How we made our Christmas Card

This year I didn’t take too many “behind the scenes” photos during our Christmas card photo shoot (I was too distracted trying to get the whole thing done), but I can still share how we built it.

This year we photographed the whole thing outside in the driveway in front of the garage, on a bright but cloudy day (no shadows). The backdrop is a sheet hung up in front of the garage door.

We put a drop cloth down on the driveway and then put the white duvet on top for “snow.” Under the duvet were pillows around the wheels to keep the car from rolling around during the shoot. The green trees in the background are two tree shapes we cut out of oversized cardstock, painted green and pinned to the sheet. The little car is Oliver’s toy cozy coupe and the tree tied to the top is the same tree we used in last year’s card. We plugged it in for the twinkle lights and taped the cord to the back of the car out of sight. The star is the one we use on the top of our tree every year.

I photoshopped the color of the orange car to red and added the text with effects. Everything else was part of the built "set." Oliver wore his green Christmas pajamas, a red santa hat and red rain boots to make him look as festive as possible.

Getting Oliver and Georgia in the car at the same time, looking even sort of happy, was really hard. I took over 200 photos with only one “magic” shot in the bunch. Georgia kept jumping out the car window, she was stepping on Oliver’s legs and being “ouchy,” and the November afternoon turned chilly and everyone started to get cold fast. There was A LOT of bribing involved with both of them. We were incredibly lucky to get one shot where they were both looking at the camera and smiling!!!

This was my second favorite but Oliver's face was too much in the shadows -

Now I just have to start brainstorming for next year. I have no idea how I'll get 1 kid, 1 dog and 1 baby to cooperate...