Today’s post is about thinking outside the box. I’m featuring customers that took one of our standard designs and changed it to suit their needs. I’m not just talking about picking your favorite colors and fonts – that’s fairly standard and expected. These people took it to the next level…

Ella’s mom Liz started with a birth announcement and ended up with an adorable first birthday party magnet:

These wild and crazy folks (okay, it’s my brother) took a wedding photo card and imagined it into a fabulous family photo Christmas card!

You’ve read about Melinda before, as she prepared her daughter for a new arrival. She creatively turned this baptism invitation into a birth announcement for baby Kaylin. Then for big sister Zaylee’s second birthday, a birth announcement became a party invitation. I love how the monogram was switched to a number “2″.

So if you see a product you love, but it’s not quite right for your announcement or invitation, fear not! MagnetStreet Baby is all about customization, wherever your imagination takes you.

Do a little browsing through the birth announcements, party invitations, baptism invitations and holiday cards. Remember, it’s okay to be out of the box!

Are you expecting a baby girl in the next couple of weeks? Look at these beautiful Valentine’s theme birth announcements!

Not that you can’t welcome your baby boy with a Valentine, but you should probably switch the pinks for red. He’ll thank you later!

The other great possibility would be sending out a personal or family Valentine. It could be just for fun, or in lieu of traditional holiday cards if you never got around to sending them out. 

Simply replace the birth details with a personal greeting or a list of your kids’ names and ages. How cute, as either a magnet or a card! View more options online.

Do you usually send Valentines to family and friends? I bet you like to receive them – think about it.

Okay, now that most of my New Year’s cards have made it through the mail, I can show this to you. (Since I assume that everyone is like me and likes the surprise of pulling a never-before-seen card out of an envelope!) Sorry to make you squint at my terrible photography!

And here are the stacks of envelopes, all ready for the post office…

Please notice that the addresses are written in aqua fine-tip Sharpie that matches the return address labels. I love a coordinated envelope!

Disclosure of ridiculousness: I paid $17.99 for a 12-pack of fine-tip Sharpies at Michael’s because they didn’t have any single aqua pens, and I didn’t have time to go to another store. Ugh!

But the real point of this post is to shamelessly plug the fun online design studio options! The card that I chose was originally a fairly Christmasy design:

And although these shades of red and green are my among my favorites, the Christmasy look was too “early” for my put-off-until-the-last-minute card. It also didn’t match the aqua slide from which Tate is emerging in his photo. Presto-chango, make the green and red into 2 shades of turquoise, and we were ready to go!

You can either select colors from a palette of popular choices, or create your own custom shades. This is perfect if you’re trying to match something in your photo, or just have some favorite colors that you want to use. You’ll be able to see the colors right away, along with your uploaded photos and any text changes (like me changing Merry Christmas to Happy New Year!).

If you prefer to leave all of this up to the pros, on the other hand, our talented team of designers can set up your card or announcement and send you a proof for approval.

These design features are available not only for holiday cards but everything from shower invitations to birth announcements to birthday party invitations.

So, are you a do-it-yourselfer or would you rather let someone else pick what looks best?

Last year was possibly the first one in which my Christmas cards were actually mailed before Christmas. It helped that I had a new job blogging about Christmas cards for my former full-time employer. Yes, at this moment you’re still reading that very same blog, but my old procrastinating ways have settled in again…

I did get my cards ordered last week, so they could get out before the end of the year. But it will definitely be before February begins!

Are any of the rest of you holiday card procrastinators? Don’t worry, there’s still time! Here are some classic designs that could really be sent at any time of the year – just change the Christmas greeting on the front and pick your favorite color combination.

Wouldn’t this one look great in turquoise? After all, Heidi (quoting Pantone) says that’s THE color for 2010!

In addition to folded cards, there are flat cards on linen paper or on magnets. Just find your favorite photo(s) from the past year and you’ll be ready to go!

