Not Your Grandmother's Stationery

Do you ever think wistfully about the good old days, back when people wrote each other notes on something called paper? Using a strange, pointy instrument called a pen. And then they put those notes in the mailbox with stamps on the envelope, and hoped that the recipients would take out their lavender monogrammed paper and reply. And this was called writing letters.

It took time and was an art form. In carefully chosen phrases or hasty scrawls, emotions were carried by the tone of the handwriting itself. Writers communicated their hopes, dreams, and daily doings in forms of politeness long forgotten, including things like greetings and signatures to open and close their messages.

Not that long ago, when I was in college (okay, fine, it was 20 years ago, but in the history of writing, that's not a very long time), I wrote letters all the time. And because I wrote them, I also received them. I have a box full of them from old boyfriends that I can't bear either to throw away or to read, a whole drawer of them from my best friend since forever that I get a kick out of rereading occasionally. Now that I'm older, and I type about three times faster than I write, I rarely write letters any more. It's all email this and blog post that and cell phone call while driving.

But I miss it.

At Christmastime, I don't send out a photo card to everyone I know with a typed letter about the family's doings. Instead, I buy one box of cards, 20-25 of them, and I hand write notes only to the people who are out of town and who I wish I kept in better touch with all year round. One friend told me a few years ago that mine is the only handwritten card she gets the entire season any more. Which also means that last year she got no handwritten cards because last year I was so busy grading papers right up until my semester ended on Dec 22 that I never got around to writing cards at all.

I deeply regret that and have promised myself that I will make up for this gap by writing even better, more thoughtful cards this year.

I am always looking for the perfect cards to send. I want them to be beautiful -- either with a touch of elegance or with an old-fashioned feel to them somehow. I want them to be big enough to contain a real letter, since I don't just write a sentence or two and sign for the family; I write several paragraphs a piece. And I want them to come in an envelope sized right to contain a picture of the kids, rather than some awkward size that needs extra postage but won't fit a photograph. Most of all, they can't be pre-printed with the words "Merry Christmas" or have any design that's predominantly red and green or feature a decorated tree or hanging stockings or a jolly rotund man with a beard.

Why? you might reasonably ask.

Because nearly half the cards I send out are going to dear friends who are Jewish or Muslim or otherwise don't celebrate Christmas.

These cards are my holiday moment of connection, my time to slow down, really think about friends and family, and write the old fashioned way. But it's almost impossible to find cards that meet my criteria around the holidays. (And that is part of why I never sent any out last year; I couldn't found ones I liked in time.)

Until now. (Full disclosure: yes, this is a product review coming up. Trust me that you want to read it because you will want these cards. And at the end of it, you will get the chance to have them. For FREE. So, carry on.)

Seriously, you absolutely must do yourself a favor and check out the most wonderful card company I have ever found. It's called Tiny Prints. What they don't have in beautiful designs hasn't been designed yet in the history of the world. And what they don't have in customer service? Well, if they don't have it, no one does. (Just to be clear: they aren't paying me anything to write this, only offering a giveaway for you.)

First of all, they have hundreds of designs -- holiday cards, photo cards, birth announcements, thank you notes, even Halloween party invitations. And their designs come in a range of styles from classic to cute, elegant to juicy pop art. There are mod designs with color combinations like chocolate brown with baby blue and raspberry with lime. And there are dozens and dozens of holiday cards with snowflakes and other wintery themes that don't necessarily scream "Christmas."

But what makes Tiny Prints so superlative is that every single one of their designs is customizable at no extra charge. THIS is a company that is really thinking. The card whose snowflake graphic looks non-denominationally festive but whose front says "Merry Christmas"? Well, that phrase is in a text box, so that if you love the design, you can make just a few clicks of your mouse and change that phrase to say anything you want. I am not even slighly exaggerating. You could change it to "Happy Holidays from the Time Family" or "Wishing you a Happy New Year" or "Buy Your Snowblower Yet?" (There are some designs whose cover phrases are graphics rather than text, but I've played around a lot on this site, and I can tell you that I've found far more of them that are editable than aren't.) You can upload photos, customize messages, even change the color that the message will be printed in -- and on some cards, even change the font! Here's what I managed in five minutes with that snow card:


Tiny Prints is a company that has figured out what most greeting card companies simply don't get: one size does not fit all when it comes to greeting cards. The only reason I haven't ordered from them yet is that I love too many cards to narrow down. Also, all my pictures of Son and Daughter together include at least one child with crossed eyes. Thankfully, if that's my only problem, Tiny Prints has solved that too by having some card designs with more than one picture on the front. Can't get all your children looking equally great in the same photo? No problem. Just upload two photos, or three, or four depending on the card you choose.

