It’s that time of year! J and I have been sending a custom Christmas card since the year 2000! Almost the 1900s. Crazy.

Okay, so this card was a year in the making. I was inspired by the sand selfies that I saw from friend’s vacation photos. Usually they are done with a shape of a heart.  I loved the idea, but I wanted to make it my own. What if we put the phone in the snow for a Christmas card? Then I thought, why not do one for every season! The results were so fun.

To answer questions I’ve been receiving about the photos- yes it’s all real.  No AI for our Christmas cards! They are all in our yard other than the sand one. The phone is an iPhone 14 pro. I used a water proof case when we did the snow and sand pictures so that I didn’t damage the phone. The trick is you can’t use self facing camera for these because you have to put the setting to ultra wide angle. Here is an example of what it looks like if you don’t do the wide angle setting.

Once we had our settings in place we put the shutter on a timer, set the phone into the hole with the screen down, then we all leaned in ready for the shot.

We started this card almost one year ago. The first shot was a beautiful snowy day in January. The kids were all out sledding and having a blast. J was working but we got him to come outside for a moment to take the first photo for our card series.

Then when spring came around I made sure I had everyone dress somewhat “springish” and we set the photo in our flowers in the front yard.

The flowers are called Moss Phlox (I just learned that!) and they are perennial so it’s a beautiful patch in the front of our house every spring/summer.

The flowers look much smaller than they appear in the Christmas card photo. They made for a super easy frame though. The exact date of the photo was April 28th.

That’s winter and spring. Next up was summer. I knew we would get lots of beach time since we were going to Florida. The first set of photos didn’t really turn out as well as I’d hoped

so we redid the photos when we were in Key West.

Here is an outtake with my great nephew that we were visiting.

Everyone in the family was super excited to get to have the opportunity to take the photos again! Just kidding, that was sarcasm. In fact I have been honest that these selfies even though they are super simply were a labor of love that almost didn’t happen!

It wasn’t too bad though and I think we were all happy in the end. The first try was July 24th and the next set was two days later on July 26th.

Lastly we barely got the finally installment! Fall was so busy for us! Between soccer, cheer, birthdays, book events, photo shoots and more it was nearly impossible to take a quick photo!

 

I ran outside on October 23rd just to find a good spot.

This tree was golden and gorgeous. The problem was when we finally went to do the photos it was over a week later (November 1st) and the trees were nearly barren. This shot was the least natural. We had to create the effect of leaves by finding pretty ones and strategically placing them in the frame.

We tried holding them but obviously that didn’t work. We tried using a cinder block to create the depth. Here is what the phone looked like.

And this is behind the scenes of the setup.

At first I worried that last shot just wasn’t going to happen.

We did manage to get the shot though and that completed our set!

It was an ambition idea that we somehow managed to pull off. Whew. One cool thing about these photos (and the card) is that you can turn it any way you want.

 

It can be horizontal or vertical and there is no upside down! I love to see which way people display it. I hope it bring lots of smiles this Christmas season. I smile every time I open a Christmas card. They truly bring be so much joy. I can’t believe it’s already Christmas. I hope you and your family have a wonderful and blessed holiday. Merry Christmas!