Photo Holiday Cards

November 9, 2005 1:35 PM

Family Photo Holiday Cards: recommend a company for me. I want a foldover card with our photo printed on the front and a short holiday greeting on the front or inside. Room and a good texture on the inside to write personal messages.

I don't like the "cards" I usually see that are really a photograph with extra text on the side (postcard style and slippery photo paper), but I don't want to pay too much to get high quality printing either. I don't want to print these myself this time (been there, done that, have a baby now so kinda busy), but I figure since our color printer can do this given good quality paper, I should be able to get what I want from a place that specializes in this (snapfish, ofoto, etc). In researching this online I'm prompted to sign up for accounts in order to get any real information (annoying) and I can't see the quality of the paper. So if you have personal experience with this, share your recommendations. Thank you!

posted by girlhacker to Shopping (5 answers total)

I have only used Cafe Press for holiday cards (2 yrs ago, with an illustration on the front). They worked great and I intend to use them again this year with a photo. The printed message inside was customizable and the texture was good for writing.
posted by bkeaggy at 2:18 PM on November 9, 2005

I just ordered cards from Snapfish with a photograph on the front that you flip open. I could've added text anywhere on the card. I chose matte finish and they are pretty good quality--they don't feel like those thin, cheap do-it-yourself cards that you can buy for your printer. They're also not really super nice paper either though -- somewhere in the middle. I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
posted by jdl at 5:03 PM on November 9, 2005

We have used cardstore.com for the past several years, and will use them again. Many options for card styles, customizable text, good quality etc... We have never had a problem with botched orders and one year when we were particularly prone to procrastination, we had them address and mail them as well. All cards arrived on time to all recipients (~80 Christmas cards).
posted by genefinder at 5:33 PM on November 9, 2005

Also, Shutterfly has really cool cards. They're high quality, and thus a little more expensive.
posted by elquien at 7:33 AM on November 10, 2005

Do you need to do this online? If not, surprisingly, Wal Mart has done an excellent job for us in this department through the years. In fact, they have a wide selection of card types and stocks from which you can pick.

It's not like me to normally suggest Wal Mart for anything, but it's one of those times where it fits exactly to what you need.
posted by thanotopsis at 7:40 AM on November 10, 2005