I am planning on ordering not only holiday cards from them this year, but also some personal stationery. I've fallen in love with several of their "thank you" card designs. And because the text boxes on these lovelies are ones I can edit, it will just take me a little tap tap tap on my keyboard to change the line to a monogram or my name. Now I just have to make up my mind between these:


I only wish these images half did justice to the beautiful quality and feel of the actual cards. (I have samples of both of these sitting on my couch as I type.)

Want to know the best part of all this? You can have Tiny Prints for your very own! Oh, so many Tiny Prints. When they contacted me and asked if I would consider reviewing their product, I said I would be willing to consider it if they would provide something for you, dear readers. And here's where I learned how much this company really cares about its customers.

First of all, Tiny Prints is giving one lucky reader a $75 gift card to their store. I KNOW. So generous. And trust me when I say that you will have a hard time narrowing down all the cards you love to make your final choices. They sent me a few samples of different types of cards -- flat, folded, photo cards, invitations, personalized notecards, and even children's thank you notes with fun graphics. The quality is fantastic. They are on heavy stock with that lovely, matte, faintly slick finish that you sometimes find on the covers of very nice paper backs. The paper is appealing to your fingers and takes ink beautifully (oh, yes, I scrawled on a few samples). The graphics are crisp and the photo cards of really superior resolution.

And on top of all this, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that the business development representative who contacted me was beyond patient and kind. He was geniunely interested. We even struck up an email conversation about what people really want in greeting cards: he actually asked me whether I thought something he had read was true: are there inherent gendered differences in what men and women want their cards to say? I'll spare you our discussion but do want to emphasize that this is clearly a company whose philosophy is all about finding out what customers want and need. (Along those lines, the only negative thing I could possibly find to say about them is that it took me a while of playing on the site to figure out that the cards in the "Merry Christmas" section, for example, in fact had editable cover phrases that could be changed to whatever I wanted. The fact that they are so innovative about customizing, letting you do far more than just add your name to their pre-set design should be highlighted more prominently on the site, with clearer indications up front about just how many choices people have. But seriously, the problem is only one of modesty. And a company that doesn't toot its own horn enough about its innovations? That's pretty rare and impressive.)

I also have to tell you that Tiny Prints is just plain awesome in its generosity. The rep offered a giveaway for you, and then at the eleventh hour, when I wasn't sure the large amount had been approved, I suggested that if the company didn't want to turn over a $75 gift card, they might prefer a gift card in a smaller amount plus a little donation to the DonorsChoose site. It was my thought that in October, I could have "Help Our Schools Saturdays" -- putting up review posts of products that I thought you would love that come from companies that are also socially aware.

Know what he said in response?
"At this time, we'd like to move forward with the $75 giveaway, but I will submit an approval for a donation."

Absolutely no kidding. His company believes in the power of word-of-mouth (word-of-blog?) support so much that they still want a lucky one of you to have $75 to try them out AND he will try to add to that with a donation to help out some school children.

Now THAT is a company I want to give business to.

So, here's what you have to do: go to Tiny Prints and browse around. Come back and leave me a comment naming a card you would choose if you won the $75. One card style = one entry in the drawing, and you can't name any of the styles I've shown here. For a second entry into the random drawing for the $75 prize, mention a second card in a different category that you also like. (For example, the first might be a holiday card, the second a thank you note.) That's it. A few minutes of browsing a site I promise you will fall in love with, then back here to leave a comment. Let's see how many comments we can rack up by Monday. I suspect if Tiny Prints gets enough traffic from this post, the kids at some needy school will benefit too. What could be better?

Random drawing for the $75 prize will happen next Friday night (Oct. 10), with the winner announced on the next day's Help Our Schools Saturdays post. (Giveaway has concluded with a winner.)

Cross-posted from Mommy's Martini.