Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Dayspring Christmas Cards

Most years, I'm scrambling to get gifts wrapped, our yearly newsletter done, and our cards in the mail.  That last part especially sneaks up on me!  This year I feel pretty on my game for once (maybe not working full-time helps?)-- gifts are for the most part purchased, wrapped and already mailed or delivered to our far-away family; and for the first time EVER, our family Christmas cards are done and sitting beside me!!

I've used various photo Christmas card websites before, and most often have designed my own (using PowerPoint or Picasa), saved them as a jpg, and then ordered photo prints through whomever offers the lowest price I can find.  It's frugal, and more versatile than those in-store kiosks with the 7 backgrounds to choose from.  My method ensured I liked what I got (or at least knew what I was getting), but it is rather more time consuming than those afore-mentioned kiosks, not to mention the necessity of purchasing envelopes in appropriate sizes.  I pondered ordering photo cards through the photography studio that did our family portraits this year, just for ease and so they could be off-the-list, out-of-mind.  But the price tag of 30 for $20 kind of deterred me.

I had an opportunity to review some photo cards for DaySpring, and I was very pleased.  Here are five reasons you should check out Dayspring's Studio:

  1. ease of access:  no lines, no fuming when the kiosk deletes your pictures.  Log in from your own desk chair
  2. ease of use:  the user interface was simple and straight forward.  (The only thing that was kind of weird was getting your pictures put how you want them in your card, but after dragging the pic around I figured it out.  One thing I wish they had was a way to view all the cards with room for ___ number of pictures.  I knew I wanted to put in three particular photos, so would have benefited from that.  Just don't waste time looking for this option.)
  3. variety of design:  whatever your taste, you'll find a card that acurately represents YOUR family.  They really have SO many more options than most sites, too; you can do large numbers of photos on the back or the front of your cards.
  4. SCRIPTURE!! It's what all those other sites are lacking.  I loved seeing verses not usually quoted at Christmas applied very nicely to different card designs (not hard to do, considering the whole Bible hinges on the events of that First Christmas) 
  5. quality of service:  this area has impressed me about DaySpring overall. Our cards arrived promptly, and look nicer than I'd even imagined.  I opted for flat cards, and I love that, while the front has a beautiful matte photo finish, the back is good card stock so I can actually use them as cards!
Disclosure: I received 50 free Studio DaySpring Cards for free in exchange for sharing about it here. The above photos and opinions are my own. 

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