Jackie and Mike's 2012 Holiday Card

Before the holidays are too far behind us, I wanted to share the cards I sent to friends and family this past year. With Designers Care and my busiest Believe Notes holiday season ever, there were a few weeks there that I just didn't think I'd be able to send cards at all. Luckily, inspiration struck and not only did I get to send cards, but I absolutely love the way they came out. I've been trying to practice my hand lettering lately, so I thought the holiday cards would be the perfect opportunity to test out my new skills.

I like for our cards to be really meaningful. but still fun and good-looking. Since a huge part of 2012 turned out to be Designers Care, I decided to go with a clean black and white design, and the backer pattern has a "stamped" effect. Something else that I do every year is create a pattern that features objects that were important to us throughout the year. Since this year marked the year of renovation (we did all of our floors plus the kitchen over) I decided to include hammers and stoves, along with paw prints (for Miss Juliet) an NYPD shield (for Mike's job) and apples since my husband and I are die hard Mac lovers.

I had my heart set on black envelopes, and since the only way to write/print addresses on them is either by hand (with a white, silver, or gold marker) or with an address label. I'm not typically a fan of address labels - they make me thing of those God-aweful ones that people print at home and then slap on cards. Since I was too lazy to hand write each address, I knew I needed labels, and so I though some round labels with hand lettering would spruce things up and turn them into an added design element. They also shaved a ton of time off, which was awesome, because these cards went out late. The labels were placed a little off-centered, which is exactly how I wanted them, and I love the way they came out! The finishing touch was the gold stamped return address (I used this stamp) and a little gold washi tape.The cards themselves were printed on super thick recycled stock with rounded corners.

The photo was taken by the super talented Jainé, of Brklyn View Photography, during my head shots for Believe Notes. Mike was there to help me keep Juliet out of the way, and Jainé was kind enough to snap this super fast family shot. I love the way the lighting fades off, and the beautiful NYC sky line in the background makes it even better.

I know it's a little late, but from my family to yours, I hope you had a great holiday & are off to a wonderful start in 2013!