birth announcements

[DeChRi]

I am horrid at these. And XMas cards. I have never sent out either, for any child, any XMas, nothing.

I am determined to send out an announcement for baby #3 this May. I would love to incorporate the other kids in it. Like a....Big sisters R and D announce a new sister, blah blah, then a pic of them holding her or something. I dunno.

I dont want to spend a ton and I want it to be something I can execute after birth with a toddler and newborn.

Anyone have ideas on concept and execution?

[mamabutterfly]

i would try going to a site like snapfish & designing a card you like now, & saving it. then after the birth you just have to plug in the photo and vital stats. (Maybe have dp or a family member who has offered some help to do that for you? It's kind of a fun job.)

The big thing that will help getting them out the door, I think, would be addressing all the envelopes now, and even adding postage. Make it so you'll only need to add anouncement and get somebody to take it out for you. That's the part that can be a drag.

[starkyld]

I was just about to comment that the postal rate increase usually takes place in May, so you should plan to hold off on adding postage or should use the Forever stamps instead. *Then* I checked & saw that the USPS has officially announced that there will be no postal rate increase for 2010. So you're good!

[Pinoikoi]

The only way I got mine mailed was by taking my kiddos to get their "portraits" done and ordering the announcements from there as one of the package deals.. came with envelopes and everything. But that is tough to do until babe shows up

[GuavaGirl]

The cheapest way that I've come up with is ordering photo cards from Costco. It's 14.99 for 50 photo cards w/ envelopes. If you don't have a costco card you can order them online with a friend's account and then have them shipped to your address. (my sis uses my account to order costco photos online, since they're so cheap)

I'm going to put a simple design together in photoshop, so it can be really custom. If you, or someone you know, can do the basics in photoshop, that might be a good idea.

[MamaMonica]

Moved to Birth and Beyond .

[Belle]

Originally Posted by GuavaGirl

The cheapest way that I've come up with is ordering photo cards from Costco. It's 14.99 for 50 photo cards w/ envelopes. If you don't have a costco card you can order them online with a friend's account and then have them shipped to your address. (my sis uses my account to order costco photos online, since they're so cheap)

I'm going to put a simple design together in photoshop, so it can be really custom. If you, or someone you know, can do the basics in photoshop, that might be a good idea.

I was going to suggest Costco. I got xmas cards from them this year (last year now) and they were really nice. Very cheap too. Cheaper than when I'd made my own the last few years. If I'd known how nice they were at such a good price I'd have used them for birth announcements too.

[luv-my-boys]

I have always done the prep work for my announcements before baby was born. I usually design something on those printable baby ones and add our own photo. So I get it all set up and save it that way once the baby was born all I had to do was print them out with the stats on it. Print out my photo and attach. I also address and get stamps on them ahead of time. This last time around I literally did them the day we got home form the hospital.

there are places online (vistaprint i think is one) where you can make them online ahead of time and add photo later, address them and have them add postage. They mail them out for you. You can set up address books and literally sending the card (holiday,announcements or special pics) are a click away.