Getting Started a Lil Early This Year

Every year I have high hopes for being on top of things in the Christmas season.  Last year, as hard as I tried, I was no where near on top of things.  In fact, my Christmas cards became New Years cards and weren’t even mailed till the middle of January.

This year, however, I have high hopes.  Thanks to a special promotion from Shutterfly, I have already designed my Christmas cards!  That’s right it is 3 days before Thanksgiving and my Christmas cards have been designed and ordered!!! I can’t believe it either folks.  (But have no fear, we are not putting up any decorations or playing Christmas music till Friday)

Check out these super specials that they have going on right now. (Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly2010) and for those of you without blogs, you can still save 20% off of your photo cards and 30% off of other cards)

I really like Shutterfly for Christmas cards because they have so many design choices to choose from.  It used to be all the photo cards looked the same, one family photo with your names printed at the bottom.  And this often posed a bit of stress to this circus mom, because how do you possibly find one picture that captures the essence of your family?  Or better yet how do you find one that doesn’t?  (b/c while the essence is quite often a photo like this, that is most definitely NOT the picture I want gracing my friends and family’s fridges this holiday season) (why oh why is it SO hard to get everyone to simply smile and look at the camera at the same time)  With the collage format, I can simply pick and choose a variety of pictures which show off the best side of each family member and put them all in one card.  Scott likes them b/c he feels Christmas cards should have pictures of everyone in the family, not simply a cute kid shot.  For the circus fam, these photo cards work for us!

I have to be honest with you and tell you that I am a big fan of Shutterfly.  I find their site easy to use and they offer great discounts and prices frequently.  In the past, I have used Shutterfly to make little photo albumns for each of the grand parents, the great grandparents, and even Aunt Karen.  They offer a great little 5x7 flip book that you can design yourself and they are perfect for sticking in your purse or putting on your desk at work to show off the grandkids.   This summer I even made big brother/big sister brag books for my oldest 3 after their baby brother was born.  I was able to design and order them in an afternoon and they had them within a week to show off to their friends and family.  Easy-peasy! 

Take a look around, they have some really cute gift ideas. I thought the luggage tags could make really cute diaper bag ID’s and the photo strips would make a fun gift for a child’s friend or a great souvenir from a vacation!

And don’t forget, if you’re a fellow blogger, you too can benefit from their 50 free holiday cards, simply follow the directions found here.