How To Design Your Own Holiday Cards

So, this isn't really related to home decor; but I thought I'd share this little tip for fun!  When I'm sending out holiday cards or party invitations I don't like spending lot of money.  And if you pay for a design, envelopes, postage, printing costs - it all adds up quickly!

So to save a little scratch, I like to design my own.  And you really don't need any fancy skills or fancy programs to do it.  I like to use the free online program picmonkey.com.  I am not a paid advertiser for Picmonkey, I just really like the program!  It is fairly new, so everything is free right now; but eventually they will start charging for some of the premium options.

Anyway, it's super easy to use.  Here is how I made my Christmas card this year!

Step One:  Click on "Create a Collage"

Step Two:  Change the pixel size.  This is so when you go to have your photo cards printed, they will be the correct size and will not have to be cropped.  To make 5x7 prints, your pixel size needs to be 2100x1500.

Step Three:  Now that your sizing is correct, add your photos.  I chose several photos so that I could play around with the design and see what I liked best.  You don't have to use every photo that you upload.  Also note here that I uploaded a blue wood grain design background.  I got this by simply googling "Digital Scrapbook Freebies Christmas" and found several free digital scrapbook kits with all kinds of cute background designs.  The blue wood grain design I used is from The Merry Little Christmas Mini Kit from Design House Digital.

Step Four:  Once you have your pictures and background loaded, you need to save your file.  I call this the "base design".  

Step Five:  You save a "base design" because for some reason Picmonkey doesn't let you add any text or symbols to collages, so you have to save the file as a blank design, and then reopen it in Picmonkey as a single photo.  You do this back at the main Picmonkey screen:

Step Six:  Now that your "base design" is open in Picmonkey, you can see it looks the same as the collage screen; but there are different options on the left.  To add text to your design choose the "P" button.  Now have fun adding text and symbols to complete your design!  When you're all finished, save the file to your computer and simply have them printed anywhere that prints photos.  I use Costco.

Picmonkey has all sorts of different fonts and symbols/clipart to choose from and the possibilities are endless.  Here is what my Christmas card looked like when I was finished.  Even if I wasn't trying to save money I'd probably still design my cards this way because I think it is super fun.  I used the same method to make my daughter's birthday card this year.  

Hope this helps some of you, have fun!

Alternatives to the Gallery Wall

I'm still seeing gallery walls like the one below everywhere, and I still like them.

Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Erica on Pinterest

But you can't put a gallery display on every single wall in your house or you're gonna look like a crazy person. Here are some other ideas to fill those empty walls. Framed wallpaper.

Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

Enlarge family photos and frame - those are Ikea frames!

Source: daffodildesign.com via Erica on Pinterest

Display 9 matching frames in a grid.

Source: delightfulorder.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

Shelves or picture ledges.

Source: cdn.decorpad.com via Adryan on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Cathy on Pinterest

Copycat Project : DIY Cloud Art

I knew when I saw this project featured on A Cup of Jo, I had to try it out.





Amber from Amber Interiors took a photo of clouds, blew it up, and framed it in an IKEA frame. Genius.

I used a photo I had taken a long time ago, and simply cropped it so only the sky was in the frame. Then I tweaked it a bit to get the turquoise color I was going for. Here is my version hanging in my bedroom.





Such a fast, easy, and cheap project!

DIY Art for the Kitchen

I helped a client with the space above her kitchen cabinets over the weekend. This is a tricky space, and brings visions of dusty fake ivy plants to many of us I am sure. We wanted to avoid that.

Here is the end result.


This particular kitchen has quite a bit of height above the cabinets so I wanted to put some artwork up there. I wanted something graphic and modern that would bring in some color; so I came up with this "EAT" sign. This is a quick and cheap project and I loved how it turned out.

Start with a piece of plywood. You can pick it up at Home Depot or Lowes, and they'll cut it to any size you want. This one is about 20x35 and I had it left over from another project.


You'll also need to print out whatever image you want to transfer onto the plywood. I typed "EAT" in a Word document in font size 600; each letter took up a full page. The font is "Fiesta" and you can download it free here. I also printed out the fork and spoon image which you can download here.

Next prime your plywood with white paint primer using a roller. This step isn't completely necessary, but I did it to make sure my green paint would be saturated enough.


Confession: I was going to have a nice styled picture for each of the remaining steps like a good blogger - but I ended up frantically finishing it at about 11:00 at night with no time or patience for pictures. This is how I do most of my projects. Whoops.

After your primer dries, apply two coates with a roller of your desired color. I used Olive Marinade by Valspar.

Allow paint to dry. Then, using graphite paper - trace your printed image onto the wood with a pencil. Lay the graphite paper, graphite side down, on the wood. Line up your printed images and place over the graphite paper. Trace the outline of each letter, and the fork and spoon, with a pencil.


Finally, fill in your traced outline with a paint pen. This is the easiest part. I'm not too steady with a paint brush, and so paint pens to the rescue. I picked mine up at Michael's.


And you're done! Really cheap, pretty easy.

DIY Trellis Mirror

One of my readers, Anne, was inspired by this picture from my post back in September.



She decided to make a similar mirror to hang above her sofa.





Head on over to her blog for details on how she did it. Great job Anne!

DIY Christmas

My next freelance article for The Arizona Republic will be coming out soon (other two articles here and here). This time my 5 DIY projects are all about Christmas decor. Here's a sneak peak.

Cherry Branch

I'm usually not a fan of wall murals, but this cherry branch silhouette over at House Tweaking has changed my opinion. Dana and her husband created it using an overhead projector.



Apparently I've been living under a rock, because I just discovered Dana's blog today after Apartment Therapy posted her house tour. Here are some other great spaces from her home.

Storage Idea

Loving this stacked crate storage idea from Real Living.


via Poppytalk

Desk Top Redo

I've started to spruce up my guest room. I decided when decorating this room, to limit myself to only using the things I already have. More details on that challenge later when I post my finished (and free!) guest room, but for now here's one of the projects I did for the room.

Remember, I'm not using anything I don't already own. The problem was I needed some large scale art, and didn't have any. So instead, I pulled out this IKEA desk that has been collecting dust for awhile.



First, I unscrewed the legs leaving only the table top - which was going to be my "canvas". Next I printed out several butterflies from the free images available at Vintageprintable.com.



I printed out the butterflies in various sizes on regular ol' printer paper and cut them out. I adhered the butterflies to the desk top using Mod Podge. Then I simply attached wire to the back of the desk top and hung. Free art!

Unrelated

Here are some random things I've got my eye on.

Liking these headboard ideas from Sunset Magazine. Especially that trellis mirror, seems like it could be a DIY project. Maybe with some wooden garden trellis from Home Depot and a big mirror? Or paint a mirror with a trellis stencil?




Loving this oversized horse photo. Thinking about getting a photo enlarged at Kinkos, cutting it in thirds, and framing it in IKEA frames for the same look.

via Decorpad

Love the idea of simple floating shelves hung above a toilet.

via Decorpad

DIY Halloween Decor

I put up my Halloween decorations last weekend, and I'm itching to add some more. Here are a few DIY projects I've gathered from around the net. Don't you love when old people call it "the net"? Silly old people and their AOL accounts.






Friendly ghosts, black and white pumpkins, and spider cut-outs from Country Living


Candy Corn Wreath from Woman's Day


Rhinestone pumpkins from Good Housekeeping


Trick or Treat banner from The Crafting Chicks