Are these cute diapers, or what?
The new
bumGenius Artist Series was just released. Pre-order yours today at
Kelly's Closet while supplies last. Receive
FREE shipping on your entire order TODAY only (October 5) when you purchase $15 worth of bumGenius, Flip, or Econobum with code
BGLAUNCH.
Only a dozen coupons left for this offer:
Receive a FREE one-size cloth diaper with a $29 purchase. Use discount code FREEOSNOW at check-out. Available to the first 150 users. If the coupon comes up as invalid, it is sold out, so hurry!
Other active coupons:
Take $5 off an order of $25 or more with discount code OCTFIVE. Exp. 10/15/2010.
Take $10 off an order of $90 or more with discount code OCTTEN.
FREE one-size cloth diaper (guaranteed value of $23.50 or more!) when you spend $99. Use discount code FREE23DIAPER . Limited to first 50 users.
FuzziBunz Perfect Size Diapers (small & medium) are on sale for a limited time for $14.95 each!
Take 15% off any item in our Diaper Covers category. Use discount code DCOVER at checkout. Exp 10/8/2010. (Excludes Flip & Econobum)
FREE Kissaluvs Knit Terry Wipes 3-pack with $15 purchase with discount code FREEKWIPES.
Rules for coupons:
Sorry, NO previous or pending orders discounted. No exceptions. Limit 1 code per order. You can use all the above coupons, but you need to place a separate order for each. For free one-size diaper coupons, Kelly's Closet chooses the diaper you receive unless otherwise stated. If a coupon shows as invalid, that offer is sold out. Some exclusions apply.
Today and tomorrow, you can get
$1.99 shipping at AmyAdele.com with
no minimum purchase amount. Offer ends tomorrow, Wednesday, October 6, so shop now!
You can also receive
25% off select holiday designs for a limited time only, so start planning ahead for your holiday invitations, Christmas cards (including photo cards), and
thank-yous.
Until October 21, you can also receive
15% off any regular-priced order with the code
hobomama — hooray!
Besides holiday cards, you can buy personalized t-shirts and onesies,
flat cards,
notecards, invitations,
calling cards, labels, and more! I think getting custom stationery would make a lovely personalized Christmas present for a child, so I plan to buy some for my niece. Remember, too, that all stationery products are printed in high quality on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, so it's a green choice for your family.
This giveaway is now closed. View the winner here! Thank you all so much for entering!
Photo Card Creations is offering my readers a giveaway of
25 custom photo cards!
The value of this giveaway is approximately
$62 of chic designer cards, so it's a fabulous prize!
Photo Card Creations is an
upscale choice for your birth announcements, birthday or baby shower invitations, family holiday cards, and thank-you notes. They also specialize in
wedding invitations, save-the-date cards, and thank-yous, if wedding bells are in your future!
I was so pleased to be offered 15 free custom cards of my own so I could
try out the site's functionality, test the turnaround time, and see the quality of the cards.
(I would like to apologize for the poor quality of my two photos of our cards. Our camera broke, and it has seriously been such an imposition on our usual trigger-happy lifestyle. I took the photos of our cards with my camera phone, but I hope to replace them soon with better versions, when our lens gets back from the shop.)
The hard part, of course, as you'll be able see from the samples I'm scattering throughout this post, was
choosing which sophisticated design!
At the time I ordered them, we didn't yet
have a new little one on the way (squee), so we thought some sort of
holiday card would be a good choice. Anticipating some fabulous Christmas gifts for Mikko (so our family'd better step it up, huh?), we settled on a
full-bleed folded design that we could use as a thank-you card.
We thought a
colored photo would showcase the printing capabilities more clearly than a black-and-white, and I chose a
linen finish to see how texture affected the printing. We put text on the front, inside, and back of the card, for good measure!
Now,
when I said the hard part was choosing which card … um, actually
the hardest part was getting Mikko to pose for us! Sam had this great idea to have him popping up out of wrapping paper with a big smile — a sort of goofily festive image that suggests Christmas and gratitude. As you can see from the top photo, we did eventually get the shot. What you are not seeing is the hundred photos that led up to that moment. Including some of Sam demonstrating how it should be done!
Well, here, you can have a mini-collage:
It was like shooting
Calvin. Astonishing that we finally got this shot, no?
And, yes, I know his hair was hilariously messy. But after all that, I wasn't going to redo the shoot!
All right, sorry for that little detour. Back to the review!
My
experience with the website of
PhotoCardCreations.com was overall very positive. I thought finding the category
I wanted and selecting the type of card I was interested in was … well, I was going to say "easy," and of course it was hard to choose, but
the navigation itself was easy! I appreciated the function along the sidebar that lets you narrow your search by style, such as flat cards, folded, no photos, multiple photos, etc. They have a "quick view" popup feature for each design so you don't have to click through to see it larger. And I really appreciated the feature at the bottom of each individual card's page title "you might also like …" that suggests similarly designed cards.
You often have even more choice than the sample shows, because, as with my card, many designs can be turned either horizontally or vertically, depending on the picture you want to use.
Once you decide on a design, it's time to
personalize it, first with the text you want. There are several font choices. For us, we thought they were geared more toward weddings or formal announcements, because a lot of them were fancy. I actually did like a lot of the more script-y fonts, but they didn't work for a thank-you card from a child, so we chose one of the plainer options.
