The holidays are stressful, especially for those of us who have kids + a bazillion other things to think about. This time of the year adds office parties, get-togethers with family, and childrens’ pageants to our already full schedules
Oh, and did I mention I’m getting married in three less-than-three weeks? Ack! Extra holiday stress!
Last year I blogged about how stressful preparing and sending holiday cards was for me. This year I jumped at the chance for a little customized help by reviewing Minted.com for the Parent Bloggers Network.� After all, how crazy could I be to pass up the opportunity to review personalized holiday cards from a new site with “the freshest designs on paper“?
The Minted.com website was a real joy to visit and use. I loved the minimalistic site-design that incorporates just enough color on the page’s crisp, white background to make the real stars of the show – the designs, themselves – really ‘pop’. Navigating the site was exceptionally easy and I was impressed that my session didn’t once time-out… no matter how many times I clicked forward and back while looking at designs multiple times.
It was nearly impossible to choose only one design to order – Minted has over 150 sophisticated flat and folded holiday photo card designs, not including the wedding and birth announcements, too! The designs offered can be customized to fit every occasion, no matter what holiday one might celebrate. They offer both flat and folded designs with a choice of blank, “year line,” or “letter” formats. One can order as few as 25 cards for only $67 or as many as their heart desires. Minted also offers add-on services, including custom design, calligraphy, and hand-addressing of envelopes.
I finally chose the Simple Charm Holiday Card by Guess What? (a flat card) because I liked having the ability to customize the greeting in the embellishment above the photo, as well as the salutation below. Since the photo I used of The Kidlet on the card isn’t a very ‘typical’ holiday image, the wispy lines and colors of the Simple Charm card went together perfectly, making the card unique and sweet in it’s simplicity.
Selecting quantities, entering my shipping and billing information, and finalizing my order was a breeze. Having placed my order over a weekend, I received prompt confirmation on the following Monday and a proof of my card to approve. What awesome service and a quick turn-around time to get a jump on the holiday card season!
However, after having not one single problem to this point (the usability of the site and the beauty of the designs were such a dream) I ran into a big “oops”.
After 3 weeks (and my scheduled review of Minted upon me) I still hadn’t received my order, or any further communication from Minted. It took several emails between myself and PBN and several added days before my cards were ‘found’. They were quickly over-nighted to me, only to arrive in a 12″x9″x8″ box, stuffed to excess with packing material, my small order of 25 cards nestled deep in the middle.
The cards themselves were beautiful, but even though they were printed on “100% post-consumer recycled paper” the amount of waste in the shipping and packing material cancelled out any “green-er” value they might have held.
Not wanting to ruin a review over a problem I might not fully understand, PBN put me in direct communication with Kate, the Merchandising Manager at Minted. Kate personally called me and talked me through what had happened. She followed-up with an email to me, giving permission to quote her explanation of how Minted dropped the ball, what they did about it, and what they were willing to do to uphold their promised “100% satisfaction guarantee.” Kate said,
“We recently switched to a printer who can accommodate printing on thicker (130lb.), eco-friendly paper. Unfortunately the day we posted your order to press was the day we switched to a new system. It seems that your order didn’t post correctly, and neither [Minted] nor the printer realized that it wasn’t placed in the printing queue.”
“[To prevent this from happening in the future] we are now printing order receipt confirmations to ensure this doesn’t happen to any new orders.”
“We hired trained graphic designers to ensure the end product is a fresh, high quality card you can be proud of. I would appreciate an opportunity to make this mistake up to you…”
Because of the excellent response I received once the flap was discovered, I can’t help but feel as though my experience with Minted was a unique one in that I don’t feel my order was misplaced or forgotten on purpose.
Had I been a paying customer, Kate at Minted would’ve offered to give me some additional cards or other add-ons for free to make good on the 100% satisfaction guarantee. In fact, even though I wasn’t a paying customer, Kate still offered to give me more cards or customized address labels on Minted’s dime.
Due to the restrictions I have regarding reviews and monetary or product compensation, I had to politely decline. However, we worked out a sweet giveaway for you, my blog readers, instead!
Minted will give away 100 holiday cards to 1 reader of my blog!*
To participate, all you need to do is
1. Click here,
2. Visit Minted’s holiday cards and
3. Tell me (by name!) which card you would customize for your family, and why.
Leave your answer in a comment below, include a valid email address, and a link to your blog (if you have one.)
Awesome! Way to save the day, Minted – you can bet I’ll be back next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and…
* Giveaway does not include shipping charges. If your entry is chosen, it will be your responsibility to order cards within an appropriate time frame to receive them for holiday mailing, etc. Please contact Krissi should you have questions. Giveaway will close to entries at midnight Eastern on Tuesday, November 25th.
© 2008, Krissi Bates-Billings. (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
What an awesome giveaway! I’d get the float + chi season Holiday Card – it’s so pretty!
Sorry I don’t have a blog but I could sure use 100 free Christmas cards!! I loved the Peace on Earth holiday card with the letter. I liked the swirly lines and the round picture spot…my kids picture looked really great in that card. I liked the fact I could print our newsletter in the card…save me one extra step. Hope to hear from you that I won. Happy Holidays!
i like the Seasonal Classic.
It’s really hard to pick!
