Creating Holiday Memories With Shutterfly

Thank you to Shutterfly for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions remain my own. Shop Shutterfly for personalized holiday cards and unique gift ideas. 

This time of year brings so much joy, happiness, and reflections for my little family. There are so many times we are reminded how grateful we are and thankful for the memories we create with our little guys.

It's no surprise that I have been a Shutterfly customer for years. It's like clockwork around this time of year. We get our calendars set for the new year, enjoy narrowing down our holiday card options and deciding on the one, and ordering some personalized gifts for our loved ones.

Creating these moments with our family have been so much fun to look back on. It's crazy that last year C was just barely a month old. We went all out with our card and also used it as a time to announce that our little guy was here. They do also have some amazing options for birth announcements if that's what you're looking for.

Some of you might remember reading (thank you to my long time readers) that every year usually brings some sort of story with us and a behind the scenes of how we decided on the pictures to use. I'll be sharing more of that soon, so stay tuned. What I love is, there are so many card options with many different layouts to fit your style or the look you are going for. I always admire those that can pick one picture to use and have it be the one. I have such a hard time narrowing down what I want to use that I am so grateful there are a bunch of options to be able to use multiple pictures. Anyone else have a hard time deciding?

So I don't know about you, but I've had to dodge our deliveries lately because my little guys know something is up when packages are delivered. They actually got into one of their gifts the other day. In their defense, we had our front door open as I was helping to hold up the tree we were putting up in our entryway while Eric was putting it in the stand. Ok, at this point I might as well just tell you all the story. The delivery guy walked up. I mean, the door was wide open, and it was probably an awkward situation at best when he got a full view of the tree shenanigans that was taking place. The boys went over to the door and he handed them the package. As I had pine needles wedged near my face I didn't really have time to think about intersecting the goods. I also didn't think my little guys were going to go full on out and peel off the packing tape and dive right in. When I heard excitement coming from the other room and them running over to ask who the items were for, I realized what happened. I played it off, but I don't think they bought it. Because now, when we come home they want to race to the front porch to grab any packages that have been delivered. Thankfully when our bright orange Shutterfly box arrived we were all excited and ok with opening it up.

I tried to be slick and get the cards taken care of when the boys went to sleep, but a little night time creeper made their way back into our room and caught me mid-stamping. He wanted to help (classic bedtime stalling tactic), but I told him it was too late and we could do it tomorrow. News flash, he held me to it, and here we are.

I ended up loving that they were involved because it ended up bringing some funny times and hopefully it will be things they remember when they're older. It wouldn't be a day in my house if things rain perfectly smooth, because really, what fun is that?! Let's just say these silly boys had each other cracking up as they were looking at the pictures on our card. The baby wanted to play with all of the envelopes, glue sticks, and stamps. That would explain things a little better if you happened to  get a bent envelope from us. Now you know why ;)

One a serious note, Shutterfly's custom envelop option has made my life so much easier. I used to write all of mine out by hand, but with three little ones, I just don't have the time anymore. What I also love is that even if you don't need to mail each card out, they also have options where you can get the fun —deliver to —graphic and then the rest is blank so you do have the option to also write it in.

I really like how our card came out this year! The added rose gold foil lettering really gives it a little something extra, and our hope is that is spreads some holiday cheer for all those who receive it.

Make The Holidays Shine-Cards From Shutterfly

Thank you to Shutterfly for sponsoring this post. All opinions remain my own.

I don't know about you, but this is one of my favorite times of year to receive mail. How fun is it to see all of the Christmas and Holiday cards arriving? I love that my boys enjoy coming home from school and taking turns opening all the envelops we receive. They get so excited to see who the cards are from and they especially love when it's a card from one of their friends.

As chaotic and unorganized as things feel right now, hello moving with a newborn and doing a complete home renovation (yeah we might be nuts), there was one thing I accomplished this week—sending out our Christmas cards. It may have been in the midst of tons of packing boxes (they also double as a work space when tapped up) but they're stamped, and out in the mail, and hopefully will bring some holiday cheer to those that open them.

This year we sent out our cards a little later because we wanted to wait until baby boy arrived to take family pictures. Since we didn't have a chance to send out a birth announcement for him (poor third child), we knew we wanted to go all out with our cards this year. I wanted to pick something that gave us several photo options. Because sometimes, you have a few good ones (that doesn't always happen so praise hands when it does) that you really want to show off.

I think sometimes we can all feel pressure (especially around this time of year) to get things done right away and cross everything off our lists. While I love feeling accomplished, I also realize that sometimes that isn't always reality. Especially in the season of life we're in right now. Thanks to good old instagram polls, I asked my community who already sent out cards and who still needed to. I was actually shocked at how many people still needed to, and in a weird way, it kind of made me feel a little better. I also realized that part of the fun in receiving cards, is getting them all throughout the month.

So back to our card, when I came across this tri-fold card design from Shutterfly I knew it was a great choice for us. I love how the options for photos were big so that we could squeeze all of our family in there, and coaty too. We also personalized the message and had even more options for more photos on the back of the card. The tri-fold design was a great feature and a nice change from some of the more traditional flat designs (all still great, too) that we've sent out in previous years.

One of my favorite things that Shutterfly offers is to address the envelopes with both the recipients and your return address. I can't tell you how much time this has saved me. And at this point, I could use every second I get to my days. I love the different fonts and designs you can choose from to stick with the theme of your card or to make it feel more like your own personal touch. 

Here's to all the happy mail and finding options that make your card designs extra special.