Free Christmas Card Template
Hi everyone! It’s Amy from My 3 Monsters again and I am thrilled to be here sharing a fun free Christmas card template with y’all. This is about the time of year that I start stressing about what to do for our annual Christmas card and newsletter. Even though my parents AND grandparents are on social media now and see what we’re doing as we do it all year long, I’m a traditionalist. I still think it’s fun to send {and receive!} real mail during the holidays. With social media in mind, I designed this Hashtag Holiday Card template!
Every year it is an ordeal to dress my family up and get a portrait for the card. Someone always hates the outfits I choose and someone else is having a bad hair day. No one wants to be there and we’re not actors, guys — it’s written all over our faces. I’m jealous of all you who have stunning families in gorgeous, artistic portraits taken in cool locations by talented photographers. More power to you! Send me your cards. Please! I just knew it wasn’t going to happen for us. Not this year. I decided to comb through all of our Instagram accounts to find photos from throughout the year and choose a few of my favorites. Then I created a card around that. I love how simple it is and it turned out to be a perfect representation of us.
For years I have sent out flat 5×7 inch cards with a photo {or photos} on one side and a little letter on the other. You can have them printed pretty inexpensively from most online print shops and I like the all-in-one concept. Just choose the “design your own” option on whatever site you choose so you can upload your two JPEG files. We have used Vista Print, UPrinting, and Black River Imaging in past years and all have been great, with easy to use websites and quality finished products.
To create your own version of the card, all you need are the free Christmas card templates {links to download provided below} and a photo editing program that can work with layers {like Photoshop, Gimp, or Picasa}.
Download the #merrychristmas version here
Download the #happyholidays version here
Download the 2014 status review here.
Once you have the template of your choice downloaded, open it up in your photo editing program. You will see the white background image with 12 empty frames for you to insert your photos. Choose your photos and open them as new layers — each photo will be on its own layer as shown below:
The photos will be too big for the frames. but that’s OK! Resize each photo to 400 pixels square, as shown below:
Then simply drag and drop each photo into the desired frame:
Keep going until all the frames are filled, then save the image as a JPEG file. To add text to the back side of the card, open the 2014 status review image up in your photo editing program and use the text tool to add whatever message you like:
I wrote ours to read like status updates on Facebook with ridiculous hashtags at the end of each paragraph to keep with the hastag theme. It’s not an in-depth review of our year, but it gives our friends and family a little taste of what we’ve done. Leave them wanting more, I always say! When you are finished, save it as a JPEG file. Now you are ready to create and print your cards.
If you want a little more detailed tutorial about working with layers in a photo editing program, this tutorial I wrote a while back is a great place to start! I hope this helps some of you simplify the holiday card process. Enjoy your holiday preparations, friends!
Looking for more quick Christmas crafts? Check these out!
Amy
Latest posts by Amy (see all)
- Faux Pallet Art World Map Printable - Jan 19 2015
- Free Printable Calendar for 2015 - Jan 06 2015
- Free Christmas Card Template - Nov 20 2014
Thanks so much for these printables! I love them!
Thank you very much for the Christmas Letter with pictures template. I was stressing as I usually have everything ready by now, but just recently lost my dad and things are upside down. Thank you so much.