Great way to make lemonade out of lemons.
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I love the Home for the Holidays photo card. I love that it will work for family as well as the school bus driver. I believe this card will be perfect with a black and white picture of our children.
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I liked Merriness in the Streets and Float + Peace. Great idea!
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Great Giveaway! I would love to have the Euphoric Cards! Thanks.
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Hi Krissi! Well, I have to admit what drew me to your blog was the PBN post saying you have a special 100 holiday card giveaway from Minted! I’ve actually been lagging on the holiday card front and need to start pronto! :)
So, if chosen, I’d love to win the Twilight Magic Holiday Card by Cococello, with the year timeline inside! I’ve always enjoyed doing something a bit more personal with my holiday cards, and now that we have a baby, I feel like I need to add a few pictures with the greeting as well (I’ve found some beautiful “regular” holiday cards but I keep wanting to throw a pic or two of us in with the package). I’m drawn to the idea of the year timeline since it keeps to 4 short and sweet events, rather than a long one (or two, or three?!?) page letter for people to pore over. Just my style for a supremely busy new (and working) mom.
I’m really drawn to the elegance and simplicity of the design itself. It’s also generic enough that we can send to all of our Jewish, Christian, Atheist, etc. friends alike, without making any loud statements. And, doesn’t conflict with any of our own belief systems (we’re actually buddhist)!
I’d love it if you considered us for this giveaway!! And, our circle of friends and family will no doubt appreciate it as well. :)
thx,
bree
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I would choose the euphoric holiday card in gravy, white sage and chocolate. i love everything chocolate lately. The simple design is nice too, not too destracting.
I really like the Loving Trees Holiday Card by JMHickerson Designs
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I love the Holiday Nostalgia Holiday Card because it’s so clean and simple and exactly what I need during this crazy time of life I’m in.
Cool giveaway!
I’m partial to the Lia Hanukkah card by Wiley Valentine.
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How do i choose just one? I really like:
float + joy Holiday Card by Float Paperie
They are all nice though. Thanks for the contest :) Zoe
I would love the Twilight Magic Holiday Card!
I really loved all the designs…it was hard to choose a favorite, but I did.
I liked the “Swirls amd Warmth Holiday Card” by Notably Krystal…so great for the pic I have of my son and family.
This is such a nice giveaway for the holidays….I would love to send these cards to all my family and friends. :)
I’ve entered this giveaway at the message board at my site–hope that’s okay with you
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I really enjoy the Miller Holiday Card by Wiley Valentine. I love the timeline centerfold that allows you to add some unique pictures inside. I haven’t ever seen anything like that before in a Christmas card! I also think that the classic design would really highlight a new studio portrait we had done of our 2-yr-old daughter. Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
I would customize the Paris holiday card. What drew me to that one was the large size of the photo!
Great giveaway!
I absolutely LOVE the Lia Holiday Card! It is just beautiful! I asked my two year old which one he liked te best and he chose the same one, so I guess that’s it for sure!!
They are all so pretty and I appreciate the chance to win!
I’d like to order Harris Holiday photo card. They color and design looks so unique and exquisite.
donna
I would choose the snowflake tree but it was hard choosing. They are so cute. How fun!
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We chose the Warmest Wishes,Oscar+Emma Design. I feel that this design reflects us as a family and our ideals.
This is a tough choice. I’d choose either the Sweet Memories or Falling Holiday. I like that both have such beautiful colors and simplicity.
My husband’s family is Jewish and my family is Christian, so it’s hard to find a good holiday card that won’t offend one of the families. Most cards look very Christmas-y, and we really don’t like having to make two different cards for different families. A simple, elegant design that sums it all up works well for us. Both of these designs fit – I’d choose whichever one our picture looked best with.
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I like float + feliz because it has the greetings in so many different languages it would appeal to everyone that received it.
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These are all gorgeous cards. I think I’d pick the Polka Dot Baker Holiday Card. Normally, I wouldn’t go for a card that includes a letter but this year we moved into a new home. I’d use the letter portion to give friends and family our new address so that the cards could do double duty as Christmas and change of address cards. I’ll all about killing two birds with one stone, especially during the busy holiday season!
I’d pick the Snowflake Tree Holiday Card by Pixie Stick Press, with the Yearline inside. It’s just a beautiful, simple and elegant card and I *love* brown and blue together.
Thanks for the contest!!
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I would pick the float + best wishes Holiday Card with the yearline inside. What a great idea!
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I pray for peace on earth, year round. I also have many friends and family members that don’t celebrate Christmas, so each year I buy cards that say Peace or Peace on Earth, never anything specific to Christmas, though I send them out in time for the holiday. I also have taken to include a type of newsletter updating people on what has taken place the past year and any upcoming wonderful things for myself and my family.
My favorite card on Minted.com is Peace on Earth It’s simple and relays my sentiment for the entire year.
Hope I win! I would love to send these cards out to everyone I love.
Great idea – such a lovely idea, arranging to give away these cards instead of keeping them or simply writing it all off.
I’d love the holiday nostalgia holiday card, and already know (I think) which picture I’d use!
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Got here via PBN… if chosen I would love the Twilight Magic card or the Holiday Nostalgia one- both stuck out to me immediately as something I could be proud of sending out!
This is a great giveaway and I
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