Our Christmas Card for 2012{and a Free Template!}

I finally got OUR Christmas card done today after making a whole bunch for other fun people.  I kept with the chalk art theme this year {I know, I'm obsessed -- and so it half the world right now.  Whatever.}  I wanted a really hand-drawn effect, rather than the so-perfect-it's-obviously-from-a-computer look.  Before I tell you how I did it {and how anyone with a pencil, a scanner, and a little Photoshop know-how could do it, too}, let me show you what I came up with.

And here's our "newsletter" on the back.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, even though our lack of news to report to long-distance friends and family is slightly embarrassing.  We're really just boring ol' homebodies at heart.

So, for a very brief how-to for creating your own chalkboard design, just drew out the design you want on a piece of paper with pencil. 

You may want to go over your final design with a black pen to make it easier to work with on the computer.  {I didn't do that, but I kinda' wish I had.} Then scan it, save it to your computer, and open it up in a photo editing program.  {I use Gimp, but Photoshop or other similar programs work, too.}

Once you have it in Photoshop, change the white background to transparency and then invert the colors so that all the lines you have drawn are white instead of dark. Adjust the brightness and contrast until it looks right to you.  Layer that on top of a chalkboard background image, like this one here, and you have a beautiful hand-drawn chalk design.  {I did say you would need a little Photoshop know-how, right?}

In case you are not inclined to make a design of your own, I have made a template that you can download {for personal use only, please}.  Click on the image to download the png file. 

{Just add your own photo in the blank space at the bottom.}  We finally got all our ornaments on the tree and things are starting to feel super Christmas-y around here. I love it!  Hope you're all having a great weekend, too.