Taking a cue from our previous
thank-you card experience, we chose to pre-inscribe a basic thank-you message on the interior so we could fill in the blanks after the presents were opened, and then have Mikko sign and decorate. Ok, mostly decorate.
After you choose your text, layout, envelope, and shipping options, it's time to submit your order, and only then do you email your photographs to be added in to the proof, which is emailed to you separately within several days. It took approximately four business days for my emailed proofs to arrive in my inbox, and the stated turnaround time is 1-3 business days.
I'm much more used to being able to see an immediate onscreen proof, where I upload my photos manually and can adjust text and layout and cropping as I see fit before submitting the order. Then again, Sam and I have a graphic design background and are comfortable with that.
The advantage to Photo Card Creation's hands-on system is that a graphic designer literally designs the card for you, so if you're not handy with uploading photos and arranging text, that can be a big benefit. For instance, the graphic designer will ensure your photos are at a high enough resolution to actually
print properly, not just look good on a screen. They can also work with you to customize pretty much everything about the card, and keep mailing you proofs until you're satisfied. Even though it was a little nerve-wracking for me not to be able to lay it out my way, I can see how this system actually has a higher value for the one-on-one care you're receiving.
When I received the proofs, everything looked basically fine. They'd fit my photo to the card size perfectly, cropping it to my specifications. The only thing I wasn't happy with was that the words "Thank you!" on the front were in black and being lost against the busy wrapping paper in the photograph. I wrote and asked if it could be changed to white, and they went one better by changing it to white outlined in black, so that the words popped a lot better.
Getting the revised proofs was immediate, and I was able to approve my order.
Our order shipped six business days from my approval by USPS Priority Mail, so I received it two days after that. All in all, it was a
reasonable turnaround time for custom cards. Just be careful to start your holiday, invitation, or announcement planning with enough wiggle room for
the custom printing, including revising the proofs if necessary.
When the cards arrived, I was very happy with them. As I mentioned, the pictures I have of my cards are from my cell phone, but let me assure you the colors are bright and saturated and crisp. We chose the white linen finish, which gives it a lovely textured feel that, I think, makes it feel more custom and special than a card you could print yourself at home. The quality of the folding and edges is top-notch. The envelopes are included and work great.
Now I just have to wait till Christmas! My family is going to love seeing Mikko's happy face popping out at them.
BUY IT!
You can order the same sort of cards we did, or
choose from among the many, many designs at Photo Card Creations. I don't know how to say this without sounding snooty, but I really think their designs are a step above many of the other photo card sites, in that they're all undeniably stylish. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.
Prices start at $1.75 a card, so it is
an investment, but it can be worth it for those special occasions. You can save more if you order in quantities over 100. You can fully customize any of the pre-made designs with your own photos and text and, for some cards, color scheme, or
you can design your own card from scratch or work one-on-one with a graphic designer to create the perfect card for you!
Photo Card Creations carries
Birth Announcements,
Wedding Invitations and Announcements,
Graduation Cards,
Birthday Party Invitations,
Bar & Bat Mitzvah Invitations,
Thank You Cards, and
Holiday Cards.
Before you order, feel free to
request sample cards to get a feel for the quality, printing, and style.
WIN IT!
For your own chance to win 25 photo cards (an approximate $62 value) from Photo Card Creations, enter in the comments below! Contest is open to
U.S. only.
MAIN ENTRY: Visit Photo Card Creations and tell me
what design you love!
Leave an email address in at least one of your comments if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. (You can write it like this to foil spambots:
mail (at) hobomama (dot) com or similar.)
BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so I can count them all):
RULES:
- Contest open to United States mailing addresses only.
- Leave each entry as a separate comment so I can count them all.
- For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let me know in your comment.
- For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.
- You don't have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
- I will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave an email address in your comment if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. If I can't reach a winner or don't hear back within a couple days, I'll draw a new name.
- Any questions, let me know: mail {at} HoboMama.com
Contest closes October 26 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Disclosure: Photo Card Creations sent me 15 free cards for review.
I try to seek out only products I think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If I don't like a product, I won't be recommending it to you.
That's how I roll. See my full disclosure policy here.
If you're like me, you can never have too many crayons, markers, paints, and other crafty supplies around to make "decorations," as Mikko calls them.
Here are some Crayola coupons to help you out:
Save 15% Off Store Wide at CrayolaStore.com. Enter Code CRAYAFF15 at Checkout. Offer Expires 10/5/2010.
I think this next one is such a fun bonus:
Get FREE 10 ct. Crayola Super Tips Markers at CrayolaStore.com on orders over $15! Enter Coupon Code CRAYFREE15.
And remember:
Free Shipping on ALL orders over $75 at the Crayola Online Store!
As to what to buy?
We bought this 3D Chalk Set for Mikko's third birthday, and it was a hit:
I still think Silly Putty's hilarious:
Of course, I'm missing something without a Sunday newspaper subscription to copy the comics page…
And you'll always be right with something labeled a Tub of Fun!
For children age 3 and over, it's a collection of 50 different arts and crafts items. There, done!
You know I love me some wool! It's the perfect material to use for cloth diapering and ECing.
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