Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Christmas Card

Soon after Elise came home, a friend of ours came over to take some photos.  The friend has recently been bitten by the photography bug and is building her portfolio.  Because she had never shot a newborn before, she jumped at the opportunity for the practice- but her work has simply blown me away.  On Monday I had the pleasure of scrolling through the pictures she took and picking out my favorites.  You can see many of the pictures here or here.

In order to get a Christmas card out (albeit late), I picked out a print to get by email so I could design a Christmas card online.  After visiting many of the photo sites and looking at prices, I decided I would use picnik.com to design my own Christmas card.  Here's how it went down...

I started with an amazing picture:


After uploading the picture to the site, I began playing around with shapes, texts, and colors on picnik.com. I knew I wanted a place to place text, and since most of the background of the picture was white, I decided to put a red bar across the bottom to ensure the text could be seen. Under the 'Create' tab at the top, I went to 'stickers' and found the geometric shapes.  After adding a rectangle, I then stretched it to cover the bottom of the picture and made it a bright red color:

Next, under the 'featured' tab, I was able to find 'gift tag' stickers- exactly what I had in mind to break up the big red bar:

But I decided I wanted it in a different color:


From here it was time to add text.  there are many fonts to choose from, and I played around quite a bit in order to get the desired look:


After making up a few different prototypes, I sent the pictures on to Walmart.com so I could view them before I ordered a goodish amount of them. I'm glad I did, because the colors were not what I expected (every computer screen is different) and this morning I sent out a 'color test' card.  It looked something like this:


I added circles of color near the shades I was looking for to see how they would print out. After getting the picture back, I was able to go back in and change the colors.  Joe is picking up the photos now, and for 15 cents a card, I think I like this picnik option!



Merry Christmas!


22 comments:

  1. Beautiful! The picture is amazing!

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  2. Wow wow, all of the pictures are stunning! What a cutie pie!

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  3. What a great idea to design your own photo card! I love it! :)


    P.S. You'll have to share the patterns/yarn you used for the purple long-tail hat and the pink one with the flower. - ALL the pictures are adorable of your little girl! :)

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  4. All of the pictures are really wonderful, it would be very hard to select just one!

    I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    Charlene

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  5. Adorable. Congratulations and happy holidays!

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous! Your little angel is beautiful! Happy Holidays!!

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  7. Beautiful card, featuring a beautiful baby!

    Merry Christmas to you.

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  8. Those are adorable! Have a very happy holiday with your new bundle of sweetness.

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  9. Wow, how'd you choose just one. The baby in the basket of yarn and the one's in the green shawl are terrific, but they all are. Helps that she's a beauty!

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  10. OG, how can she be so so beautiful?! ♥

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  11. Beautiful, creative, and you are still getting them in the mail before Christmas! Thanks for sharing the site and the step by step.

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  12. Well isn't that the cutest baby Ive ever seen in my entire life?! Adorable pics!!!!!!!

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  13. Well done! And Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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  14. Gorgeous! I love the feathers in her bow, that's super unique. Happy Holidays to your family. I've been a huge fan of your slippers for over a year now and I just had to comment and say that nearly everyone I know is getting a pair for Christmas this year. I just made eight pairs in the last week and it's like a FPK factory around here! Thanks :)

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  15. The photos are awesome! I check them all out. Did you knit the hat she's wearing (the one looong hat? That is too cute.

    I think your friend is well on her way to being a great photographer!

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  16. Your friends pictures of your little sweet girl are just gorgeous... :)

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  17. Great design! Picnik is pretty cool, thanks for sharing it. Such a precious photo of Elise--Emily got so many gorgeous shots of her. So this card will double as a birth announcement/Christmas card this year? :) Good idea!

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  18. Love Love Love , those picture are so precious!! Enjoy this time !! Merry Christmas kristin's Kraze

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  19. Karen Sibert
    karen@seorankforum.com

    Hi,

    This is a really nice post. Thanks for sharing this information.

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  20. That is a stunning picture. You put it to great use!

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