The first place I go to for birthday invitations and Christmas cards is Shutterfly. They always have really great designs on flat cardstock and I love adding photos to the cards. With Margaux’s first birthday coming up, I did like I always do, and scrolled through the Shutterfly birthday invites. I found this:
Cute! I love the cards with a photo background with words layered overtop. But… When I got it ready to order, I just couldn’t bring myself to cough up nearly $30 for only 15 cards, as simple as this design was.
So my frugal instincts kicked in and I brainstormed… This design was simple enough that I could probably just make this myself and then order from a less expensive site, like VistaPrint. I’m not super savvy with editing software, but I have downloaded Picasa 3, which is a completely free and easy to use. It’s pretty basic, but gets the job done on for simple task like this. And it’s free. Did I mention that? The deal on VistaPrint was 10 cards for $10 for a slightly smaller size on cardstock when you upload your own design. Still better than the $30 I was about to spend at Shutterfly, but… I only needed 15 cards and I would have to buy 20 at VistaPrint. I knew I could do better yet…
Ok, so I had already had the design. Why not just… print them as photos??? Am I a genius? Well, maybe not. BUT I sure felt like one when I thought of this. {I am sure I am not the first to try this out} It wasn’t the nice cardstock I like, but when I compared the cost, frugal won. By a land slide. I did make sure to select the matte finish. I am not a glossy finish fan.
Yep, you read that right. $1.80 TOTAL FOR 15 INVITATIONS. That’s less than the cost of 2 from VistaPrint and less than 1 invitation from Shutterfly. Thank you Walgreen’s Photo! With shipping it was only $3.39! I felt like a frugal goddess.
Here is the final product, which I received in about 3 days:
There is no doubt I will still use Shutterfly many times in the future, especially for the photo books. If you haven’t made a photo book, try Shutterfly! Its so easy! For now, I will bask in the glory of my sweet, thrifty success. Mmm… Tastes like chocolate.
Thank you for reading!
