Holiday Style-Edition: Custom Christmas Cards from Minted

Have you bought your Christmas cards yet?

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is the cards.  For many people, Christmas is one of the only times a year where they step away from their computers and actually HAND WRITE  letters and cards to their family and friends and to me, there's nothing better than getting a beautiful note in the mail!

Minted is one of my favorite sources for custom cards and paper goods.   They have a large community of designers that contribute from around the globe which I think tends to make their assortment of card options a little bit nicer than other photo-centric sites that offer custom cards.   They also print on beautiful thick matte paper that is much higher quality than what you can get from many places.

So,  if you haven't bought your cards yet, check them out! 

I love these colorful (kind of Kate Spade-esque) stripes:

They also give you tons of flexibility to customize the inside, back of cards and envelopes.

 

Plus,  custom cards don't have to include photos. They have some lovely options that you can customize with just your name  and personal note.

 Now, time to get stamps.... 

Great Deal on Cute Letterpress Stationary

I love the darling designs from stationary and design company Linda & Harriett.  I especially love letterpress cards and I always end up picking out their cards out at my local stationary shop.  As I was clearly in a festive mood last week, I had my eye on these summery notepads:

I managed to hold myself back. But, then today I noticed a sale email from Linda & Harriett in my inbox, so I had to check it out.  They've re-launched their "Outlet"  which offers some great deals on beautiful letterpress designs.   I've paid full price for some of these cards (up to $4.50 a piece!) so I can tell you that $6 for 5 is a great deal!  If you like to keep extra cards around just in case (A habit I learned from my mother)  Check some of these out...

Thank You Mermaid Cards ($6 for 5)

Green Alligator Cards ($7 for 10)

Congrats Confetti Card ($1.50)

Thank You Hearts ($1.50)

Pink Flamingos ($5 for 6)

There's nothing better than getting a handwritten note in the mail...

It turns out cute eCards do exist

I'm not a proponent of using eCards or email, especially not using them in place of real paper cards because there is really nothing better than getting a beautiful note in the mail. However,  I do think eCards are better than no card at all! 

That being said… trying to find a non-tacky card online is a bit tricky. There are a bunch of sites that try to charge for them, but who is going to pay for that?  (Not me!)

Well, here comes Kate Spade to the rescue.   With Valentines day coming up, their lovely website gathered a bunch of super cute illustrations and animations from fun artists (here) and set them up for easy (and free) email delivery.  It was hard to pick my favorites but here are a few:

This one is an awesome stop motion animation. I can't figure out how to pull in the gif so see it here.

If I buy a store bought card, it usually involves a good pun that will make the BF smile.  That in combo with a vintage postcard of hugging donkeys! Love it.

Boombox:

Just cute.