Holiday Card 2012 // giveaway

by Ashley Weeks Cart

As I said yesterday, I am in full on holiday mode, which means, yes, holiday cards are on the brain. I grew up in a family where every season my mother sent out a beautiful Christmas photo card. I remember hours sitting at the dining room table, stuffing envelopes, stamping, licking, sticking, addressing to help her prep the cards for delivery. She had a long list of friends, family, acquaintances, and colleagues that she would mail to each year. Often it’d be her only point of contact with certain people during the year, but it was a lovely gesture and thoughtful nod to their friendship.

I have always dreamed of carrying out this tradition with my own family. Compiling a stack of cards from all of our holidays to give to my daughters when they were older. A tangible history and memory of their childhood. I have my stack tucked away in my stationery drawer to return to whenever I’m in need of a shot of nostalgia and Christmas cheer. I began this tradition last year with this card. I loved its simple design and wanted to highlight the peace and innocence that is the hallmark of infancy. This year, our focus is on our life in Vermont on Cartwheel Farm.

I’ve team up with Minted, an unbelievable online shop devoted to the art of the written word and paper goods. The Minted community of indie artists creates some of the most unique and well-designed stationery and invitations on the market. And I’m proud to say that it is another thriving Eph business with founder and CEO Mariam Naficy ’91 at the helm. Last night James and I sat down and selected our favorite photo card designs (a simple click of the heart in Minted’s layout drops your favorites into a folder so you can easily see and whittle down your favorites). Then we used Minted’s easy personalize tool to format each card with our family’s info and photographs. We’ve narrowed our selection down to eight cards, and now we need your input to finalize our decision. In exchange for weighing in on our selection, you’ll be entered to win a $75 gift certificate from Minted so you too can create your own custom paper goods!

And I have a special surprise for the back of our card (that will be on whatever design we choose) that I’ll reveal when the card is ordered and in hand!

Shop ’em: 1. Making Spirits Bright; 2. Merry and Bright Sparkles; 3. Holiday Blocks; 4. Oh What Color; 5. Holiday Map – East Coast; 6. Cheer is Here; 7. Merry Bright Season; 8. Dotted Noel

To enter to win a $75 Gift Certificate to Minted:

• tell me what your favorite holiday photo card design is from the selection above for our family

• for an extra chance to win…
‘like’ Minted and Blog a la Cart on Facebook, then come back here and tell us you like us, you really like us! in the comments

• for another chance to win…
follow Minted and Blog a la Cart on Twitter, then tweet the following phrase (then, come back here and share a link to your Tweet in the comments): Did you catch @blogalacart & @minted  $75 Gift Certificate giveaway? I just entered!: http://blogalacart.com/2012/11/holiday-card-2012-giveaway/

• and one final chance to win…
subscribe to Blog a la Cart, then come back here and let me know that you’re reading along in the comments.

Make sure you enter a valid email address in the email section of the comment box so I can contact you if you win! The winner will be chosen next Friday, November 16  at 5pm EST. Open worldwide. Total Value: $75