How To Make A Photo Collage Christmas Card

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.  This means if you sign up for PicMonkey’s awesome Royale version, I will earn a small commission & you will be supporting Carrie This Home at no extra cost to you!

We all know Christmas cards can get really expensive.  To be honest most years I don’t send any out. 

Good news–I found a solution!  I made my Christmas cards this year for 12 cents each–and I’ll show you how to do it!

This post is part 2 of 2 in my series on how to make your own Christmas Card.  Earlier this week I showed you how to make this simple and elegant one Photo Christmas card with text.

But what if you have a hard time choosing  just one good photo for the card?  What if you want a card with a collection of photos?

Then this tutorial is for you! 

Check out our Christmas card:

Here’s How To Make It!

Open up PicMonkey at picmonkey.com.

Click on the Design button

Then click on the size card you’d like.  I usually go with a 4×6.  If you’d rather print out your cards on 5×7 paper, that’s great.  But just be aware the prices will be higher for the bigger size.

Pick Your Background Color

Next, this legend will show up on your screen.  Here you get to choose the color behind the photos.  In most cases I choose to keep the background white to ensure the photos get the most attention.  

To spice things up for Christmas cards you can choose to have a fun red or green background.  Feel free to be creative here!  Just click and drag the little circle to your desired color, then click Apply.

Add Your Photos 

Here comes the fun part!  Click on the little butterfly icon (the overlays option).  Then click on the “Your Own” button.  Choose all the photos you’d like to include on your card one at a time.  For a 4×6 size card it will be a little difficult to fit more than four photos.  Three photos is about the perfect amount for a 4×6 card.

Arrange & Size Your Photos

As you add the photos, they will show up on your canvas as very small pictures as seen below.  

Now we need to arrange and size each photo.  To move a photo, click on it until a little white box with circles on each corner highlights the photo.  Then move your mouse to the middle of your photo and a little cross will appear.  Click and drag the photo to your desired location.  

Click and drag on any corner to change the picture size.

Quick Tip:  As you’re arranging your photos, sometimes you’ll want one picture to overlap another.  See how my face is cut off in the picture below?  To fix that, right click on the “offending” photo and  then click on “send backward”.  You can also do the opposite and send a picture from the back to the front by clicking on Bring forward.

Once you’re happy with the arrangement of your photos, click on the merge button to “glue” your photos to the canvas.  This way when you’re moving text and graphics on your canvas your photos won’t move around.

Trust me, this will make the next steps much easier!

Adding Text and Cute Graphics

I covered how to add, position and customize text in my last post so I won’t cover that here.  If you’d like to know how to do that, see my Make Your Own Photo Christmas Card Tutorial.

PicMonkey offers some very cute graphics you can add to your card which are under the themes section.  Click on the little snowflake icon and then click on Santa Land or Winterland.

Look at all the cool things you can add to your card!  You can put beards on people in your photos, add some reindeer, toys, stockings, candy canes, ornaments and more using the Santaland theme.

 There’s also some great graphics under the Winterland theme.  Here’s some of your choices:

PicMonkey offers tons of graphic, font and editing options for free.  The options that come with the Royale version are marked with a little gold crown.  If you buy the Royale version of PicMonkey, you can use ALL the graphic options, fonts and features.  

Trust me–the Royale version is totally worth the $33 a year subscription.

Here’s the graphics I chose to add to my card:

 How To Edit Graphics

Editing graphics is very similar to editing text.  Choose the graphic you want to use and an Overlay legend will appear on your screen.  This legend will allow you to change the graphic color and fade it a little if you choose.  

Change the graphic color by either moving the circle in the legend to your color of choice, or typing in the HTML color code at the top right corner.  This website will show you all the HTML color codes.  This comes in really handy when you want a specific color but can’t quite find it with the color circle.

Change the graphic size by dragging any corner when the graphic is highlighted.  You can also change the angle of the graphic by dragging the top middle circle to either side.

Once you’re happy with your text and graphics, click save at the top of the screen.

Print Your Cards

I have my card projects printed off as photos.  During the holidays, many photo processing stores like Walgreens and Walmart offer sales on photo prints.  So be sure to use a discount code if you can & your cards could be even less than 20 cents each!  

I used a 40% off coupon code and printed my Christmas cards for 12 cents each!

BEFORE YOU LEAVE PICMONKEY.COM

Another quick tip: Leave your photo card project open on PicMonkey before having the card printed off.  After you upload your photo to your photo processing store, make sure to preview the photo as it will be printed to make sure none of your text or graphics get cut off.  If adjustments need to be made, you can quickly go back to your card on PicMonkey and adjust the text or graphic, re-save and upload the new project.

I hope this inspires you to send out some Christmas cheer this year!  

{Many thanks to our dear friend Brandon for taking our family photos.  Click here to see his work}

This post linked to The Merriest Blog Hop, Get Schooled Saturday, DIY Sunday Showcase, Give Me The Goods Monday, Tutorials and Tips, Moonlight and Mason Jars. Whimsy Wednesday, The Weekly Creative, Thrifty Thursday, All Things Christmas Link Party, Inspire Me Please, Serenity Now, Share Your Creativity, Think and Make Thursday, Saturday Sharefest, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Whimsy Wednesday, and Link Party Palooza.