These days it’s almost unheard of to send a holiday card that is not a family photo, whatever your family consists of.  Whether it’s a whole group of people, just you, or your best furry friend, the holidays are a time to re-connect and share a snapshot of you and/or your loved ones with others!  And with the photography tools available to ALL of us these days, it’s so easy to take great looking photos for your holiday cards. 

For this week’s edition of More Merry, Less Stress (your stress-free holiday action plan), I’m giving you tips for taking great DIY Christmas Card Photos on your own, without hiring a professional photographer!  (And guess what – these tips will work for ANY family photos you want to take in the future; not just holiday card photos!)  And your task for the holiday action plan, week 3, is to take your photos and order (or buy) your cards. 

This post contains affiliate links.  To read my full disclosure policy, please click here.

DIY Holiday Card Photo Tip 1: Plan Ahead

Instead of snapping a picture of your family in front of whatever random background is in the location you’re at, spend 10 minutes planning ahead and the results will be worth it! 

First up, plan the location of the photo.  If you have time to go to a location with pretty scenery, you’ll instantly upgrade your holiday photo game.  Whether it’s a hotel lobby with pretty Christmas trees or the woods with natural scenery, plopping your people in a scenic spot will help your photo tremendously.  

Next, think about whether you want or need any “props” for your photos.  If you’re going to the woods, for example, maybe you should bring a blanket for everyone to sit on.  If you’re taking the photo in your living room, do you want to add in a cute holiday pillow to make the photo more festive?  Take a look at this amazing Pinterest board for lots of great prop and pose ideas.

Finally, if possible, plan the outfits your family will be wearing in the photo to avoid clashing colors, graphic or “message” t-shirts, etc.  You don’t want to look unnatural with overly matching looks, but coordinating colors goes a long way for a professional-looking photo.

DIY Holiday Card Photo Tip 2: Get Them Smiling

When it comes to taking a holiday photo of a group, you’re almost guaranteed to get someone who doesn’t want to cooperate – especially a child or a pet.  Bring some treats along with you to help soften any attitude.  

Another great tip to get a really natural look in photos is to say something that makes the people being photographed laugh.  I often tell my kids that they can say a “bad” word they’re not allowed to say (before you jump on me in the comments, these “bad” words are things like “butt” and “fart.”  Not really the bad words you might be thinking of.)  This makes them crack up and I get awesome, natural faces in our photos instead of cheesy, faked smiles!

DIY Holiday Card Photo Tip 3: Technology is On Your Side

Thanks to smartphones, it is SO much easier to take a great holiday photo these days.  These tiny devices can take such nice photos, especially if you know how to use some of the most basic features that are built right in!  Brush up on camera skills for your particular phone with a quick Google search.  You’re bound to find tutorials that will teach you things about your phone’s camera that you didn’t know before, like how to brighten the image before even taking it and how to set the timer for a group shot.

Add-on accessories for smartphone cameras can also be very useful – especially when taking group photos that you want to be part of!  I love my phone tripod and remote control, which lets me set up my phone as a camera anywhere and snap the photo wirelessly when we’re all in place.  It makes taking family photos so much easier!  

And if you’re going for super high-quality, pull out the trusty old camera to take even sharper images.  Just make sure to minimize use of the built-in flash and use natural lighting instead.  That always leads to a better image!

DIY Holiday Card Photo Tip 4:  Edit, Edit, Edit!

Finally, the best thing you can do for your DIY holiday card photos is edit them before printing!  The good news is that you don’t even need an expensive editing program to do it.  While I use Adobe Lightroom for editing my blog photos, there are awesome online programs that you can use, too!  PicMonkey is my personal favorite.  There is a free 7-day trial, and a monthly membership option after that (currently $9.99 per month).  Or, you can download their app for your phone for free and edit that way!  The app is a little trickier to use and does not have as many features as the desktop/web version, but it still works well.  

Here’s a quick tutorial of how to use PicMonkey to take your photos from OK to awesome!  You’ll see me edit a photo of my kids in under four minutes.

If you don’t want to use an external editing program, use the editing tools built in on your phone or computer.  You can’t edit as much, but something is better than nothing!

Use the editing tools to do things like crop the photo to a good proportion, brighten the photo, enhance the colors, smooth away stray hairs, etc.  Simple fixes like that will make a world of difference in your pictures!

Now that you have all these great tips for taking a wonderful holiday card photo, get out there and do it.  Then make sure to order your cards or print your photos to add into your cards.  That’s your task for this week’s More Merry, Less Stress Holiday Action Plan. 

Do you have any DIY holiday photo tips to share?  Make sure to share them in the comments below!

