Other stationery designers may not have a problem getting their Christmas cards out on time. Other stationery designers are better than me, then. Every time I printed a set of cards for myself to send this Christmas, someone would place an order for them (hurray!) and I would end up shipping my own unused set of cards to a customer. No complaints, but it did put a hitch in my plans to send out Christmas cards. Since I haven’t sent cards since 2005, it seemed fairly important to do so this year before we got dropped from everyone’s card list. (I’m not sure this actually happens but just in case…)

My solution is to send out New Year’s cards instead, an idea I’ve always liked anyway. And it bought me a few days to get my cards done in the more relaxed week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Plus, no one will think it strange when the cards arrive on January 5th or so. Nice!

Have you put off your holiday cards, too? If so, feel free to use this handy template of my card above.* The file is a high-res 11″ x 8.5″ JPG image that contains two cards one one sheet. It should be ready to print in any ink-jet or laser printer that handles cardstock. Just print, cut it lengthwise in the middle (at the 4.25″ line), and fold. Want to customize it? Use a photo-editing program like Adobe Photoshop or Google’s free Picasa to white out the text and type in your own message.

Voilà! Your own Happy New Year card!

*Honor System Disclaimer: You’re welcome to print off as many of these as you like for your own personal use, but please don’t sell them.