Holiday photo cards don’t always have to be of people or pets. Although this is the most popular back drop, there are numerous subjects you can choose from. Wildlife, landscapes, sunsets, and flowers are some of my favorite pictures to look at. With today’s digital cameras, snapping eye catching photos is easier than ever.

Take flower photos for instance. Have you ever looked closely at all the intricate details? One flower can have multiple designs made up of magnificent colors. Taking a picture at different times of the day can result in a different effect. First thing in the morning, for instance, you may catch a dew-covered flower. You may even catch a beautiful spider web. No one can deny the artwork of the much feared spider. Try taking a photo of a single flower or maybe several together. Even leaves can have spectacular designs.

Experimenting can often result in an amazing shot. Shoot at different angles until you come up with your perfect photo. Try close up or even from a distance. Once you get your perfect picture you can use your flower photos for your next photo holiday cards or put them in frames to send as gifts. Framed flower photos can also add to the décor of any room. Most of all, have fun!

It seems as though Christmas cards have come a long way from the old, standard card with the traditional family photograph attached. You know, it was the traditional family photo that we all remember and love where the parents and the kids had ear to ear smiles, they were dressed in red and sweaters and where they are strategically gathered around a cozy fireplace complete with Fido at their feet. Some still go for the traditional feel. However, with today’s photo Christmas cards, it has become very quick and easy to construct creative cards online and things have significantly changed to say the least.

Since it is now easier these days to create your own Christmas cards, more and more people seem to be getting into the act. Now, for some reason almost everyone feels that they need to send a photo card out for the holidays. With more and more photo cards hitting mailboxes each year, how does a well intentioned sentiment stand out in a crowd? How can you be sure that your card won’t be just more white noise and wind up at the bottom of a high stack of similar, mundane cards?

Here are a few thoughts that might help your card make a bigger impact this year and possibly even have yours standing out in the crowd and displayed prominently in your friend, family member or neighbors home. Think about the picture. Do you want one photo or do you want multiple photos? What about considering a collage? Think about the subject matter. What kind of theme are you going for? There are many styles and designs to choose from so you are really only limited by your imagination. Also, you might want to think about how the photo interacts or plays off of the card design or style. If the design is of an ornament framing a potential picture, maybe you can use a picture of a real ornament from your own Christmas tree. Maybe you can coordinate with a design in such a way as to make it look as though the person in the photo is talking with a bubble attached.

There are many, many ideas that you can come up with on your own. Try not to let your Christmas cards be boring or too similar to all the others. Think of the coming holiday season as an opportunity for you to share the true meaning of Christmas with friends, relatives and neighbors as you explore your artistic side and express yourself creatively while being true to the Christmas spirit. Thinking outside the box when it comes to photos, designs and text and how they can all work together to be heartfelt and unique should definitely help to make your Christmas card stand out in the crowd this year.

How do you organize the Christmas photo cards that you save? My sister, brother, our cousins and I love to send photo holiday cards. The problem is what to do with them. My OK-the-holidays-are-over solution is to put them in a box. Each year. Which means one box a year for…well, a lot of years.

Throwing out the cards has never been an option so I have attempted to sort them by person and year. Oh look, here is my nephew Jimmy at age 2. Aw, here’s cousin Ashley at age 6 with that red velvet dress. And my husband’s cousin Emily, her husband Paul, and their three kids. Here’s Jimmy again, with Santa. After a few days (ok, weeks) with little progress, I would put the boxes back in the closet.

Much to my surprise, this problem set the stage for a wonderful, thoughtful, useful gift this Christmas. My daughter and two of my teenage nieces organized the Christmas photo cards in a set of six albums!

They divided up the cards by families. My parents and each of their siblings are in albums that include their offspring and grand children. My 2 siblings and I and our children’s photo holiday cards are all displayed in one place. And, there is room to add more photo cards.

My daughter reminded me that it’s important to use high quality paper and materials for storing photos. She certainly did a wonderful job with all of mine. I’m sure we’ll enjoy the photo cards in their new home for many years to come.

When people think of creating photo cards for the holidays, they automatically and exclusively think of taking group family pictures, or pictures of their children or pets. Likely, these are the types of holiday photo cards we all receive. However, you can make holiday photo cards out of many different types of photos.

