Joy to the World – We Took Our Own Holiday Card Pictures

When we couldn’t fit a session into our busy schedule this year for holiday pictures with our family photographer, we took matters into our own hands. After our recent success with a DIY photo booth for a party, we decided to set one up and take our own holiday card photos.  This was such a huge success, it might become a yearly tradition!!!

5 Tips for Creating Holiday Cards

1.  Make It Special

Set the stage for a great photo with a simple backdrop to fit the theme.  We loved the map backdrop we used for the birthday party photo booth, but not the Happy Birthday banner hanging in the background.

With a little modification we knew the same backdrop would work great for a “Joy to the World” or “Peace on Earth” holiday card. For our holiday photo session, I re-hung the atlas tapestry in the dining room, but instead of the birthday banner, I strung up a garland and our DIY colorful ornaments.

2.  Choose the Card Before Taking Pictures

This is a tip I picked up from our family photographer.  Always plan what you want to use the pictures for, before taking the pictures.  Before the photo session, we picked out a holiday card. Having such great results with our magnetic photo message boards, we were excited to work with Pinhole Press again on another photo project. We chose this Joy to the World accordion style card, with room for 5 photos.

Knowing we had 5 photo slots to fill, we made sure to have at least 5 planned poses for our photo session; one family pose and 4 different poses of the boys.  For the 5 photos, we needed 4 portrait pictures and 1 larger landscape picture.  When planning a photo session, it is extremely helpful to know the minimum number of shots you need and how to orient the photos.

3. Brainstorm Poses and Props

To keep it interesting we brainstormed a few pose ideas (like reindeer antlers with hands) and props (like christmas lights).  When it was time to take the photos, we used our camera on a timer to take a whole bunch of photos. We had fun coming up with different pose ideas on the fly. The boys even came up with a few of them.  We took several photos of each pose and chose the best during editing.  During the shoot we encouraged each other to come up with new poses to try.

4.  Do Something Unexpected

Our favorite pose was a last-minute idea my hubby spotted online. We wrapped up the boys in christmas lights and taped their mouths shut, with SILENT NIGHT written on the strips of tape.  We left this to the very end, knowing they might get distracted playing with tape and the lights, which they did.

We knew the family picture would be perfect for the front of the card, the series of the boys together on the backside, and the silent night picture in the other slot on the front of the card.

5.  Opt for One Stop Ordering

At this busy time of year, I appreciate getting everything done quickly and efficiently.  I love that we can take our own pictures and create a holiday card we love. Using the Pinhole Press editor we were able to upload and edit the pictures to look exactly how we wanted in just a few moments.

I really appreciate the order size flexibility, with minimum orders starting at 10 cards and discounted prices for 20 or more cards. We have a small mailing list for our cards, so it was lovely to order only the 30 cards we needed.  While we were at it, with a few more clicks, we created and ordered coordinating address labels.

Bonus: Order Matching Photo Products

Since we had so much fun with this photo session and loved the pictures, I wanted to commemorate them in another way besides just our holiday card. Pinhole Press has some fun photo products. I ordered our family photo as a 12-piece puzzle.  I chose the puzzle with the largest pieces, so our youngest could play with it too.

Then, I ordered a memory card game using all the pictures from our session. I love that the boys can interact and play with these pictures over and over again.

The memory game is a set of cards with two of every shot.  Such a fun way to print out all the fun pictures that didn’t make the cut for the Christmas card, like my son’s impression of a yeti.

READER DISCOUNT: To help you create your own holiday cards, Pinhole Press is offering Teal & Lime readers an amazing 33% discount off your holiday card order, through Cyber Monday (Dec. 2nd)!  Use code tealandlime at checkout.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Pinhole Press.  Pinhole Press provided me with the products shown for review.  The project idea and all opinions about the photo products are my own.