-Bre

Welcome back to my seasonal series designed to help you enjoy the holidays as stress-free as possible: The More Merry, Less Stress holiday action plan!  Last week (our first week!), I explained the reasoning behind this series and gave you an easy-to-accomplish organizing task that will serve you well once presents begin arriving in your home!  No worries if you haven’t done step one – there’s still time!

To give you a quick look at where we’re heading with this stress-free action plan, here’s the roadmap for the series:

• Week 1:  Clear It Out (VIEW THE POST HERE)
• Week 2: Spreadsheets, Lists, or Apps – Oh My! (this week’s post!)
• Week 3:  Picture This
• Week 4: Simplify the Decorating
• Week 5:  Gettin’ Crafty With It
• Week 6:  Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman
• Week 7:  Shake, Rattle and Roll

Make sure you’re on my email list so you get notifications of these new posts as they’re released! 

While last week’s task probably didn’t put you into the holiday spirit, this week’s tasks will have you thinking more about what’s to come!  So without further ado, let me present to you the SECOND action in our More Merry, Less Stress holiday action plan:

Spreadsheets, Lists, or Apps, Oh My!

Here, my friends, is where we start to get ourselves booked, committed, and organized in a way that helps us feel in control of all of the moving parts the holidays bring!

First up this week . . .

Please sit down with a piece of paper (or the note function in your phone, or an app like Wunderlist if you’re tech savvy like that (note: it’s the only list-keeping and reminder app I use.  I highly recommend it!)), and list the appointments and reservations you need to make to be ready for the holidays.  Here are the types of things I’m talking about:

• Grooming appointments for the family – hair, nails, makeup, etc.
• Travel reservations – airfare, a rental car, hotels, etc.
• Pet boarding or pet babysitting reservations 
• Restaurants and/or catering 
• Special event reservations and tickets 
• Babysitting for your child(ren)
• Days needed off work
• Housecleaning services

Once you have your list, schedule these appointments, make these reservations, and/or ask for this time off, and make sure to write all the dates and times down or put them in your electronic calendar.   

Getting this done sooner rather than later will help you have a good vision of your holiday season.  Plus, you won’t be scrambling to get appointments or reservations at the last minute and settling for less-than-ideal times, locations, or service providers.

Once you’ve finished that . . . 

Move along to the second part of this week’s plan, which is getting your gift giving strategy in check!  Shopping for many people can be an overwhelming task in and of itself, but if you’re not keeping track of what you need to buy or have bought, it can become a total disaster in no time, leading to over-spending, last minute rushed shopping, and/or forgotten purchases.

Obviously you can keep track of this type of information in a small notebook in your purse or a list of paper in your wallet.  You may also consider using an app on your phone to help you track your purchases.  That’s what I did in past years, and while the app I used is no longer available, there are lots of similar apps to choose from, and many of them are free to download.  Some you might consider are Santa’s Bag or The Christmas List.  

If you don’t want to add another app to your phone, I have another solution for you, too!  The gift tracking strategy I’m using this year is a customized spreadsheet tracker I created in Google Sheets, and I’m sharing it with you for free.  You can add or remove columns as you wish, add sheets to segment groups of people for whom you’re buying gifts, and more!  The beauty of using this sheet (or one you make on your own), is that you can enter the information on your computer or on your phone (if you’ve downloaded the Google Sheets app).  It’s also easily shareable, so if you’re collaborating on gift purchasing with someone else, this makes it a breeze.

To download your own copy, you’ll need to make sure you have a Google account.  Log in and CLICK THIS LINK.  You’ll see this window pop open, and then click the “Make a copy” button in blue.  

Once you click that button, the Holiday Gift Tracker will be added to your Google Sheets account, and you can begin filling it in however you like!  It will not be visible to me or anyone else – you will be the only one who can see it!  

Good luck getting yourself organized this week.  Just remember it’s all about More Merry, Less Stress. 

Stay on top of things and you’ll be feeling so good come Christmas day!  I’ll see you here next week with week three of your stress-free action plan!

-Bre

You May Also Like These Free Printables!  

As Halloween crept closer, I noticed more and more people talking about Christmas and the holidays, and how soon they would be here.  And honestly, it freaked me out.  I LOVE Christmas, but all of the holiday-related responsibilities that are added to my plate on top of my family, work, running this blog, etc., can really take their toll.  Being completely transparent, there have been recent years where I’ve barely enjoyed Christmas because I’ve been so stressed out.  

I know I’m not alone!  

The holidays seem to get here faster every year, and the demands on our time only seem to grow.  Because of that, I took some time to think about what is really important during the holiday season and how I can maximize the time leading up to Christmas to make sure that I have a stress-free holiday.  I realized that by breaking all of the holiday-related tasks into manageable “chunks” to be done over a reasonable period of time, things become much less overwhelming.

