Birth Announcements (like, the kind you mail out)

[*Amy*]

....so as not to confuse with our Birth Announcements thread for babies who have already been born!!

Are you going to send out birth announcements? Will you buy or make yours? I have been looking and had totally decided that I would buy them (I mean, how realistic is it to think about *making* them after the baby is born) but I've actually been inspired by a few of them to think I might actually be able to do most of the work before she's born, and then do the finishing touches afterwards.

So what are your favorites so far? Here are some of the sites where I have found really great ones.

Tiny Prints
- where I especially love this one and this one.

Smallfri, where I love this one and this one.

Anyway, just thought it would be fun to see what y'all have in mind!!

[flyingspaghettimama]

I will actually be making mine in advance, but using stamps and stickers from a local craft store. I think they have a stamp that says name, weight, etc., so all I have to do is fill it in. And address envelopes in advance. I was also thinking premade, but it's an expense we can't do right now...but I wish I could! They're so cute!

[Frigga]

I'll also be making mine in advance. It should be pretty easy if I time it right. All I'll have to do is add in the birth info and a pic. I've done it with my other 2 and it was fun and alot cheeper!

[Momma Aimee]

yes we will send them out

i am actually -- right this second -- working on a mock up of two ideas to take to kinko's today and price the printing on...........

so i guess i will kinda make it and kinda buy it -- i will make it, but not each one of them -- if that makes sense.

i do not want a store bought -- fill in the blanks one.

but i do not have the time, skill or anythign else to make the really cool scrapbook page looking ones.

I'd love to be an artist and make them. but i do not have the skilles to make what i see in my mind -- and it always leads to fustration and being upset. not gonna set myself up for that one. did it with wedding invits, did end up making them, but they were not what i saw in my mind and i was unhappy (though others thought they were cool).

I have found some i like -- too much money -- so we will see what the ones i am working on will cost to print at kinkos then we will go from there.

We have a huge family, all over the country, and DH has a lot of professional contact -- again all over US -- that are waiting to hear about the baby too.

Aimee

[2tolove]

I made mine with dd#1 & it was really easy! I actually went to a Xpdex ( like office max) & got some paper ( it was a reg. size sheet that you spit into 2 & each had little footprints etc. ) I then did the annc. part in Word & made prints of pictures from the 1 st day she was home & attatched them. They were great & fun to do!
This time we will take dd & baby for pictures ( or take one at home ) & use it as our Announcement/Holiday card ( postage is a bear for 100 + relatives _
Laura

[Queen of Cups]

DH is a web designer/graphic designer, so he made the ones for our son's birth. He did an amazing job and we ordered a pack of 250 postcards from an online printing company after he did the design. The front of the postcard was one large picture of DS the day he was born with several smaller shots from the first week along one side and had his name, birthdate, and birthweight. When you flip the postcard over, the lefthand side was the typical birth announcement text (cute little poem I found and all the stats, along with an invitation to visit our family website/blog/album) and on the righthand side it was a standard postcard format so all I had to do was slap on an address label (do yourself a favor and make a database now!) and a postcard stamp - which saved money, too! We had so many left over that we literally carried them everywhere handing them out to friends for the first month.

This time we're going to do the same thing, except it will be combined with our Holiday Card. On the front will be a picture of the baby the day s/he is born with the birthday and weight, but the smaller pictures will be family Christmas portraits. On the back we're going to start with something along the lines of, "We hope your holiday season is as happy and blessed as ours!" and give all the stats, with some kind of holiday trim/background (I'm thinking holly leaves and stars).

I realized that with a baby due in Novemeber, and since we special order our baby announcements after we've had time to select pics and edit them, we're probably not going to get our holiday cards out till the very end of Nov or the beginning of Dec - which is when holiday cards should be sent out! I didn't want to try to do two HUGE mailings in less than a month after the baby is born, so we decided to combine them.

[*Amy*]

I didn't want to try to do two HUGE mailings in less than a month after the baby is born, so we decided to combine them.

I know!! I'm trying to decide whether to do them separately or together too. I would prefer to do them separately and include a family photo and a little letter with a holiday card, but yeah, that means two mailings and twice the postage. I'm still undecided, but I like your idea!

[gratefulbambina]

My husband made ours last time Im assuming he'll do it again this time. Guess I should check on that

[Queen of Cups]

Originally Posted by *Amy*

I know!! I'm trying to decide whether to do them separately or together too. I would prefer to do them separately and include a family photo and a little letter with a holiday card, but yeah, that means two mailings and twice the postage. I'm still undecided, but I like your idea!

