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You know how it’s actually fun to receive snail mail that isn’t junk? Well, this may be super lame but it’s been even more fun to get snail mail addressed to Kendall and me as a family. It hasn’t happened much, but we’ve gotten “The Price Family” and “The Future Price Family” a couple of times and it really tickled us. Granted, one was a weird invite to a hearing aid conference but it was still kind of exciting!
There are two prime times for snail mail: 1. your birthday and 2. the holidays. I adore Christmas cards. Growing up (and continuing at the Downing household yearly) my mom always kept a basket of cards we received during the holidays. It was always fun to go through them, and there were some I expected every year: card featuring hand-painted winter scenes from my Great Uncle Baird, recreated classic movie scenes from my mom’s friend Reid, cards with pictures of kids I’ve seen grow up through the years… holiday card memories are just part of my Christmas experience!
I’ll admit, I’m not the best at sending out my own. This Christmas, if I send cards, I’m fully intending on using Minted to help me.
First of all, I HATE addressing envelopes because I have probably the worst handwriting of anyone I know. Minted has an address assistant (annnnd I already have all the addresses I’ve collected for wedding invites- we’re using Minted for our wedding too!) This also makes keeping track of those who you want to send mail to super easy.
Here’s a tip for sending cards that I’ve done for previous years- as soon as I receive a Christmas card from someone, I jot their name and address down from their return address label and put them on my list. My mom just rips off the return address labels and ads them to the basket. With the address manager, you can totally skip those steps and just ad the addresses to a virtual address book. Easy peasy and super organized and no bad handwriting involved!
Second of all, the designs are too cute! Minted sourced each one from an emerging independent artist somewhere in the world. You can find the perfect holiday card format to suit your style by taking a look at their original 5″x7″ Holiday Cards, Foil-Pressed Holiday Cards, Letterpress Holiday Cards and more. I think it’s so cool that you can actually “meet” the artists who design your cards as Minted provides little blurbs about each one. (You can see examples with my picks below!)
I am a big fan of photo cards myself, especially if they have a bit of shine from real foil. In a perfect world, Kendall and I would have had professional pictures taken for our Christmas cards this year, but since we’ve basically run out of time, it’s been too hot to put on scarves and boots and cute wintery stuff for said pictures, and we have our awesome engagement pictures, we don’t really need to do another shoot.
I picked out my top three cards from this years holiday collection from Minted, but there are so many different designs to choose from, plus little ways to personalize. Yes, you can ad your photos and names and such, but with many of the cards you can also edit the color scheme, colors of the fonts, or colors of the foil. My absolute favorite card design is Brushes, but I tend to like abstract and arty designs. There’s really something for every taste, whether you want to go traditional, fun, or glam!
by Oscar & Emma of Columbus, OH
Karly Depew is the creative talent behind Oscar & Emma. She has a true obsession for luxurious papers, anything with stripes and modern organic home decor. She resides in Ohio with her husband, daughter and twin sons.
by Carolyn MacLaren of Encinitas, CA
I’m so lucky I get to spend my days filled with my two loves — being a designer and a mom to 2 kids (and 1 dog). I am drawn to simple graphic patterns, unexpected color palettes, and fresh typography. My personal style ranges from simple and modern to warm and whimsical, and am constantly inspired from everyday life.
Foliage Joyfulby curiouszhi design of London, GB
I am passionate about beautiful design in every aspect of daily life. My design aesthetic is driven by my love of clean typography and whimsical illustrations. When I’m not designing, I can be found playing the piano or experimenting in the kitchen.
Have you thought about holiday cards yet? If not, it’s probably time to start!
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