTTERFLY

My preferred photo sharing site is Shutterfly (no, they are not paying me to say that). I've been using it for years and love everything I've ever bought and made via the site. For the past seven or eight years, I've also purchased my holiday cards via Shutterfly, too. Here are some fun designs that are available on their site. I just love these!