You may have heard of Timothy Botts, the talented calligrapher. His artwork can be seen in prints, books, devotionals and even an illustrated Bible. 

MagnetStreet is pleased to present a new series of Christmas cards that feature this amazing artwork. What a unique way to send holiday greetings to your family and friends this year.

Add your favorite family photo from the past year, and you’re ready to go. No more stressing over your holiday greeting cards!

View the entire line of Timothy Botts Christmas cards online.

Confession: Tate is often shoeless. He has two very cute pairs, but he doesn’t often wear them. My husband thinks this is why he’s not walking yet, and admittedly he slips around on our hardwood floors in his stocking feet. Even when we leave the house, I rarely put on his shoes. He was barefoot all last summer. My friend jokes about Tate’s “sans shoes” fashion statement. 

Maybe if I had a girl it would be different- my niece has bazillions of pairs of shoes, and always has just the right pair for every outfit. Okay, that may also be a reflection of her stylish momma. But I think little girls do lend themselves a bit more to accessorization.

It could be that I’m getting my “girl fix” in other ways. Confession #2: I love to dress up my envelopes. Both Tate’s birth announcements and our Christmas cards had return address labels and envelope seals that matched the enclosure. The addresses are written with a matching pen for the finishing touch.

I’ll admit to being pretty sad that the United States Postal Service chose a primary-color nutcracker design for this year’s holiday stamps, which completely threw off my aqua and lime green palette. Don’t even get me started on the pink monstrosities I had to use on my green and black wedding invitations…

Anyone else out there love a pretty envelope? There are so few occasions for which real mail is sent nowadays, it seems a shame not to make them all they can be. Check out these adorable options for envelope seals and return address labels:

There are lots more designs online to match your birth announcements, shower invitations, holiday cards and thank you notes. Have fun playing dress-up!

Photo Courtesy:
USPS

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Okay, the holidays are behind you, at least the ones for which your to-do list included baking, decorating, present-buying, etc. In the midst of everything else, the holiday cards didn’t get ordered. No worries- with all of that family time during the past week, you probably have at least one great new photo to share! Plus, cards sent out in January will get the full attention of their recipients!  

Here are some great designs, and there are lots more online. Choose from magnet or linen cardstock cards, single sheet or folded for the latter. Remember, you can modify the colors to match your photo or just your mood, and the greeting text too. Try something like Winter Greetings, New Year’s Greetings or just Happy 2009! You can play around with the design online features during the order process and see the changes right away on your screen, or have one of the talented MagnetStreet designers do the work for you.

Happy New Year!

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I just got my UPS shipping notification! That means our Christmas cards will be here on Tuesday. If Tate happens to take a super-nap, maybe I can get the envelopes addressed and they can go in the mail that same day. But definitely by Wednesday, the post office will have them en route to our friends and family, who will receive their cards DAYS, maybe even a WEEK before Christmas! As you may have guessed, this is momentous for a procrastinator like myself. 

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll realize that that’s not us in the photo. In the interest of secrecy (since I hope the aforementioned friends and family are still reading my blog), I’m just going to show the website template for now. I’ll drop in the photo of our real card later… click here to view

Having met my pre-Christmas goal, I know that I said I would go for red and green. But I loved this design and it matched Tate’s outfit in the photo. We went with the folded card style again this year, so that I could have our update letter printed on the inside. I think part of the reason that I enjoy doing our cards every year is that I love getting them from others. This is my personal hierarchy of holiday cards, with bonus points for handwritten notes with any type of card. 

• Good: Signed card
• Great: Letter or photo
• Fantastic: Letter AND photo

Even though it’s killing me, this year I’m saving up all the cards that we get in the mail and we’ll open them all on Christmas Eve Day. This is the first year that we’ll be spending the day without any of our parents or siblings. It will just be the three of us, so I’m trying to think of some fun things to do (opening cards probably won’t fill the day). Any other suggestions for us?

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