TRY THIS: Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Okay, here's my thing about Christmas cards: They are awkward. I get a piece of cardstock with a Santa pictured on it that says Merry Christmas, and has the signature of my 2nd grade playmate whom i have not heard from since 2nd grade and will not hear from again until next year's card. WHAT GOOD IS THAT??? It's silly. I throw the card away, and don't think much of it. Save your 44 cents... or however much they charge you for a stamp these days.
Okay, here's something I love: Every year, my cousin sends out a photo card with pictures of her kids and her holiday greetings. LOVE IT. Love seeing pictures of those little buggers (who actually, aren't so little anymore). I keep it on my fridge year round... (until i get next year's picture card) It has even on occasion prompted me to call or email my cousin (...the kids are getting so big, thanks for the card... oh and how are you doing... etc) often resulting in a conversation with someone I don't often talk to-- WHICH I think is kind of the point of a card anyway... keeping you in contact with your loved ones.
My Cousin has been sending out photo cards since before it was 'cool' and definitely before it was easy...
I was just having a conversation with My friend Erin the other day trying to explain to her how EASY it really is. And for the same price as those dollar store Christmas cards with Santa on them that will be thrown away... you can send personal photo cards that I PROMISE your friends and family will enjoy SO MUCH MORE.
I have professed my undying love for Shutterfly before HERE when I showed you the photobook I made for a guestbook at my wedding.  Their photobooks kind of rock. I have since convinced several friends to make them for various occasions, everyone has been super pleased. I am sure I don't need to remind you, but Christmas is coming and photobooks make super gifts! But I digress...
We were talking about cards, and Shutterfly has a huge selection of holiday cards with lots of cute creative designs. And they are super simple to personalize, just drag and drop your photos in. If you start right now, you are approximately 45 seconds from personalized Christmas cards. I really love this design:

With glitter, hello?!?! Or this one:

I'm sure you can't guess why that caught my eye...
Anywho... on top of all that Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE CARDS for bloggers... and that pretty much rocks. So I am pumped to create my Christmas cards this year... and you should probably do the same, you know, because you don't want to be the Santa card in the trashcan.

CREATE THIS: Photo Book

This is one of my favorite things from our wedding. Instead of a traditional guest book with lines that people write their name on... (and that I would never glance at again) we decided to create a photo book and have people sign it 'yearbook style'. Plus we had all these FABULOUS engagement pictures take by Claire (of Visionaire Studios, OMG she is Fabulous!) and we wanted to do something cool to show them off. 
Originally I didn't want to tackle this project myself, because I wanted it to be very professional and a non-corny 'keepsake'. So I asked my photographer about it, and she was happy to create this very thing for me, but it was WAY more than I wanted to spend. But then I found out I could create something like what I wanted on Shutterfly... and I was skeptical on how it would turn out, but it was only about a $30 investment, so I thought it was worth a shot. I spent about an hour formatting and inserting my pictures, with their easy to use software-- and tons of options!-- then submitted my book, and crossed my fingers.
What I got in the mail was a beautiful custom created photo book that was exactly what I wanted! PERFECT. And very professional looking. And so ridiculously cheap. So 10 points for Shutterfly... and I have this feeling I am going to be making lots and lots more photobooks in the future. They have lots of sizes and options to make it perfect for gifts, brag books, etc. I love this!
(Side note: We purchased the copyright for the pics from our photographer, so this was totally legal. Please don't use pics that you don't have copyrights to... it's just not fair to photographers that work hard and use their talents to capture your memories... so keep things legal and ethical, kids!)
Check out our book below:

Click here to view this photo book larger