warm wishes + merry christmas

Happy Holidays + Merry Christmas + Happy New Year + Happy Everything

Happy Holidays to you and yours! I hope your holidays are spent enjoying time with the people you love. That really is what makes my holiday magical, and that will be our focus. Although we have a bug going around our extended family, I had it a couple of weeks ago and it is still making its rounds, we plan on spending a lot of time over at my mom's house enjoying good company and hearty (healthy) food.

Things may be a little quiet here on andchloe until 2015. I will likely post a little here and there, but don't have plans to spend a lot of time blogging until the new year.

This is our 2014 holiday card, by the way. I usually do more of a reveal complete with photography. Didn't get a chance to get to it this year (read: that bug I mentioned above), so although I may share more in depth later on, for now this will do. 

christmas cards 2014

My Octobers, Novembers, and Decembers are usually packed with holiday card designs. Each year I have plans of photographing each design, but in practice, time always slips away and I either don't get a sample of the printed cards or just don't take the time to have them photographed. With my family's cards, however, it is easy to get samples and have my sister snap photos of them. So inevitably, you can expect to find their's here on the blog and in my portfolio!

My mom desired a simple card this year, and she wanted the color photo to take center stage. That meant a simple type overlay of "MERRY CHRISTMAS" and our names on the front. On the back, a short note about the year's happenings and a couple more photos. The watercolor branch was originally meant for the front, but to allow the photo to shine (and due to all the foliage in the background of the photo), it worked best on the back.

My sister had a simple design in mind, too, incorporating some type and a diamond pattern. The dark green lettering complimented the greens and yellows in their gorgeous photo well. We went with a while envelope because we could not find a good source for dark, dark green ones (a first choice).

You can see more of my holiday card designs from years past here.

what a difference a year makes

I was going through the recent family photos we had taken because I am choosing the all important holiday card photo! I get super excited about this stuff, because I love planning and executing my holiday card. It has been a tradition in my family to send out a holiday card with photo my whole life, something I have carried on in to my own little family.

When I was looking through photos, I could not help but do a side-by-side comparison from last year's photos which were taken almost exactly a year ago. Raffa was only 6 months old in the photos on the right, and in this year's photos he is 17 months old. It is amazing how much happens and changes in a year, and having a child marks that passage of time for me even more dramatically. I cannot imagine what the next year holds for us.

On the note of holiday cards, in case you did not know, I offer custom design services for holiday cards. It is time to finish that process up and I will only be taking another two commissions for holiday cards, so if you are interested, please contact me sooner than later. Any of my past holiday card designs are available for customization as well. I am working on customizations of past designs through the end of November; so, there is less of a rush on that.

custom design :: holiday cards

I am continuing to share holiday card that I designed for the past 2013 holidays. Today, I am sharing my mom's family holiday card which includes my little family and my sisters little family as well {top}; and I am sharing my sister's holiday card {bottom}.

You can check out a sampling of other holiday cards I have designed here. And, any of my designs, whether they are in my shop or not, are available for purchase and customization {although it may be a little early to think about holiday 2014 cards}.

custom design :: gregg family holiday cards

I did not get a chance before the holidays to share all of the holiday cards I was commissioned to design for the 2013 holiday season. So, over the next couple of weeks, I will sprinkle in some of those.

Today I am sharing the card I designed for the Gregg family. The starting point for the design was the beach photo. Jen wanted the card to match the blues and teals in the photo of Lianna and Duncan on the beach. She also didn't want anything overly Christmas-y in design elements or colors. From that came this star design where the stars have some movement across the card. A simple signature and greeting on the back and custom printed return addresses on the envelopes gave the whole set a classy feel.

it's the most wonderful time of the year :: custom holiday card

It's that time of year when I am working on holiday cards galore - one of my favorite times of year for many reasons including the design work it brings.

I like to share the holiday cards I create, and this is the first one I finished this season.

A digitally printed card and matching digitally printed envelopes. I love the way these typefaces work together here, especially the diagonal line font (see close-up). And, I love the red and gray palette of this design, too.

There is is still lots of time for holiday cards, so although I started on the first back in October, I will be in the full swing of this type of project for a couple more weeks.

happy new year card

Instead of holiday/Christmas cards, sometimes people send out New Year's cards! I personally love the idea, but then again I love any opportunity to send out greetings through the mail.

This is a New Year's postcard that I designed for my dear friend, Jenny. It is a simple 4x4" postcard which gleaned inspiration from my holiday postcard. Jenny wanted to do a custom stamp with Elle's sweet face since she was busy looking another direction in the photo on the front.

Look at this cool concept for a holiday/year end card that was featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper ... I love the design's hand-written  type mixed with typography and a little illustrations added in.

photo credit: Studio Epherma via Oh So Beautiful Paper

happy christmas eve :: holiday card reveal

Merry Christmas to you! I hope you have a beautiful Christmas!

As you can see, we have some big news ... we are unexpectedly expecting; a tidbit of news that we revealed to our family and friends with our holiday postcard.

I am about 18 weeks along and our baby is expected to arrive late May 2013.

See the full details of our holiday card ...

custom design :: the solheim family holiday card

Here is the reveal on a custom design I did for my Mom as the family Christmas card she sends out.

Based upon my Mom's input, I created an illustrated card that showcases a photo of each segment of our family on the front. On the back of the card, my Mom wanted to do a short version of a "Christmas letter", so I made that pretty, too. Never one to forget the envelopes, I had to make custom return adress labels as well as print the labels for the front in typefaces to match.

As to be expected, this card was a lot of fun to work on. I will most likely re-use the illustrative elements for other projects.

If you remember last year's design, you will see a little bit of a connect in the style.  Last year's design is currently available for purchase and customization. Next year this design will be available for purchase and customization as well (my Mom gets one year exclusivity on it!).

I will reveal my personal holiday card design on Christmas Eve!

custom design :: bryand family holiday card

A couple of weeks ago I finished up this holiday card for a client ...

Brooke is a photographer in San Francisco. I met her when she became a *REMEMBER the day* customer and then eventually we did a trade of some product photos for a holiday card design. This is the result of that trade.

The design is actually a loose modification of this design that I did for a client last year.

custom project: the solheim family christmas card

This is the custom illustrated Christmas card I created for my Mom as the family Christmas card she sends out. As you can see she includes my sister, me, and my husband in her card still. This card was so much fun, and is one of my personal favorites that I have done. (I will share my Christmas card as my Merry Christmas to you on Christmas!)

custom projects: holiday cards

Finished these two holiday cards this week for the Parker family (top) and Hannah and Alex (bottom)... off to the printer they go!

There is still plenty of time for me to work on YOUR holiday card - get in touch with me so we can discuss it!

keith family holiday card

I love sending and receiving holiday cards, and working on custom designs is also so much fun! I just finished up this card for the Keith family ... it has a little bit of a weathered look to it (might be hard to tell in the photo).

custom project: the roger family christmas card

 

The Rogers got an early start on their Christmas cards, and I was thrilled to help them out!

{front}

{back}

I would be glad to help you out with your holiday cards! We can customize this design for you, or come up with a whole new one! These custom Christmas cards are affordable, but are high quality and can be completely custom - email me for a quote!