Birth Announcements
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Birth Announcements
June 2007
Does anyone have leads for inexpensive birth annoucements? I'm thinking of going with Shutterfly
because it's only $0.62 per piece when ordering 75. I want to include a picture. I found some places
online that charges $2.50+ per piece and that's a bit too much!
New Mama
Try purplestork.com- you can buy 4X6 or 5X7 birth announcements from them, or have them
create the design only, and then print them cheaply yourself wherever you print your
pictures.
I had a really good experience with them- I chose the ''Cole'' model-I sent purple stork
about 10 pictures, and emailing back and forth about 6 times to get it just right, ended up
using 6 of the photos. The emailing was always quick, it only took maybe 2 days to get it
right, and then I had the photo announcements printed myself at Ritzpix.com, and picked
them up the same day-
I had a really good time with purplestork and the ritz on solano in berkeley. Have fun with
your new baby!
http://www.purplestork.com/Photo-birth-announcements.html
purple stork fan
We had birth announcement postcards made by printsmadeeasy.com. It cost about $35 including
shipping for 100 cards. Postcards stamps are cheaper, too. It was very simple to upload a
photo and design both sides of the card using the easy software right on the site. The
print quality was great. We were very happy with them as announcements and they were a hit
with our family & friends. We were so pleased we did the same thing for our Christmas cards
and plan to continue to do so.
anonymous
We used shutterfly and were very pleased. I think everyone likes to get a picture as
opposed to just info or a footprint. They have several varieties, from postcards to
fold-over cards and tons of designs. They are also really fast and convenient.
anon
Dec 2006
Where's the best place to get birth announcements?
Georgina
Bekki at BZB Designs does really beautiful birth announcements.
For full disclosure, she is also my friend, but even if she
weren't I'd still recommend her because she is super professional
and kind and receptive to input. She has a lot of samples on her
website, bzbdesigns.com
Emelie
One fun and pretty easy option is to create your own birth
announcements at one of the online photo processing sites--we
used shutterfly.com and were very happy with the results. That
way you can incorporate a photo into the announcements and don't
have do double-duty inserting a snapshot into each one.
Congratulations on your new little one!
Aug 2006
I'm looking for someone (a graphic designer?) to help put
together a beautiful and creative birth announcement...the
initial idea is for a trifold ''brochure style'' using a series
of photographs (one of mom pregnant, then the couple, then the
babies.) I found a few names in the archives but they were all
about work related projects...has anyone worked with a designer
to put something like this together?
Dee-Jade Chock, who used to be do graphic design where I work,
now does freelance assignments on the side. She did an
absolutely gorgeous invitation for my three year old's birthday
party. contact her at deejade[at]mac.com
Jennifer
Try my friend Erica. She does fabulous work! Everyone that has seen her work has used her
and loved her. She is also very reasonably priced. Here are examples of her work. (Though,
these pictures really don't do them justice):
http://www.ifthesecardscouldtalk.com/index.cfm?act=products&mcid=15&cid=15 She will work to your needs and wants. She is also one of the
nicest persons you will ever meet!
Her contact infor is: questions[at]ifthesecardscouldtalk.com Cathy
I highly recommend Emily Reilly for graphic design work, especially birth announcements and
wedding invitations.
http://www.reillysdesigns.com/
July 2003
We are excited about the coming of our first child. But we have
not pick out the style and format of birth announcement yet. One
idea is to have foot ink in the birth annoucement. With a foot
stamper, I can place baby's foot on the stamper and then on
cards. Does any one know where I can buy a foot stamper? Or any
other ideas of birth announcement (creative but less expensive)
are welcome. Thanks a lot.
fumbling mom-to-be
perhaps an ink-pad from a stationary store, like the one on
College Ave near Ashby, would work. You could create a single
foot-print, then have it copied on to heavy-weight paper that
could then be cut into separate announcements for friends.