My only worry is that this baby will feel cheated when s/he is older. "Killy got a birth announcement, but I was just included in the Christmas card!" but I don't think it will be that big of a deal. What kid even cares about birth announcements anyway? I just don't want to spend the time and money to do two mailings (or deal with the pressure of two deadlines), or worry about writing out a year-end letter - ON TOP OF all the thank you notes that will need to be sent out after the baby is born. Embrace the laziness!

[spughy]

I am going to buy them. With my extended family, there is very little incentive to put any effort into making them because they probably wouldn't appreciate it anyway. And, anyone close to us has e-mail and will be getting a much more personalized electronic birth announcement anyhow.

[PicnicBear]

Hmmm -- everyone has touched on my thoughts and also given me a lot more to consider. I was wondering if we should even bother with a hard copy and perhaps just do e-announcments since almost eveyone I would want to announce to is on e-mail. There are a few who are not, but very few. That's the cheapest by far.

However, my sister is an artist and she once scolded me for buying X-mas cards saying that she would make them more me next time, so I am sure she would be eager to do the birth announcments if I gave her some guidance as to what we wanted. I imagine she could do them by hand or she could do them in a photoshop-type way like QofC mentioned. I hope she would actually do them in a timely manner, she has a busy social life and lots of projects going on all the time.

The worst part would be that I would have to get everyone's mailing addresses -- ahhh, I am so bad with that. I guess I would need to get an address book, too -- but maybe now that we will be entering this next stage of family-hood I should get organized with domestic stuff like that.

Or maybe my sis could make an awesome announcement and save as a jpg to be emailed . .

[spughy]

Originally Posted by plagio

Or maybe my sis could make an awesome announcement and save as a jpg to be emailed . .

That is kind of the best of both worlds I think - personal, artistic, does no harm to trees and takes only a few electrons' worth of energy to send! Plus everyone gets it sooner than via snail mail.

[bucaye]

Well, considering I have a list of 200 people that we send Christmas cards to regulary, I am going to purchase custom printed ones. I cheat and do clear laser lables too. I printed announcments for my other two.

The deal with two rounds of mailings is tough. I'm due 11/29 but have been late with my other two. So the announcments will be sent out about the middle of the month of Dec. I always send pics of the girls for Christmas, but I thought it might be too close.

So I have decided to send the announcments out as quick as I can and then take a pic of my girls holding Bobby (hopefully at the hospital or as soon as we get home) for our New Years cards. Yeah, New Year's cards. That way, I can send them out after we get back from my Mom's house for Christmas. And the photo cards won't get lost in the shuffle of all the other Christmas cards. We also want to include a short note with the photo cards.

Good luck everyone!!! Hugs to all!!!

[memory maker]

my dh owns a photography store and he has made the ones for our other 2 kids and will make one for this baby too. He has been working on it for months.
If you are worried about 2 mailings, couldnt you make 2 separate things (birth announcement and christmas card) and then mail them in the same envelope?

[Queen of Cups]

That would work - a 2-for-1! Personally, I just loved the ease of doing a postcard style mailing last time so I'm 99% sure we're going to do a combo postcard. No envelopes, cheaper postage, and my dad pointed out that all the postal workers would get a nice moment in their day when they saw it.

[beachbaby]

thanks for posting links to those sites, Amy--there are some very cute announcements! I spent way too much time at work today looking at them!

Someone (maybe here?) mentioned this site a while back:

http://www.celebrationcottage.com/Bi...ements-C1.aspx

Not sure if we'll do a photo announcement or not....I like the postcard-style idea, too. Decisions, decisions!

[*Amy*]

couldnt you make 2 separate things (birth announcement and christmas card) and then mail them in the same envelope?

DH had the same idea today, so I think that's probably what we will do! Y'all are so smart.

[Belleweather]

I think that we're going to buy a kit from Office Despot. They're the nice vellum-overlay announcements, and they're pretty cheap. I think the kit is $25 and it makes 50 announcements. We can get the picture of the baby to go with printed up for 17 cents each, and stick labels on the front of them and send them off. I just wish they came in slightly less boy-girl colours, though!

I don't know about holiday cards. We've been thinking we might do both, but just send the el-cheapo holiday cards with a picture of DH and I and the baby on them. I mean, how can more cute baby pictures be bad? On the other hand, we have final exams and I'll be in the exhausted new-mama stage and might not really be feeling up to having a photo session done!

[RainCoastMama]

We made the first ones - I don't have a pic but will explain:

Vellum with a gold embossed stamp of a baby on the front. Inside was a wallet sized pic of the baby with the announcement, and a stamp of footprints. Bound with white ribbon at the top.

This time our wedding photographer - who just took our family pregnancy shots - will do a shoot at our home and we'd do an announcement/season's greetings card. I'm thinking it will be a black and white of the two girls only.

[milk4two]

I love the ones at Purple Stork. www.purplestork.com