Make a holiday photo card
Tips and inspiration for creating your own holiday photo cards
Support & Drivers
Introduction
Celebrate the season with a one-of-a-kind photo greeting card. It's an easy and inexpensive way to send meaningful holiday greetings with a personal touch. We'll give you some inspiration and ideas for creating photo cards with HP’s high-quality online designs.
Why make your own holiday cards?
Holidays are the ideal time of year to share your most recent family photos.
- Fun: It's a great way to show your creativity without spending a lot of time.
- Affordable: You can make your own photo cards at home for much less. Printed on a home inkjet printer, a glossy custom greeting card costs less than $1.00 including paper, ink, and envelope . On average, the cost of store-bought holiday cards is about $12 for a box of ten.
- Easy and fast: Forget another trip to the store. You are only a few mouse clicks away from creating free cards online at the HP Creative Studio. Just upload your photo and print.
- The ideal gift: You know that the grandparents would rather have a new photo of their grandkids than pretty much anything else!
Choose a photo for your holiday card
Incorporate a holiday prop to add a festive touch to your photo.
Think about the people receiving your card. What’s new in your life they might want to see? Holiday cards are an opportunity to showcase:
- Birth or adoption
- New pet
- Engagement or wedding
- Graduation or other milestone event
- A new home
- Vacation memories
If you get started early, you can take a photo especially for your holiday card—and even match the style of the photo (background scene, wardrobe colors, etc.) to your chosen card design.
Don't have the menorah out of storage or the stockings hung with care yet? No problem. You can always add a holiday prop that complements the design—like a poinsettia, a sprig of holly, etc.
Photo cards: your options
Printing photo cards at the HP Creative Studio is easy, inexpensive, and instant!
Print photos directly from Snapfish without a PC, using the HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One.1
There are two easy ways you can brighten someone's season with homemade photo cards:
Design your own cards at the HP Creative Studio
Simply choose a design, add your favorite photos and text, and you've got personalized cards to send to all of your loved ones. Perfect for creating in-the-nick-of-time greetings.
You'll even find finishing touches like holiday mailing labels and photo stamps.
Order cards from Snapfish
You'll find dozens of designs here, too. If you’re in a hurry, you can opt for in-store pickup at a local Walgreens. If not, you can always choose snail mail delivery.
With the new HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One, you can archive and retrieve photos from Snapfish using the 4.3" touchscreen—perfect for last-minute photo cards! 1
Create your own photo card: step-by-step
You'll find a variety of design styles for numerous winter celebrations at the HP Creative Studio.
Use a larger font size (like 24 point) for easy readability while typing your message. Then change it to something smaller (like 10 point) before printing.
See how easy it is to create your own photo card at the HP Creative Studio:
Step 1: Choose your design
Classic or modern? Playful or sophisticated? Pick one that matches the personality of your family and your photos.
Step 2: Choose your card size:
- 4" x 8"
- 5" x 7"
- 8.5" x 11", folded in half (or "half-fold")
Step 3: Choose your font
Select from a selection of text typefaces and text sizes. A 10 to 12 point font size is typically used in greeting cards, but try typing your initial message in a larger font (like 24 point) so you can type, preview, and check it for errors more easily.
Step 4: Write a message
Keep it simple and heartfelt. Consider describing how thankful you are to friends and family for the support throughout the year. If it's brief, tell a funny story that happened during the year—perhaps connecting it to your card’s photo.
Ideas for unique holiday cards
Slip photo slide show DVDs into your holiday card envelopes.
Share your favorite family recipes with holiday photo recipe cards.
Create something refreshingly different for this year's holiday mailing.
- Black-and-white photos add elegance, drama, and a hint of instant nostalgia. You can transform color photos into black-and-white masterpieces right in your HP Photosmart photo printer—no PC needed.
- If you have a Web-connected printer, use the HP Dear Santa app to access a variety of holiday-themed stationary. 1
- New Year's card: Cross holiday cards off your to-do list and start a new tradition by sending a New Year's card instead.
- Recipe card: Showcase a beloved family recipe or your signature holiday dish.
Stock up on supplies and save
HP Brochure Paper
$29.99
- Strong, durable paper for better handling
- Outstanding print quality and exceptional reliability
- Get free next-business-day shipping on ink, toner, and paper orders with no minimum at HP Home & Home Office online store.
Original HP Ink
$17.99
- Save up to 40% on your printing with Original HP XL Ink cartridges2
- Recycling HP ink cartridges is easy and free with HP Planet Partners Program3
HP Photosmart 6520
e-All-in-One Printer
$149.99
- Print, scan, copy
- ISO print speed up to 12 pages per minute (ppm) black, 8.5 ppm color4
- Automatic photo tray holds up to 20 pages
- HP ePrint—now, print from your smartphone or tablet from virtually anywhere5
Learn more
- Before you take photos for your greeting card or holiday newsletter, get tips for taking family portraits.
- Find more unique ideas for creating photo gifts.
- 1Requires a Snapfish.com account, a wireless access point and an Internet connection to the printer. Apps availability varies by country, language and agreements. Services may require registration. For details, www.hp.com/go/ePrintCenter.
- 2Compared with single, standard HP ink cartridges. Based on average retail pricing, actual prices may vary.
- 3Program availability varies. HP printing supplies return and recycling is currently available in more than 49 countries, territories and regions in Asia, Europe and North and South America through the HP Planet Partners Program. For more information visit HP.com/recycle.
- 4Measured using ISO/IEC 24734, excludes first set of test documents. For more information see http://www.hp.com/go/printerclaims. Exact speed varies depending on the system configuration, software application, driver, and document complexity.