With Halloween soon upon us, the start of the annual holiday planning is peaking around the corner. For those of us suffering with Type A personalities, this means thinking about holiday card and shopping lists to be sure that we are prepared to get everything mailed on time. Having carefully balanced the art of recycling left over cards of years before for the past several years, I decided that this year I will splurge a bit and send something that speaks to me – or is at least acceptable to both my sense of style and my budget!
My quest has provided me with a few considerations that I am now evaluating to see which best meets my needs… Hopefully, they will help you with your holiday planning list, as well!
For style selections this site is my clear favorite! There are loads of card styles to select from and all sorts of options from which you can choose to put together your perfect greeting card. If you are a fan of adding your favorite photo to your greetings they have tons of options. For those of us preferring a more traditional and non-photo option, there are plenty of stylish selections, as well. Depending on your spend budget, you can select from a flat or folded card (postcard versus traditional folded). From there you can opt to include a pre-printed greeting message or leave it blank. Along the way, there are options for upgrades such as recycled paper, printing of your return address and other elegance boosters (for an additional cost). The site is VERY simple to use, so personalization and ordering is a breeze! The only down side that I was able to find is the price tag… The cards I was looking at ran about $70.00 for 25 cards without any of the upgrade options and before shipping.
Stop giggling about the title – Elsie would not approve! Similar to the Minted site, Moo offers a bunch of options to create your perfect card. Unlike Minted, Moo has a more limited selection of stock graphics from which you can choose. Those that are available are super cute and stylish, so don’t give up just yet. The true upside of this site is for those graphically inclined. If you have the software and creative drive to develop your own card graphics, you can use them to create a one of a kind greeting card. The better news? They offer the option to print multiple graphic styles within one order batch! If you truly believe that variety is the spice of life – you will LOVE this site! Cards created on this site are truly personalized in that stock greeting messages are not included. If you want to get super coordinated with your holiday items, take a look at their mini cards. They can be customized in a variety of ways and would make great gift tags! Use graphics similar to those on your greeting cards and you are sure to give Martha Stewart a run for the money! My favorite part is that 25 cards run around $40 which makes them a bit more budget friendly for me.This does not, however, include shipping unless your purchase is $50 or more.
I have to admit that on my first visit to this site I got a little lost in all of the merchandise items they offer and almost missed that they also offer greeting card options. Thankfully the coffee kicked in and I found the magic button taking me to the card development page. Similar to Moo, this site offers the option of using their stock graphics or your own. It did seem to me that the graphic options on this site are a bit more main stream versus the other two sites that offer more hip considerations. A major bonus on this site, though, is that you can also explore additional items for gifting coordination. The customized stamps and labels sure caught my attention! Pricing on this site is similar to Moo with 20 cards running about $35 before shipping costs. ** Current promotion offers 35% off until October 31st and orders over $50 get free shipping.
Ok – I will be honest that this one seems a little strange since it is a business forms site. Stick with me, though, as I explain my method madness. Yes, the holiday cards on this site are designed for use by businesses, but that does not mean they cannot be adjusted to represent your family. Just think of your family unit as a corporation and detail the personalization accordingly. Where they ask for “company name” add your family name and you should be all set. The upside is that there is a wide range of styles from very traditional to more contemporary and all are printed on that nice, heavy card stock that professional printers use. Another bonus is that most of the cards available include foil lined envelopes rather than the usual white and un-lined envelopes the other sites include. (Shopping hint: a lot of the cards include foil accents on the graphic designs, as well!) A few other bonus details with this site are that return address printing and standard shipping are included AT NO ADDITIONAL COST! The prices of cards vary depending on the card selected. The few that caught my eye ranged from $70 - $85 for 25 cards which puts them in the range of Minted, but already include several upgrade options.
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