New Baby Christmas Card
 

A friend of mine is expecting her baby on November 1. She wants to combine the baby announcements with their Christmas cards. Any ideas how to do this? My mind is just going terribly blank right now (I either need more sleep or more coffee!)

She could use an idea of Santa putting the baby into the stocking. A little separate piece of paper in the stocking that had the baby's stats. Or maybe a picture of the baby in santa's bag. A cradle by a tree with Baby's first Christmas near it. A rattle with Christmas colors and images on it.

My second daughter was born Dec 16. The Hospital auxillary gave all the babies born after the 15th a felt stocking that you put the baby in to bring them home. You could replicate that type of idea with just a large stocking that is somewhat open and a pic of the baby inside.

What about the Buggies and Booties buggy and do it in Christmas colors and hang holly and such from the handles.

On the first Christmas after my ds was born, I made cards that looked like a big tree with a hanging ornament that had the center cut out and a picture of him in it. You could put the baby's info inside along with the Merry Christmas sentiment.

Check out Jessica's great card
 

Jess_Witty did a great Christmas card / baby announcement combination a few years ago. I'll try to link it here, but if this doesn't work, check out her gallery.
http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...=0&thumbcheck=

How cool!!! I was born the 18th and I didn't get a felt stocking. :( Of course...different hospital. *lol*

I personally wouldn't combine them but that's just me. If I were going to, I'd print up seperate sheets with birth announcements and just include it in with the christmas card.

You could make the outside of the card look like a gift. When they open the card you could have something like "Celebrating our Special Gift" and have a picture of the baby and information.

Of course, you could also go the rout that having a new baby exempts you from having to make Christmas cards this year. Yep, a post-it that says happy holidays would work :)

Kate

Thanks for the ideas so far!

My baby is due Nov. 27th. I am toying with the idea of making my cards early, then just printing up an insert with the pertinent details. But, can I get it all done in a timely manner? And do 80+ cards? Who knows! I am thinking that the criss cross card (see resources for tutorial) would be good - the insert would be perfect for having a small picture on one half of the front and a holiday greeting and the pertinent details on the other half. Something along the lines of ... "Christmas came early" or "Our favorite little present" or something like that. Just my thoughts.

I may end up copping out and getting picture cards made somewhere. The other idea I had was to do picture cards then make up birth announcements and stick them in the envelope.

Good luck for you and your friend!

How about an image of the baby Jesus in the manger on the outside with the words, "We're celebrating the births of two babies this Christmas!" All the pertinent information would be on the inside along with a greeting for the season.

I like the idea of a criss-cross card.

I wouldnt do it!

I was born on November 25th and all growing up I had people try to "sneak" presents that did double duty! :mad:

My first daughter was born at the end of January, lots of cardmaking went on that year.

Then my second daughter was born 3 days after me on Nov 28, I vowed to do 2 seperate cards and not lump them together.

Tons of work, but growing up with people lumping it together for me gave me a different view.

So I vote keep them seperate. Do one card more simple so it's easy to mass produce and another more elaborate. Or do both simple and elegant and easy to make.

In general, I agree with you (DH's birthday is Dec. 15 and he always gets combined gifts from his family -not me!). But since I don't combine for my husband (Dec. birthday) I really don't see myself combining for my daughter (who will come mid Nov. anyway). So I do not see this as setting a bad prescedent. I see this as a way to introduce our daughter as well as sending out a Christmas greeting. I totally flaked on my second daughter's announcemenets (had them printed but never mailed them. How bad is that?!?) so I figure if I get anything at all out I'm ahead of the game. I generally do not hand-make 80+ cards anyway each year (maybe just ones for family) but I thought if I made them this year they might be cuter, and able to combine a little more info than ones you can get made at portrait studios.

Oh, one more idea for the original poster: I have a few friends who had babies last year (like in August) but just sent out birth announcements at Christmas, no Christmas cards. I think that is also a good idea, but I do want to show all three of my children so I don't know how that'd work for me.

Anyway, just wanted to make the point that doing a combined birth/Christmas card is not necessarily dooming the child to a life of combined presents. :-)

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...00&ppuser=1507
I received this beautiful card from jessica a few years back. :)