Here's the picture Kansas Dad and I took early one morning when Second Son is usually at his happiest.
Actually, I think this is one of the sixteen pictures we took that morning, and certainly the best. Second Son doesn't look very happy, but the other three are all smiling. You take what you can get with four kids!
CrinkledNose.com has absolutely beautiful holiday cards. I perused a few other digital-picture-turned-holiday-card sites for comparison (as I haven't purchased any in a few years) and think you may find fewer options here, but of much higher design quality. This one, called Christmas Squares, was my favorite:
I tried it with our picture, but it didn't work at all. With the Christmas quilt behind the kids, I had to choose one of the simplest designs, Red Linen. I like how all the different options for the cards (folded or flat, horizontal or vertical, and the sizes) appear on the roll-over.
Some cards allow you to add a longer personalized message (like the Silly Holiday card), in addition to the signature. (The signature, by the way, is generous. I was able to include all of our names and the ages of all four kids.) Some of the cards without room for a personalized message still have the option to choose from a list of available greetings. As you can see, many of these cards would be entirely appropriate for a business.
Once a design is selected, it's very easy to upload a picture, personalize the greeting and the signature and preview the card before ordering it. My only problem was that I had too much trouble choosing my card. I think I uploaded my picture three times to see how it would look on three different cards. It would be nice to be able to upload the picture just once and still change the design.
I ordered the cards on Tuesday and they arrived today (Friday) so the service was very quick. CrinkledNose.com kindly offered the magnetic version and they're very slick. They are thin and lightweight enough to mail with standard postage and stay in place very well. I've had ours on the fridge since they arrived. (I hate it when magnets fall off the fridge.) If you don't order the magnetic backing, cards are printed on high quality paper rather than photo paper.
I can't show you the actual cards, of course, because they have our names on them, but they're perfect: no marks, uneven printing or odd colors.
I feel I can honestly recommend CrinkledNose.com and they have been generous enough to offer a discount code for orders by any Range readers. Enter the code Kansasblog for 25% off your order. If it's too late for the Christmas cards, they have a variety of other products like birth announcements, invitations, save-the-date cards, note cards and moving cards. I'll have to check with them on when the code expires. (I forgot to ask; no one's ever offered a discount on my blog before!)
Now I have to figure out how to whittle our old list of 180 recipients down to 24 (because of course I'm keeping one!).
Please note: I do not receive anything from CrinkledNose.com for any purchase made using the discount code. This is my honest opinion provided without compensation other than the free order of 25 cards I received to review. They provided the discount code before reading any portion of this review.