Maybe you could even use food coloring to get the initial
foot=print so that the foot is not left with an ink residue.
anon
Hi,
Having just gone through this, and wanting to do something ''creative'' as well... my
advice is DON'T EVEN TRY! Unless you're very efficient and have the invitations
pre-addressed, stamped, and ready for Baby's footprint they will just add to the
piles of unattended-to chores once your hands are full with the newborn.
My advice, beyond the witty bulk e-mail announcement, would be a newborn
photo announcement printed through ofoto or a similar service. Make it as easy
on yourself as possible... the less you have to write the happier you will be!
J
OK, so this idea will only work if you have a computer nerd in the family, but...
When my daughter was born, we made a CD. Her name is Maud, so we burned a
CD with the theme song to the 70s Bea Arthur TV show ''Maude''...then we
recorded my husband and I speaking after the song giving the details of her
birth...it was a big hit and was really cheap!
Amy
For Baby # 1 we bought a non-toxic, roll-on ink, then inked his
feet and stamped them on the paper. We have some fairly hilarious
photos of doing this while he was totally asleep. We then
photocopied them onto high-quality card stock with a message we
had designed on our word processor. Total cost--about $15, not
including stamps.
Your idea about the baby's foot impression is creative and
fun! If you want to save some money, why not take the original
print and scan it into a computer, then make digital copies and
send out an ''Evite'' or some other computer generated
FREE ''Welcome Baby to the World'' type card to your email
friendly friends. For others on your list, who do not have
email access, you can send something through snail mail.
Card Maker
I just had adorable (and inexpensive) birth announcements done.
It was remarkably easy- I worked by email (or phone and mail,
if you wish) with a woman named Emily. While Emily is more
than willing to implement your own design and use paper, etc.
of your choosing, I had Emily chose the paper, font, and layout
for my announcement because, not only do I trust her design
skills and eye, I really didn't have the time or energy to do
those things myself during my baby's first month! She gave me
options and I OKayed everything. All I had to do was email (or
send, of course) a favorite photo of baby and important stats.
Emily also does Christmas cards, party invitations, etc. You
can contact her at EWHOTT at YAHOO.COM. (Oh, and I must mention
that she addressed the envelopes for me!! Perfect handwriting-
and again, what a timesaver!!)
Molly
Newborn feet are smaller than you probably realize - any ink pad
you find at any office/stationary/craft supply store will do.
Hint Stamp several. Pick a few you like, cut and paste onto an
8.5 x11 piece of paper and photocopy it as many as needed. Cut
those out and paste onto nice paper, either as a card or
postcard (needs to be heavier if latter).
For the relevant info, type in a nice font and do the same with
the photocopying as the footprint.
Ellen
I think that Martha Stewart Baby had an issue or two with very
cute and creative birth announcement ideas. I have back issues
if you would like copies.
scrunchmeep
Kids' stores have non-toxic stamp pads you could use. Another
idea is to get interesting postcards from bookstores and
giftshops as announcement cards (25-80 cents each). If you have
an online photo service like snapfish.com or ofoto.com, you can
send in a roll to be developed, choose your favorite photo and
have it converted into cards or postcards. Can't remember prices,
but it's pretty economical. They'll also print the addresses,
stamp the cards and mail them for you, which would be a real time
saver! I just had a baby in March and did email notification with
attached photos. To those without email, I sent notices in the
mail. I looked around a bit and found Piedmont Stationers on
Piedmont Ave. had birth announcement cards I really liked. My
all-time favorite store-bought cards are made by Sarah Midda,
which you could use to write on one side and put a footstamp on
the other. (To view, you can look it up on Amazon.com. I've only
seen them sold in one store around here--a baby store a couple
blocks south of Chez Panisse on Shattuck.)
new mom
I just had a baby 2 months ago and we made our own announcements
with her foot print. We drew pictures and did the lettering on
the computer (cut and pasted by hand), then made her footprint
with a nontoxic ink pad we purchased at Rockridge Kids for about
2 dollars. She had a blue tint to her foot for a few days but
rubbing alcohol does take it off. We bought paper and envelopes
that matched at Office Depot and ran off copies at Copy Central
(7.00 for over 100). The whole process was easy becasue we did as
much as possible before she was born including addresses on the
envelopes. Then we filled in the date and info on her and foot
print and mad ethe copies. very cheap and easy and everyone loved
them.
