Celebrating the holidays with Shutterfly.

Last weekend, we made a trek to Amish Country.  It is a favorite place of ours and several of our Christmas card photos were taken there.  My first choice was to return to the produce stand.  I know that it sounds a little cheesy, but it was a great place to take our photo.  They have mums, pumpkins, bales of hay and I flipped and twirled everything to be just right.  Hubs secured our then camera to a telescope tripod with a rubber band, hit the timer and voila!  A Christmas card photo was born.

Side note-- you'd be glad to know that we've grown up, gotten a new camera and an actual tripod that attaches to the bottom without the use of stationery supplies.

My hopes to take the photo at the produce stand were dashed when they were still quite full with produce and people.  Drat.  No worries, my husband told me, we'll look around to see what we can find.  In the end, our photo was taken at a gazebo behind the yummy chocolate factory.  The leaves were changing and the wind was gusting in a way that would make Chicago jealous.  I'm trying to delete from my mind that my hair is flying, but no bother, Hubs was pleased with his progress. 

I have shuffled through what archives I can find after having my photo program deleted from the computer while I was deleting only our printer and I've made a run through some Christmas cards on the Shutterfly website.

My husband would tell you that me, the cards and the photos can be quite a thorn in the side of my dear family members.  Imagine his joy when I found these delightful options in Shutterfly's 2011 Holiday Card selection:

This one might be our favorite!  We can ditch the holiday letter and just roll it on into this one.

I loved the idea of the monogram, even though our family monogram doesn't exactly match.

We are, aren't we?

Absolutely.

And then, we might roll with this one.  So many to choose from!



I think that this one is it.  I like the variety of sizes.  I'll be able to tell the story of our year in photos and I do believe that I recall this one being available in black, too.

 Of course, I could always choose from the flat photo 4 x 8" cards selection.  We have always sent the flat photo cards.  Of course, they have 5 x 7", as well.  Just lookie what I found!



I'm so excited that they have reusable shopping bags in their photo gift selection.  This is $14.99 and folds up pretty small. 


I considered getting an ornament for my in-law's last year, and this may be the year.  Shutterfly has either a ceramic or pewter ornament available. 

I like the idea of rolling over after the year is through and doing a photo thank you card.  I did these for K- last year with her combo thank you birthday/Christmas cards.  Geeze, Louise does it take a long time for that child to write out her thank you's!  These cards would make that agony so much more cheery.

See?  Can't help but smile, right?  It's a card, so the cute will be on the front and the "do you know how many hours we spent on these" writing will be on the inside.

They even have gift tags! 

And address labels!

I've gotten cards from Shutterfly in the past.  I loved them.  I used a different online card printing service one year and I received my 60 photo Christmas cards shoved into an over sized envelope.  Needless to say, the corners to most of the 60 cards were all munched and crunched and so were many of the envelopes.  I had decided right then and there that I would go with someone else and Shutterfly was the service I used.  Printing was quick, prices were great (you can find sales on their website all the time, too) and they sent my items in a box.  I realize that might seem weird to some, but it is the little things to me that keep me and my family coming back. 

Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here.  Not a blogger?  Never fear, Shutterfly offered me three promotion codes to offer to readers.  I already spoke to two readers about Shutterfly and they are on their way.  I have one more Shutterfly 25 free cards code to pass out to the first commenter who asks me for it in the comments and tells me what type of card you are interested in using the code for. 

Now go forth to Shutterfly and shop for something beautiful! 

I was compensated by Shutterfly for blogging about their 2011 Holiday Card Selection.