Our partners at Minted.com have offered us a chance to try out their products for free, but all of the opinions are my own.
As soon as Halloween passes, my mind turns to the holidays… and one of the first things I need to do is to figure out what I’m going to do for our annual family photo Christmas card. This year, I’m going to try out Minted, a site that offers crowdsourced designs created by independent artists around the world. Minted holiday photo card designs range from classic and elegant to quirky and independent.
Our Favorite Moments card, from Minted
Collage cards, such as this one with its cute wash tape effects and handwritten-font captions, offer a way to share photos from throughout the year. They are also great for families with little kids who never seem to all sit down and smile nicely at the same time. I may go with a card like this one to show the progress of our home construction project, wouldn’t that be fun?
Heaven + Nature card, Minted
Also, I like how Minted features models of different races in its samples, such as this couple wearing traditional Korean handbooks…
Merry Scriptmas, Minted
… or this transracial family.
I’ve also noticed a popular trend towards photo card designs in which the graphics are overlaid on the top, bottom or corner of a picture. If you haven’t taken your family photo, you may want to consider shooting (or asking your photographer to shoot) images with some extra headroom or space on the side for to accommodate graphics.
Little Joy card, Minted
And a fresh look I’m seeing a lot of this year is to have the lettering overlaid right in the middle of the image. Minted offers an amazing amount of flexibility, and you can change the fonts and colors in many of the designs — or even move the graphics around to complement your photo!
There’s No Place Like Home Card, Minted
For people who prefer a more traditional look, there are designs where you simple drop in your picture and type in your name, like this one. Witb our remodeling project underway, I’m keeping the theme of home in mind as I design my own cards. Here’s what I’m currently working on:
Wreck the Halls, Minted/HapaMama
What do you think? Have you tried Minted? What are you planning to do for your Christmas cards?