Christmas Cards

Here we are the 22nd of December and I am sitting on my stack of Christmas cards that really need to get to the post office. I am very late. If you are expecting a card from me look no further at this blog post until after Christmas... whoops!

Because I have a tendency to run late I knew that I wouldn`t have the option of ordering through Shutterfly or Minted this year. I did not like the template designs at Costco either.  Last year I was so late with sending out cards that I only went as far as purchasing stamps. I think my failed IVF cycle last year before Christmas had something to do with that. We had pictures taken earlier for our maternity shoot that I wanted to use. So I turned to Etsy. There are some fabulous designs on Etsy for often less than $20 for the design which you can have printed yourself.  For all my blogging and blog reader friends keep this in mind for next year.

Here are few Etsy designs and shops for cards that I considered:

announcingyou has some lovely Christmas cards and birth announcements. Send in your text and photos and a proof is emailed to you.

otostudio has a wide selection of card templates editable with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Elements.

LemonadeDesignStudio has some Christmas cards with biblical references. Also with this listing you send in your text and photos and an email proof is sent to you.

Since I do not have Adobe Photoshop or Elements yet I elected for a design that I could send in the text and photos. I also wanted a collage option as I had several photos that I wanted to use. I wanted to have photos and text also on the inside. Sometimes with Etsy you have to sift through a number of unlovelies to find the true gems. I liked cards that were not too busy and had gold foil lettering with an interesting font. 

I eventually selected madebykatydesigns  Her shop is currently closed for Christmas but if you click her name link following Christmas you will see how lovely her designs are. 

It was really easy to have a card designed in this way. It is really inexpensive to use this method of designing cards. It cost me $20.60 Canadian. If you live in the USA it is less. I sent in the photos and text and within 48 hours a proof was sent. I approved the proof and a high resolution jpg image and instructions for how to print at my local printer or copiers was included. 

I selected to print at Staples. Having the option to print locally is great as it is often faster and because as a Canadian I would not have to pay the exchange rate. It was really easy- the Staples sales person showed me on the computer kiosk how to order. The more you print the lower the cost to print per card. For 100-124 cards it costs .75 a piece to print a 5x7 card with colour on the front and inside. It is more per card if you print less for instance if you print 25 cards it will cost .90 per 5x7 card. In less than a week the print was ready. I was pleased with the quality of the print. I especially liked how the gold foil actually looked like gold foil.

Now all I had to do was gather all my addresses and address envelopes. Gathering all my addresses meant a trip back to my other house as I had left my address book there so that set back my progress and contacting several facebook contacts whom I did not have current addresses for.

And now for my Christmas card designed by Etsy shop madebykatydesigns this year! 

I think it is truly the loveliest card I have had designed. 

And now I`m off to the post office.