Linda
We sent out photo cards from Costco -- about $20 for 50 cards,
plus postage. Very well received; everyone likes to see the new
arrival. Also required minimal writing and effort on my part,
which was critical when we were first home. Stamping a baby's
foot over and over (if you have as big a family as ours!) would
have been exhausting (cute, though). And I don't know if the ink
would be OK for a newborn's skin.
One caveat about the Costco cards check and make sure they all
look OK; we got a couple that were streaky and weird looking.
Sara
All the other postings sound terrific, but one little thing I
would add is that when I get a birth announcement, no
matter how clever it is.... what I really want to see is a picture
of the baby. A really great picture of a newborn baby is the
best thing to find in my mailbox.
patricia
We took the footprint that the hospital made to a rubber
stamp shop on University Avenue and had a rubber stamp
made. We used that to make our announcements. It was
very inexpensive, didn't involve putting ink on our baby and
our daughter now has a wonderful keepsake (the rubber
stamp). When your child is old you can make his/her hand
as well. GREAT FUN!
Shoshana
lakeshore parent teacher store(Walnut Crk & San Leandro) has non
toxic ink pads.
anon
If you want to do the footprint idea, I've heard that crushed
frozen blueberries work as well as ink but don't stain as badly
and are certainly cheaper than ink.
I've also seen announcements where someone decorated a onesie
with fabric markers with all the birth information, then took a
picture of the child in the onesie and mailed out copies of the
picture.
What ever you do, don't make it stressful for you, you'll have
enough stress in those first few weeks!
Julie
Nov 1999
We are looking for birth announcements without ribbons and pastels. We
like bright colours instead
(Miffy like) but we don't know where to find these. Any suggestions?
Heleen
We did our own birth announcements using our own computer. If you go to
somewhere like Papyrus, or the stationary store on Piedmont nr the Yoga
Center (I think its called "Greetings?)you can find some really cute paper
(8/5 X 11.5) with colorful borders that are baby-like. They come in packs
of 50 or so, and are very reasonably priced. They usually have matching
envelopes too. There are also more expensive, vellum types too.... Once you
come up with the announcement, it is really easy just to print a batch out.
Hilary
We ordered ours through Papyrus. They have a number of stores in the city
and I think
some in the East Bay too. They had a huge selection, many with bright
colors (which we
preferred too) and were great about having the order all ready to go so
that we could just
call in with the details once the baby was born.
Ann
I, too, was looking for birth announcements that weren't so frilly and
busy. I found some great
paper at Ideal Office Products in Mill Valley, but I've seen these at other
reasonably large stationery
stores all over the place. Anne Geddes (the woman who takes those great
pictures of babies in fruit baskets,
etc.) makes some very adorable (without being too cutesy) paper with simple
borders or designs that you
can print directly on to with a regular laser or inkjet printer. You can
get sheets that have a perforation in the middle,
so that you end up with two 4x5.5" cards, or you can get full-size sheets
(they come with envelopes). There are
lots and lots of designs (not just Anne Geddes) so you can really be as
simple or as elaborate as you wish. We
used a really nice font from MS Word to type a simple message with her
name, time of birth, weight, etc. You
could also color xerox a photo, or add additional clip art, etc. The best
part was that it ended up being much
cheaper than either pre-printed birth announcements or cards made up by a
specialty printer. And we could
personalize them just how we wanted. Have fun!
Gretchen
We had ours done at Papyrus on College Avenue. No
ribbons, no pastels, not too formal. They have
anything you may want there.
Linda
Stacy Claire Boyd out of Birmingham, Alabama is a graphic artist who does
lovely birth announcements, many in
bright colors and fun themes (taxis, sailboats, fire engines, etc.) Papyrus
on Grand Avenue (and maybe all
Papyri) represented her. Good luck.
Christy
this page was last updated: Feb 17, 2008
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