new for us friday--cardstore.com

Ordering holiday cards has always been a source of anxiety for me; touchy websites, difficulty loading pictures, and never finding the right design made this pre-holiday ritual one that I dreaded.

Yesterday, a package came in the mail for me: my holiday cards! And they looked awesome! I ordered them on Monday from cardstore.com, and they arrived yesterday. Seriously.

Today, however, on this New For Us Friday, I am happily stuffing my sweet cards in envelopes. Don't think I had them this early last year, though--why else would this be a 'New For Us Friday'?

My sister saw them tonight, and she said, Ame, this is my favorite. Of all your Christmas cards ever, this is my absolute favorite. Woo-hoo!

C'mon, don't be annoyed--you could have yours next week, too! I'm only doing it because I can. And seriously, I'll finish my Christmas shopping on December 24th, so it all evens out. . .

• Cardstore.com: The site is super-easy to navigate, and cardstore.com offers much more than just holiday cards. You can personalize just about any type of card--thank you's, note cards, announcements, invitations--you name it.

When shopping on the site, I went to 'Holiday Cards' then 'Winter Holiday Cards'. After that, I hit 'Photo Cards' because I knew I wanted to throw on Maddy, Owen, and Cora's funny faces.

Here are some of the gorgeous cards from cardstore.com.

I chose to try 'Soft Blue Trees' and 'Red Photo Trio' before I settled on 'Pale Green Photo Trio' as the winner. I added the photos, adjusted the font, and personalized our message, and that was it. It took about fifteen minutes from start to finish.

To save further time, cardstore.com can address and send the cards for you, but I thought I could handle that. I'm not sure what it was this year--the site, the pictures I had on hand, or the "no pressure" feeling I had by tackling this hurdle at the beginning of November--but my holiday card ordering was awesome.

Overall, here's the skinny, from my perspective, on cardstore.com:

I liked:

• the choices--any type of card you need, they have: holidays, invitations, announcements, business cards, note cards, etc.;
• the ease with which I could navigate the site and shop--by type of card, by style, by occasion;
  
• that you could buy cards in any style--folded, flat, postcard and in a number of sizes;
• that the cards are high-quality--the colors are rich, the paper is sturdy, the photos look crisp;
• that the styles are cool--you heard me--they're just plain cool;
• that the prices are competitive;
• that my order was completed correctly, arrived safely, and made it here in three days.

I wish:

• hmmmmmmm. . . not much. Really. I think I'm really happy all-around with cardstore.com, and I plan to return for some way-too-cute personalized note cards.
  

And that is it for this week's New For Us Friday. One of maybe three NFUF's that didn't involve my kiddos directly, but who's counting?

FYI: I am eternally grateful to the good people at cardstore.com for providing me with a bunch of cute sample cards and for a gift certificate which covered the cost of my order. Even with this generous gift, my opinions here are solely my own and were in no way influenced by anyone other than moi.

Happy Holiday Card-Creating!