DIY Christmas Cards for 2017

Y'all probably know by now that handmade Christmas cards are practically a given as far as I'm concerned. Here are last year's cards.

Over the past year, both my sister MaryGrace and I have experimented a bit with watercolor painting. She does it much more than I do--I suffer from the completely false perception that I should only be making art if there is a purpose for the art. I admire her ability to simply sit down and spend an evening painting and trying out new techniques even with no purpose or end goal for the art in mind. That is a characteristic much needed in a true artist!

Because of our fascination with watercolor, both the card that Angel and I send out and my parents' family card involved watercolor designs this year--and yet maintained very different styles--after all, we wouldn't want anyone to get the two cards mixed up, now would we?

Here's my card:

Definitely a minimalist design--stamping out the letters was really fun, though! I tried to get Mom to use the stamps on her cards but she preferred the look of handlettering. I also see the appeal. I made our cards on my own, but Angel got the task of writing personal letters in each one and addressing the envelopes.

Here are Mom and Dad's cards:

It was a true family project putting these cards together--MaryGrace painting the watercolor paper, Dad tracing and cutting out ornament shapes, Mom, Angel, and I handlettering the words for the cards and signing the inside once the cards got put together. No small task when you have over 200 cards to make...but we listened to Christmas songs while we worked and had a lot of fun accomplishing this project together!

And here's this year's family photo:

The four panels wrapped up with ribbon like a Christmas gift was Mom's vision. I didn't have any software that could easily accomplish this vision, so I turned over the job to my graphic designing brother, and it turned out awesome!

What kind of Christmas cards are you sending out this year?