Pleasantly Surprised!

Hey y'all!  It's just ONE DAY until Chelsea's Scotty adventure!  I am so nervous and excited for her....

and she still doesn't know!

I will make sure to post full details as soon as I have them!

Anyway, it's Christmastime (well DUH), and one thing that I have done EVERY year without fail, since my babies were born, is make and send out photo Christmas cards.  Now some years, the cards may not have made it to their recipients until New Years', but they were made and sent. 

Thankfully, the digital age has made creating beautiful and unique cards very easy.  However, printing those cards has proven to cost a fortune!  Between buying the paper (I always try to use quality photo paper), the printer ink, and the envelopes, I probably would have come out cheaper to order them from somewhere.  However, I am a stickler for quality of photos and I have been disappointed with some of the cards I've had made from other places in the past.

I designed our card a few weeks ago and I was already dreading shelling out tons of money for ink/paper/envelopes.  Then, somebody mentioned Uprinting.com on Twitter one night, so I thought I would check them out.  I looked around their site and it proved to be super easy to navigate and looked to be pretty inexpensive, too!  I decided to build my card and see how much it would actually cost.

I was floored with how inexpensive it was!  Around $50 (that price included shipping) for 125, 5" x 7" thick cardstock cards, printed on front AND back, with envelopes!  Seriously?  I can't buy ink for my printer for that price!  After a few tweaks, my cards were approved and ordered.  

I was really nervous about the quality of the cards.  So when they came, I will admit I held my breath when I opened the box.  I shouldn't have been worried, because I think they came out great!

Front

Back...even though I realize NOW that you can't read if I decide to write something on the back of the cards.  LOL

I am thrilled with the feel of the cards, too.  They feel exactly like I hoped they would.  They are heavy, which is one of the reasons I love Tiny Prints cards so much (just not the cost....WOW!). 

I do wish MY photo quality would have been better.  We couldn't afford to have professional pictures made, so we got these shots on Thanksgiving, just using my regular camera.  You can tell we weren't prepared for photos by what we are wearing.  Chelsea had her Scotty McCreery shirt on so I made her zip-up her jacket, and Jameson had his basketball pants and camo jacket on.  HAHA!  It was a beautiful day, so we decided to go for it anyway.

I will admit, this has been the least stressful Christmas card I've done in the past 21 years!  No planning, no rush, no fuss!  It has definitely been a pleasant surprise!

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Uprinting.com did not compensate me for this post.  The fine folks at Uprinting.com have no clue that I even exist.  This was such a fabulous find for me, I just wanted to share with all of you!