Winter Birch - Christmas Card

We have used these "story telling" cards for several years and we always get positive feedback from friends that appreaciate seeing what we've been doing in the past year. The text blocks provide just enough to share events without being a "holiday letter" (which we used to send). This card with photos and text boxes is a good compromise. I will say the PearTree website is extremely frustrating and quirky to use but one can cope with enough patience. Be sure to save frequently. The delivery was accurate and quick. The quality of the cards and the printing quality of the photos is excellent. When selecting photos be mindful of landscape or portrait orientation as there are limits on how you can crop or adjust. Some photo boxes work best with one or the other. One can adjust, but it can require fiddling with it.

4 smaller pix on the front with 4 text boxes to tell your story that goes along with the pix. On the back you put 3 larger pix and two more text boxes. I like the opportunity to add text and explain some of the pictures. I think it makes it much more personal than just sending pictures with no description or context. These are not really large cards, but big enough to have reasonable sized pictures. I liked the "nature" theme of the birch bark paper.

I ordered 96 of the Trifold Winter Birch cards for Christmas. I selected this card because it gave me the ability to show photos that were a decent size rather than tiny photos where a magnifying glass is required to see the people/animals/etc. in the photos. I liked that I was able to zoom in and out as well as move the photo around within the alloted space. Unfortunately, I was not able to use a couple of photos because the program would crop off some of the features I wanted to show (like someone's head!). For some reason I could not move those photos in the allotted space. I was very impressed with the turnaround time. I received my cards within 2 days after placing the order. I did not order self addressed envelopes which may have helped with the turnaround time.

I chose this card because we had used a similar layout for my son's graduation announcements and many people had commented on how that card had been their favorite announcement. I love the look of this card but I do wish that there was a small spot for a group family photo on the front of the card. Once it was folded, I noticed that as you removed the card from the envelope it looked a little awkward until you opened it up more. Also, I would have liked to be able to add "Brady-bunch" style panels across the top or bottom of the bigger images. I made it work with the "add a photo" button but it was pretty limited on what I could do with them. Overall, however, I was able to fit in photos of our family of 6, including our adventures, sports, travels, and major family events. The shipping took longer than anticipated, so we got them and pushed them back in the mail the week of Christmas. The return labels and seals helped to speed up the process. I'd like to see "themed" sets in the future with the cards, return addressed envelopes, and seals all together.

Well done! Easy to use process, even for an old guy.