I used Shutterfly’s services years ago. I sent them film, yes film, and they developed it, made prints, and also scanned them for me. The quality of their service was always amazing. I stopped visiting their site when I switched to digital. Since 90% of the photos I take now are for my blog, I thought I didn’t need their services any longer.
I’ve been looking for some holiday cards to use to thank my regular customers who shop at my online store. I’ve found several on the Shutterfly site that I think might work. There wasn’t anything perfect, but had I been shopping to send a traditional holiday family card, I would have had tons to choose from. I love that they have colors outside the traditional red and green and that there are cards that cover all of the holidays celebrated, not just Christmas. Since my customers come from around the world, having a card that addressed all of their religious choices is important to me.
I used Shutterfly’s extremely easy card customization program and found it to be so simple and yet powerful. Their software helps you upload your photos and then crop or resize them so they look perfect on your card. It also lets you know if the resolution of your photo is too low – that’s a great feature so that you’re not disappointed when you receive your cards. You can also customize some text and they offer a few fonts per card. This is the one feature I was wishing there was more of. I understand the software is meant to be fool-proof and therefore the choices are limited, but the designer in me wants full control over everything.
I was drawn to the cards that had 5-6 photos slots, but there are many with 1-3. I love being able to tell a photo story or break up the family. In my case, I want to profile different products and upload a graphic with text that highlights special offers or shopping codes for my favorite customers. It was easy to filter out the cards that didn’t fit my needs by using the filters on the left side of the screen to pick the colors, number of photos, card stock style, size, and type of cards. This really helped narrow down the field.
Before you commit to your cards you get to proof them online first – it’s another outstanding feature. You see exactly what your card will look like and you can go back and make changes. I’ve done three mock-ups of cards but I need to do some photo editing before I settle on the final one. I know that when I receive them they’ll be perfect. I hope my customers enjoy them.
By the way, I love Shutterfly even more now. I logged in today (thankfully I’ve had the same email address for a long time) and realized I have hundreds of photos still stored here – I’m so excited! Some from my son’s 6th grade trip to Disneyland – he turns 25 in a few weeks – and others from plays he was in in high school. I have no clue where the prints are I ordered oh so long ago, but the pictures were saved by Shutterfly! I’m so thrilled!
Additional items available from Shutterfly:
- Holiday Photo Cards
- Christmas Cards
- Thanksgiving Cards
- New Year’s Cards
- Hanukkah Cards
- Business Christmas Cards
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Want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season, and please select Clever 1000 as the referral source.
DISCLOSURE: This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.