How about your home Christmas decorations? Or your favorite holiday light display in the neighborhood? Ever traveled domestically or internationally during the holiday season? Next time, take some pictures of the holiday decorations and celebrations, and you can use your Christmas photo cards to show others how the holidays are celebrated in other parts of the country and/or the world. You may live near New York and see the tree at Rockefeller Center every year, but some of your friends and family may never get to do so. That would make a great Christmas photo card. Even some local department stores put so much time and effort into their beautiful Christmas displays, pictures of which would make unique cards to send to your family and friends. Pictures of fresh evergreen trees, holly berries, a real live reindeer, or even steaming mugs of cocoa and fresh baked cookies for Santa remind everyone of Christmas and can be used to make creative and unique photo cards for the holidays.

With all these great ideas, be sure not to limit your Christmas photo cards to montages of your family in matching sweaters!

Digital photography is as easy as 1-2-3, but do you ever wonder why your precious digital photos that you download from your digital camera never seem to come out just right? Are you tired of pictures that are out of focus, have poor skin tones, red eye and just never seem to bring out the best when uploading them into a digital holiday photo cards site? Well here are a few tips for everyone that may help you achieve optimum digital photography results, yielding fabulous holiday photo cards.

First and foremost, you must make sure your settings on your digital camera are properly configured. Always remember that the larger the pixel setting for your images, the higher your resolution (clarity) of the picture. This is very important! Although this may leave you with less space on your camera’s memory card, you can always delete it after you’ve downloaded it to your computer. Another alternative for high-resolution images involves photo original hardcopies that you may want to scan into your computer. Always remember to set your scanner settings at 300dpi at 100% same-size, and then save as a jpeg. If you are scanning a very small picture such as a wallet size, you may want to increase the image size to 150%, which would make it half more than its original size.

You will probably already have a photo-imaging program installed on your computer such as iPhoto, Preview, Image Ready, or PhotoShop (the best option). Always feel free to explore these digital imaging programs. You will be amazed at how easy it is to operate a few simple tools within the program that can brighten and beautify your photos! Try lightening your darkened tone photos by simply selecting the contrast selection in the toolbar. If you are experiencing red eye, there is usually an easy quick fix-it option in your photo download program. Otherwise, you can get creative and do your own retouching by using various other tools in the menu bar; all you have to do is explore! Remember that if you make a mistake or if you want to undo an action, just revert to save or “undo” before you actually save the image.

When choosing your holiday photo cards, select a design that does not conflict with the main subject – your precious loved ones. Make sure the graphics enhance your family shot and do not conflict with it. Select colors within the photo card design that coordinate with the colors in your photo. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or an artist to get those stunning results when it comes to digital photography, and you certainly will not look like a dummy when your family and friends receive your amazing personally finessed digital holiday photo cards this season! Good luck!

Choosing a pattern or design for your photo cards should be an easy, fun experience. Snowflake photo Christmas cards, meaning photo cards with snowflake patterns in the background design, help to keep your holiday message light and breezy!

There are lots of things to like about a snowflake background for your digital photo cards. For one thing, they are not holiday specific. I don’t have to give any thought about which holiday, if any, is celebrated by my intended recipients because who doesn’t like snowflakes?! If I’m tardy getting them mailed out, it’s not so embarrassing because at least it’s still winter (I’m not that much of a procrastinator!).

Design #F62DSC1, Pensive Bear Christmas Photo Cards, a favorite snowflake design from ChristmasCardsDirect.com.

Another plus is that snowflake designs enhance my photos; they don’t distract from the photo. Snowflake designs seem to almost always incorporate some shade of blue, and blue makes a very attractive setting for every shade of human skin and hair, not to mention fur, fins, and scales from your non-human family members.

Then there’s the peaceful nature of blues and crystals, something we all need more of as one year draws to a close and another begins. No matter which digital photo I choose for my holiday cards this year, I know it will look all the finer when it’s framed with a pattern of lacy snowflakes.

Sheep are a flock, quails are a bevy
Rats come in packs, ants are an army
Sisters, brothers and such are a family.
Unlike other creatures who rely on sheer instinct
Humans need holiday photos card to always be linked.
So here’s my advice (with an eye firmly winked)…

When snapping pix at that holiday work party
Take them early before people take flight,
Or before celebration causes behavior
That colleagues wouldn’t want caught on film that night.
Table shots of bleary-eyed folks clutching drinks
Won’t make the newsletter, or bring any delight.

