This past holiday season was the first time I’d ever sent out a photo card. In years past, I’d always sent out either letterpress cards (usually Hello! Lucky) or Snow & Graham’s flat cards, which I printed with my own message. I don’t know why I made the switch last year; I guess I wanted to try something new.

After searching through hundreds of designs on Tiny Prints, the Card Store, and Paper Culture, I stumbled across Annie Clark’s “Hip New Year” design (pictured above) on Minted and fell for it immediately. It comes in two other color combinations (light blue/orange and red/brown), but I liked the yellow/gray best.

And I liked the striped option for the back of the card too:

I found that it was easy (and legible) to write a personalized note to friends and family diagonally on the stripes. (I’m not a fan of the printed, one-size-fits-all message, as shown on the left).

I paired my cards with silver envelopes and the skinny wrap-around labels (mine were black, with white text):

Here’s what our card looked like:

(Finding a matching mustard yellow background was a complete coincidence – a nice coincidence).

I think Annie’s designs are great – my favorite of the Minted designers – and I would gladly get my cards at Minted again. I’m a new fan of sending a Happy New Year card, too, rather than a Christmas card. If I send out a photo card this year, I will go with a New Year’s card again.

Images: Annie Clark designs for Minted