I recently wanted to create a birthday invite for my son who is turning One next month. I wanted a fall-themed birthday invitation for the Apple Picking Birthday Party we were having for his birthday celebration. I searched the internet. I saw great Halloween cards everywhere, but the only site that had a fall-themed birthday card was Shutterfly.

I fell in love with the brown and orange colors and the design with four pictures. I had taken photos of my son with a sign saying how old he was each month for the past year. I used a few of those so you could see how he grew over the year. Then I wrote. “Let’s have some fall fun and celebrate Liam turning One!” Then I had all the details about his party. (I blurred that part so we don’t have party crashers.)

It was ridiculously easy to make the card.  The fast photo uploads, the ability to edit your photo on the fly, or change your mind mid-stream and select another picture was super easy. I even made custom address labels to match the fall theme of his Apple Picking Birthday Party.  I uploaded a picture of some red apples and pasted it into an orange label for a fall-ish feel!

It is amazing how well run this online photo site is, and they have a huge selection of photobooks, a fabulous array of cards and stationary, like thank you cards and an online sharesite. They always have great coupons, promotions and offers too, and the service was so prompt. I received my custom cards in a couple of business days. Faster than the some diapers I ordered.

If you don’t know about it, the Shutterfly sharesite is really neat. I have had one for over two years now. It is like your own website. You can create subpages for wedding photos for example. Then another for honeymoon pictures, and one for pictures of your baby’s first year with sub-albums on that page for each month. You can add video, widgets and more. It is really slick. Our favorite part is that we can allow people to download the pictures. So grandma and grandpa can pick what they want. If you want more privacy though, you can prevent it too.

The only negative I have with Shutterfly is that all photobooks have to be 20 pages. I wanted to create a little family photobook for my son, with pictures of each family member. However, I don’t have 20 relatives so I can’t create it. Shutterfly only has photo pickup at Target while some other sites have more locations to chose from.

Yet, those points are minor compared to the rest of the fantastic features on Shutterfly, which is why, despite those two downfalls, Shutterfly continues to be my online photosite. So if you are thinking about holiday cards (they already have those online) or you want unique birthday invitations, then definitely try them out. Four Chroniclers can even win ten 5×7 flat stationary cards just by leaving a comment below, so you can see the fantastic-ness of Shutterfly for yourself! Don’t miss out.

UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Congrats to Beth and Katy for winning! Since no one else entered, I gave a prize to my Mom and my brother!

Rules:

Leave a comment about your favorite photo. One comment permitted per person; US entrants welcome.

Include your name and email in the appropriate fields so I can contact you if you win. (Including just first name or first name + last initial is OK!). Anonymous or SPAM-like comments will be discarded.

Entry period closes at midnight EST, Monday, October 4, 2010.

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*Four lucky winners (drawn randomly via Random.org) will receive a code for 10 free 5×7 flat stationery cards from Shutterfly. The winners will be notified directly via e-mail, then listed back at this post using first name only.

Sunday, September 19th, 2010, 4:15 pm   |   Home  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.