Steve knows that every time we start talking Halloween costumes there’s a 50% chance those costumes will end up on our Christmas card (which is why he has such an opinion!) Let me give a little background of what goes into these cards. (probably more information than you’ll ever want to know, but just know, these things rarely go smoothly and yet year after year I’m ready for the challenge!)

This year I did not intend to use pictures from Halloween (I usually shoot on a backdrop and I didn’t even do that this year which made cutting them out far more difficult than it needed to be.) But as Christmas crept closer and closer and we were hitting a tight deadline the stick family won out.

With minimal planning we were able to shoot the inside photo of our card. I’m always so hopeful when shooting a photo like this. How hard can it be, right? Set up the tripod. Get everyone in line, evenly spaced. Shoot photos. Keep everyone in line and run to the tripod to check out the shots. Realize Bennett’s standing too close to Hunter and Cannon isn’t looking at the camera. Run back to stand in line and take a series of 10 timed pictures. Run back to camera realize although Cannon is now looking at the camera, Briggs is doing a silly pose in every picture. Run back to stand in line….repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I kept telling my kids, “only one more time” and then I’d look at the goofiness and demand another shot. It’s a really great Sunday afternoon family bonding activity.

Finally get a decent shot and said good enough.

I went home and got to work laying this card out. When designing our Christmas cards, I’m usually working with unusual folds or cuts and it’s sometimes a gamble if it’s actually going to work out. This particular design had to be lined up nearly perfect to make this work. I was rushing to get this sent to the printer knowing it would take some time to get them back. I hit submit and waited. I approved the printer proof and waited. They called me one day clarifying how it should fold – I was confident the printer tech was going to nail my vision.

Two days later on the day it was supposed to ship, I got a call from the rep saying it looked really great, but it was a little off. The diagonal cut wasn’t done right so at about Briggs’ arm it was no longer diagonal, it was horizontal and some of the bodies didn’t line up perfectly, but no one would probably notice. He then sent me a picture of them. Hmm… don’t tell a graphic designer that no one will notice, because they will notice. And once I saw the picture it was a hard no. He reluctantly told me he’d ship another set but it would take another day. Definitely worth it.

A couple days later these showed up. Everyone lined up and the diagonal line went all the way across and my kids loved them!

I always love when these get dropped off at the post office and I love it even more when our friend’s and family’s cards start showing up. Confession: I know I said I was taking them down last week – but as of tonight, they are still hanging up!