At family reunions, weddings and such
Special groupings by generations are fun.
Large numbers will need that special touch;
Yell, “Duck, your head’s blocking Aunt Ida’s face!”
Kick off your stilettos or boots, find a high perch
Then snap away fast as you can while all are in place.

I just discovered an alternative to the oh-so-popular digital photo Christmas cards. Instead of the picture being printed on the front of your photo Christmas cards, these designs come with an attractive border and the center is left blank for you to insert an actual photo. And if you’d like, you can even have your name printed on the front.

What makes these photo holder holiday cards different and very versatile is that they come ready for you to attach any photo you want. Not all of them have to have the same picture. You can change the picture you’re sending according to your audience!

Mike Casale's Sterling Elegance, Design #642CS, is a wonderful photo holder holiday cards design to send to your friends and loved ones. The simple yet elegant silver embossed frame is the perfect accompaniment to any family photo.

I’ve seen some of these photo holder cards with slits cut in the corners and you attach your photo by slipping the corners into the slits. Another kind comes with glue dots that you use to adhere your photo to the card. With either type, the picture is detachable and can be kept by the recipient. When family pictures are involved, this usually makes for happy friends and relatives but your photos can also be used to customize Christmas cards for all sorts of individuals and businesses. Digital cameras make it so easy to take good shots and discard bad ones. There’s really no limit to the ways you can customize your photo Christmas cards.

I love getting photo Christmas cards, but even though digital photography has made holiday photo card preparation less of a guessing game, I keep hearing hair-raising tales about taking pictures of your kids for this annual display of joy and perfection.

It seems if your children are young, it’s hard to find a season when at least one of them isn’t sick and/or looking sickly. The older and busier they get, the harder it is to schedule a photo shooting session when everyone can be there at the same time. The tension and pressure on these photo dates can leave some looking grim and others shedding tears.

Not to mention the scenic preparations. Not only do your kids have to look all bright and blissful, but the background has to look like Wonderland. Do you knock yourself out cleaning and staging your household photo background for “the Christmas card photo date?” Or, do you pray that on the date you’ve set for your outdoor shoot, the sun and wind and flora will cooperate?

Designs like #F19DW, Straight Up Pink
Christmas Photo Card, allow you to upload 3 individual photos of your kids.

Ready for the solution? Here it is – don’t rely on a perfect single photo of the whole group all together. Instead, choose photo Christmas cards that allow you to upload two or three photos, each to its own separate space on the front of the card! How simple is that?!

Now you can go back and zoom in to that great picture of little Billy with the missing-tooth-grin on his first day of back-to-school; you can show your glowing little ballerina posed for her winter recital; and you can show your new high school grad in the famous cap and gown. This plan allows you to show each youngster at their best and projecting their own unique personality. As a bonus, these pictures tell a story about your family’s activities over the past year, perhaps saving you from having to compose the dreaded “Holiday Letter”.

Maybe I surround myself with weirdos, but many of my family and friends do not like having their picture taken. This can make photographing people a bit of a chore, especially if your attempting to snap a decent picture for your photo Christmas cards. Ask my mother to sit down and smile for a Christmas morning pose in her robe and she’ll tell you to wait while she puts on her face. Ask my brother to smile and he’ll give you the same blank stare that you are used to seeing on a driver’s license – or maybe a celebrity mug shot! And my friend Sabrina…the great majority of photos snapped of that woman consist of the top of her head and a napkin, glass, or other object to block out the rest of her face.

But I digress. In this age of digital photography and photo-editing, people do not have to be afraid of their yellow teeth or under-eye circles. It’s as easy as snapping the shutter button, inserting the SD card into your card reader, and opening Photoshop on your computer. You can whiten teeth, get rid of red eye, and even airbrush out the unsightly pimple that crept onto your chin overnight! Sure, it used to be that the only photographs that looked good were the ones in magazines, but if you have a savvy computer friend (or anyone under the age of thirteen) in your household, you have the power to make your digital photo Christmas cards really stand out.

So the next time you whip out your camera, only to be met with eye rolls, sighs, and the sight of your Uncle Tony fleeing the scene, let the subjects of your photos know that you’ve got it covered. They may ask to see proof, but it will be worth it to never have to photograph a “talk to the hand” pose again!