Tips-N-Tricks: Birth Announcements

Some people are for birth announcements, some think it's a waste of time and money. I'm traditional, so sending out birth announcements was never a question... how to do it and save money, however, was.

I'd say the cheapest way is just to go on the Walmart website and use their template which is fine, but just not my style. I wanted to have something different. I found a few different options that are more expensive than Walmart but WAY cheaper than the typical announcement that you would pay $1 or more per card (e.g. tinyprints.com - super cute but costly).

I found three different ways to get a unique announcement for a good price:

1. Vistaprint - You can use any template, insert a photo, edit the format basically any way you'd like. Plus, the announcements are done on thick card stock which is nicer and sturdier than photo paper. I used Vistaprint for our announcements and it cost me $30 for 70 announcements, including envelopes and shipping.
2. Digital Design - Some online birth announcement sellers offer "digital design" for around $50. Basically, as opposed to paying on a per-card basis, you select your design, send in your pic and information, they design it for you and send you a jpeg that you can print yourself at Walmart (as a photo) for cheap. If you're doing a large number of announcements, this would probably be the cheapest way to do something unique. Here are a few Canadian websites I found that offer this service: Every Moment Matters ($45) and Little Star Greetings ($45).
3. Etsy - There are some Etsy sellers that offer digital design for CHEAP (like $10-$15). Go to the Etsy site and search for "birth announcements" and you will find a bunch of sellers offering to design your announcement for you and, as with above, they will send you a jpeg that you can print at Walmart (as a photo) yourself. You'll likely have to find envelopes yourself.

As I said, this won't appeal to everyone as you may not want to do announcements or, if you do, you may be looking at the cheapest option... just thought I'd pass along what I found that worked for me :)

Jen