AI-painted, printed in Portland, ME

Personalized Christmas Cards Online, Painted From Your Photo

Upload one family photo, choose a style, and get a print-ready PDF in about 30 seconds. Order printed cards on 300gsm stock, shipped from Portland.

Try the card generator See how it works
A blank personalized Christmas card and kraft envelope tied with red ribbon on a wooden desk, ready to be printed
What's actually different

Six things a template library can't do

Trained on cards people kept

The model learned from roughly 40,000 mid-century illustrated cards, the kind families kept in a shoebox, not a generic art filter run over a photo template.

Four real print styles

Watercolor, oil pastel, vintage postcard, or paper-cut. Each one renders your photo differently, not the same filter with a different color grade.

300gsm you can feel

Matte cardstock, printed digitally at offset-comparable quality. You'll notice the weight at the fold: it resists instead of creasing flat.

A PDF in about 30 seconds

Upload a photo, pick a style, and preview the card before you commit to anything. No signup wall to see the result.

Six days from Portland

Printed cards ship from our Portland, ME studio, typically about 6 days to your door. Printed to order, not pulled from a warehouse.

An honest price

About $3 a card. No $150 illustrator commission, no three-week wait for a one-off design.

How it works

From photo to printed card in four steps

The style you pick in step two is what prints in step four, so you see the real result before you order anything.

  1. 1

    Upload a family photo

    A clean phone photo works. Faces with a plain-ish background render best; busy backgrounds and glasses sometimes need a tighter crop.

  2. 2

    Pick a painted style

    Watercolor, oil pastel, vintage postcard, or paper-cut. Each preview updates on your actual photo, not a sample.

  3. 3

    Preview the PDF and add your message

    See the print-ready layout in about 30 seconds. Edit the message, swap the style, or start over at no cost.

  4. 4

    Print at home or order from Portland

    Download the PDF yourself, or have printed cards on 300gsm stock shipped from our Portland, ME studio in about 6 days.

Four styles, one photo

Pick the style that fits how your family actually looks

The same uploaded photo renders differently depending on the style you choose. Watercolor softens a winter scene into something closer to a painting than a photo. Oil pastel adds texture and a warmer, grainier finish. The vintage postcard style leans into sepia tones and the kind of composition you'd find on a 1950s card. Paper-cut trades photorealism entirely for a layered, illustrated silhouette. None of them are filters laid over the original photo: the model repaints the scene in that style.

  • Watercolor: soft edges, close to a hand-painted winter scene
  • Oil pastel: warmer, textured, more saturated color
  • Vintage postcard: sepia tone, mid-century card composition
  • Paper-cut: layered illustrated silhouette, no photorealism
Preview your photo free
Four personalized Christmas cards in different painted styles: watercolor, night village scene, vintage postcard sepia, and paper-cut tree, laid out on a wooden table
How this compares

Christmas Card Factory vs. Shutterfly vs. Minted

Shutterfly handles volume well and ships fast. If a foil border on a photo collage is what you want, that's a fine choice. Minted's illustrators are genuinely good, at a genuinely different price and timeline.

CompareChristmas Card FactoryShutterflyMinted (custom illustration)
Price per cardAbout $3From about $0.79 (template)From about $150 (commission)
TurnaroundPDF preview in ~30 secondsFast printing, template-basedAbout 3 weeks, one illustrator
How the card is madeYour photo repainted in a chosen styleYour photo placed in a templateAn illustrator draws it from a brief
Best forA card that looks illustrated for your familyHigh volume, low price, fast turnaroundA one-of-a-kind commissioned piece

Questions people actually asked us

How is this different from a Christmas card template?
A template swaps your photo into a fixed border. This starts from your photo and repaints it in watercolor, oil pastel, vintage postcard, or paper-cut style, so the card looks illustrated for that specific photo rather than dropped into a frame.
Does it work with photos where someone is wearing glasses?
Usually, but glasses are the one detail the model sometimes simplifies or loses the glare on. If a photo has glasses, reflective jewelry, or a very busy background, try a close crop on faces first. It fixes most of it.
How long does it actually take to get a card?
The painted preview and print-ready PDF appear in about 30 seconds after you upload a photo and pick a style. Printed cards mailed from Portland, ME typically arrive in about 6 days from order to your door.
What paper do the printed cards use?
300gsm cardstock with a matte finish, printed digitally at offset-comparable quality. You'll notice the difference at 300gsm: it resists at the fold instead of creasing flat like a thinner card.
Can I just download the PDF and print it myself?
Yes. The PDF is print-ready at home or at any copy shop that handles cardstock. Printed-and-shipped cards from Portland are the other option if you'd rather not manage the printing yourself.
How does the price compare to Shutterfly or Minted?
A card here runs about $3. Shutterfly's photo templates start lower, around $0.79, but stay template-based. Minted's custom illustrated cards start around $150 and typically take about three weeks, since a person is drawing them to order.
What styles can I choose from?
Watercolor, oil pastel, vintage postcard, and paper-cut are the four the model renders best, trained on a set of roughly 40,000 mid-century illustrated cards rather than a generic art filter.

Get your personalized Christmas cards online today

Upload a photo and preview your card in about 30 seconds. No account needed to try it.

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