It’s all about more merry, less stress!

With that in mind, and knowing that there are so many of us feeling anxious about the holidays instead of excited, I have put together a series of posts that will focus on one manageable holiday-related task each week for the next seven weeks. 

Hmmm my “clever” titles might not give you an exact picture of each week, but at least you know I have a plan for you!

Make sure you’re on my email list so you get notifications of these new posts as they’re released! 

So, now that I’ve written the longest intro ever in the history of this blog, let’s get to the FIRST action in our More Merry, Less Stress Holiday Action Plan:

CLEAR IT OUT!

This task is going to add a little bit of work to your already-full plate, but it will be worth it in the long run.  What you need to do this week is get rid of the STUFF that is filling your house.  Stuff that: (a) you no longer want; (b) no longer need; (c) have outgrown; (d) are hanging on to out of guilt; and/or (e) has started blending in with the surroundings because you never, ever use it.  You catch my drift!  

Clear it out so you have more room for the people, food, gifts, and more that will be filling your home this holiday season!

I have started in my kids’ basement playroom.  They are absolute pack rats, but I’m selling and donating toys that they’ve outgrown in order to make room for new toys that Santa surely will bring.  

Bonus: selling some of the “big ticket items” of theirs like the play kitchen and toy work bench is giving me extra cash for gifts.

Also on my purge list is winter coats that are causing our small coat closet to hardly close, warm clothes that don’t fit or aren’t quite our style anymore, and other “treasures” I’ve been keeping in our basement storage closet.

Donating these types of things helps others in need, and also helps with gift ideas for family members: it gives me a better picture of things they need!

Take 15 – 20 minutes each day and fill a bag or two with things to sell or donate.  These small chunks of time will make this task less daunting, and by the end of the week, you’ll have made lots of room for everything else that will come into your home over the holidays!

With this, you’ll be on your way to feeling more in control of your holiday season!  Please make sure to check back next week for the second part of the More Merry, Less Stress Holiday Action Plan.  And, let me know in the comments what stresses you out most at the holidays!

-Bre

Visit the Other Posts in this Series Here (posts will be updated as the series progresses)

• Week 2: Spreadsheets, Lists, or Apps – Oh My!

You Might Also Like This DIY Christmas Gifts Post

Another Halloween has come and gone, and Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  Although there’s increasing pressure from every direction to jump straight into Christmas, I remain steadfast in my dedication to giving Thanksgiving the respect it deserves!  As such, I made this little Thanksgiving Embroidery Hoop Wreath to help acknowledge the holiday AND keep my family grateful during this special season!  The “interactive” component lets you and your family add things for which you’re thankful all season long – so sweet!

Supplies Needed for Embroidery Hoop Thanksgiving Wreath

This post contains affiliate links.  To read my full disclosure policy, please click here.

• Embroidery hoop
• Craft felt (2 sheets)
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Faux feathers
• Faux pumpkin floral pick
• “Thankful” word art
• E6000 glue
• Large popsicle sticks
• Optional: Rose Gold wax and cloth

How to Make an Embroidery Hoop Thanksgiving Wreath

Before I jump into the tutorial, I have to tell you that I did not buy anything new to make this project!  I’ve challenged myself NOT to buy any craft supplies for the rest of 2018, so I’m only using what I’ve got.  The first project I made in my “craft stash de-stash challenge”, was my leaf stamped tea towels, and this is the second project in my challenge!

To give my Thanksgiving wreath something “special,” I applied rose gold wax to the outer edges of the embroidery hoop, but that is totally optional!  You could leave your embroidery hoop plain or paint it.  

Next, I stacked two sheets of acrylic felt on top of each other and put them into the embroidery hoop.  

When they were secure, I cut off the excess felt from around the edge of the embroidery hoop.  This created a pocket in my wreath.  

Next, I tied several different ribbons to the top of the embroidery hoop.  I mixed some burlap, gingham, and solid cream colored ribbon for a fun look.  

After that, I put some feathers and pumpkin picks into the ribbon.  This really bulked up the top of the wreath and gave it an abundant look – perfect for the Thanksgiving season!  

Finally, I glued the “thankful” word art to the front of the felt pocket.  I carefully applied a bit of the rose gold wax to the word art to make it blend better with the embroidery hoop.

To make this Thanksgiving wreath even more special, I wrote some things my family and I are thankful for on popsicle sticks and put those in the pocket.  We will add to this in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  I think it will be a great conversation starter at dinner!  

I think this wreath is beautiful and sentimental, and perfect for the Thanksgiving season.  

It’s currently on my fall mantel, but I will probably move it into the kitchen so we can all easily see it and remember to add our “grateful sticks” each day!  

How do you remember to be grateful for the blessings in your life during this time of year?

-Bre

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