Letterpress: Christmas Cards 2022

This year’s Christmas card was semi-inspired by the ones I made back in 2020. That year I created these small “Fizz the Season” cards on hand torn paper. You can see them over here.

While I was printing those, I came up with a list of other holiday drinking puns and kept them on a list on my phone. Last year, I recycled some other paper I had with travel photos for the holiday, but never forgot about my list.

I wanted to figure out recycling a bunch of paper I already had (similar to the last two years). My friend had given me a bundle of gift tags that were gathering dust in my closet and the list of puns came to mind as ideal to print on the bottom of gift tags.

When the time came for ordering some cuts for a friend’s wedding, I used some blank space on the polymer to tack on these little illustrations and the main portion of the card.

I actually started the last March. I printed in grey ink (my favorite!) on 100 5x7 pieces of paper. The top of the actual cards themselves says, “It’s beginning to look a lot like cocktails.”

Then, I completed the gift tags in November. Both registration and printing went smoothly, BUT like a fool, I forgot to send a layer of snowflakes to the die maker and had to run 100 of the gift tags through my little press to finish them properly. Woops.

Here are the six gift tags I printed. I ensured to leave white space at the top so the friends and family I sent these to could add their “tos” and “froms.” I have Christmas spirit, Gin-gle bells, Wine-ter wonderland, Brew-dolf, Prosecc-ho-ho-ho, AND Hoppy holidays (the one I messed up originally & forgot the snowflakes!). Each one is paired with a mini icon above it.

Putting together the cards took a little longer than I expected. I took the original 5x7s I printed in March, and mounted tiny business card envelopes to them with double stick tape. Then I put six (one of each tag design) in the mini envelopes. Finally, I signed all the cards in the blank space I left next to the cheers and tossed them into pre-addressed large shimmery envelopes.

Here is the final card with the six tags that fit inside. The gif at the top of this page shows how I stuffed them all in the mini envelope.

If you are interested in one for yourself or to send a few to your friends, I have about 10 extra on Etsy. There is a blank spot to sign your own name.

Wishing you a very hoppy holiday season and a bubbly new year!