Holiday Newsletter & Printing Labels

I am VERY behind in getting our Christmas cards out - but there's still time (maybe I should call them "New Year's Cards" and be late on purpose?) if I get my act together quickly! Here's a couple shortcuts that will help me out...

This weekend I spent a little time making a simple "newsletter" in Word - the most time consuming part is figuring out what to say! I went with a "year in review" theme starting in January and came up with something we did every month thru the end of the year; once I got the words figured out I placed them in a Christmas tree shape starting at the top. Then inserted a star shape on the top of the "tree" and a banner at the bottom - both are under "shapes" in my Word program.  I don't have any background paper to print these out on, and there's a lot of empty white space around the tree - so I searched for free backgrounds online, found this pretty gray snowflake one, scaled it to fit on my paper and inserted it behind the text.

The other thing that helps is to print out my labels from my contact list that's on my computer. I've done this for awhile now so have the Christmas List Group already in my contacts - here is a handy instruction guide I found online to explain how to create the group and print the labels (if you don't already know how to do this!). It's not too late to get your cards out if you hurry (like I'm going to do right now - gotta go!!). 

PRINT HOLIDAY CARD LABELS USING APPLE'S CONTACTS APP If mailing your holiday cards feels like a more daunting task by having to write addresses on envelopes, you can skip the handwriting step this year by using mailing labels. Although many people don’t realize this, it’s fairly easy to print mailing labels on standard label stock using the Contacts app on the Mac (and your printer). You can even add a personal touch by including a graphic and using a custom color and font choice. Here’s what you need to do: In Contacts, choose File > New Group to create an empty group that you will collect your card recipients names in. Name the group something like Holiday (or Christmas) Cards Click All Contacts to see your full list of contacts, and then drag your recipients from the list to the Holiday Cards group that you just created. Note that you have to click and hold briefly before Contacts lets you start dragging a contact; if you drag too soon, Contacts assumes you want to select more contacts. You can drag contacts one at a time or select several at once and drag the entire selection. This does not move contacts out of All Contacts—you’re simply adding them to the Holiday Cards group.  Once the Holiday Cards group is populated with the people you would like, click its name in the sidebar, and then choose File > Print to open the Print dialog. To set up your cards, you need to see details in the Print dialog, so at the bottom of the Print dialog, click the Show Details button (if it’s already called Hide Details, you’re in the right place). You also need to see the special controls for Contacts, so make sure Contacts is chosen from the pop-up menu underneath the page range fields. Then from the Style pop-up menu, choose Mailing Labels.  Beneath the Style pop-up menu, make sure Layout is selected, and then in the Layout view, from the Page pop-up menus, choose the manufacturer of your labels and the number associated with the labels. (Avery 5160 is the most common label type and is readily available at office supply stores like Staples, and online.) Click Label to switch to the Label view. From the Addresses pop-up menu, choose the type of address you’re using. Home is likely the most appropriate; if you choose All, Contacts will print both Home and Work addresses if available. You can also choose to print company and country here, and if you print country, you can exclude your own country, which makes it easy to include overseas friends and relatives without having to print the country for most people.  Although the defaults are fine, if you want, you can change the color of the label text, or select a small image to print next to each contact, and change the font you are using. Now it’s time to print, but not on your label stock just yet! Click the Print button to print a draft of your labels on plain paper. You’ll want to do this for two reasons—checking the addresses for accuracy and verifying that the labels will print properly on the label stock you have chosen. To check if the labels will print correctly, stack a page from the draft on top of a sheet of blank labels, and then hold them up to a bright light or sunlit window. You should be able to see whether they are positioned correctly—it should be in most cases. If not, make sure you’ve chosen the right label in the Print dialog, and if all else fails, create a custom label with your own margins and gutters to make it work. Once you’ve fixed addresses for everyone who has moved recently and verified your positioning, you can print for real on your label stock. That’s it! Most of the work comes in selecting people, making sure their addresses are right, and updating those that have changed—actually printing labels takes only a few minutes. As you stick your labels on envelopes, you can revel in the knowledge that it will go even faster in the future!

one year ago: how to make a paper shadowbox frame
two years ago: melting snowman cocktail