2013 Family Photo Christmas Card

I felt a bit guilty this year because I didn't hand make our Christmas cards.  With marching band season extended this year by our trip to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I lost 3 weeks of Christmas prep time & just couldn't pull everything together to get this task done.  However, I did find a beautiful photo card on the Shutterfly website & decided to go for it!  And as it turns out, the cost of these cards was far less then the supplies I would have spent to make my own.   So here it is ~ our 2013 Family Photo Christmas Card...

However, when they arrived, I couldn't resist adding a few personal touches to them.  The plain white envelopes that came with the cards were begging to be decorated! I used the Sheena Douglass set from Crafter's Companion called Ornate Snowflakes along with Memento Rhubarb Stalk Ink and the pretty Delicata Golden Glitz ink.

And then I had to cover up the obnoxious white logo strip on the back of the card because it just bugged me way too much.  So I took a strip of matching burgundy cardstock and embossed it with my Let It Snow Embossalicious folder to add to the bottom of the card.

 It's not that I didn't want to give Shutterfly the credit for the pretty photo card, but it was very distracting from the photo of my gorgeous girl.

Before & After... see how much better that looks!

Here's the front of the card opened up...

and here is the back with a personal little holiday message!

And so there it is ~ our family card for Christmas 2013!  I love it and have now let go of the guilt that I did not make them.  I know that helping prepare our marching band for an amazing once-in-a-lifetime trip to NYC and sharing in the experience as a family, was far more important than making 80 hand stamped cards this year.