I recently ordered holiday cards from OvernightPrints.com and today I want to share my thoughts on the process and the quality of the cards.
The verdict: I like ’em!
I ordered fifty 5 x 7 two-sided postcards. With shipping and a promotional discount the total came to $27.50
The process was very simple. After I finished my card and saved it as a JPEG file, I clicked on their postcards tab and followed the instructions. (Note: I made that little reindeer pattern using the art from the card template set.)
I will admit that I was a little surprised that they arrived in a padded envelope, not shrink-wrapped together, so some of the corners were a little bent. I’m chalking that up to a small order size. But overall, the quality? Really decent.
Then I realized what I paid last year for this little number from Minted:
65 cards for $107.00 (that included a promotional discount and envelopes). True, the Minted quality is superb. The paper, print and attention to detail are top notch.
But I went to my local paper shop and picked up 50 paper bag envelopes for $11.99, bringing the total for this year’s card to $39.49.
I’m totally down with saving some money, especially for something that most people are going to toss at the end of the season. Plus, I think they look great!
I also ordered 25 of the 3-in-1 cards from Artifact Uprising that I will be using this year as well, but those were a freebie from AU, whom I have a great business relationship with. (The cost for those would have been $55 plus shipping, still coming out to a grand total that was less than I spent last year.)
All in all, I’m really happy with OvernightPrints.com and would use them again without a second thought.
You can order my card template set (with matching newsletter template) here, on sale today for 40% off as part of the Designer Digitals Quarterly Sale. Not sure how to use a layered template? I’ve got a video that walks you through how to use the cards.
CZ Design Digitals: How to use my Holiday Cards + News Templates from Cathy Zielske on Vimeo.
SAVE MORE WITH OVERNIGHT VIA EBATES: OvernightPrints.com is part of Ebates.com, earning you 6% back on purchases. Just found this out from comments below and thought I’d share!
SAVE ON MY COLLECTION Save 40% throughout the store at Designer Digitals as part of our 4th Quarter Sale. Shop my collection here. If you’ve got holiday stuff on the brain, be sure to check out my Merry Hipmas designs for 2014 here.
COMING TOMORROW: Free card journaling templates (for use with my Merry Hipmas journal cards) + a video tutorial on how to use them.
SPEAKING OF THE HOLIDAYS… You can still order my Cool Yule Stamp Set from Studio Calico. It would add some festive fun to your Christmas cards or projects.
heidig says
Thanks for the review! The cost is right up my alley. I love what you did on the back. I may have to snag that idea. Thanks Cathy.
CarlajinAr says
love it! Always on the lookout for product comparisions
Susan Piepol says
If I got a card from you, I wouldn’t toss it out! I tend to use snapfish.com for mine. 50% off and free shipping. Same reason, most people spend a minute looking at the card, then it goes into a pile.
Karen S says
Love the card! Just a money-saving note — ebates has a 6.5% cash back offer from overnight prints.
Suzy says
Great review! I’ll have to look into them. I like the idea of postcards. I wouldn’t worry too much about the bent corners. They’ll likely get bent again while traveling through the mail. 😉 No one will be the wiser. (And I second ebates!!! Love saving money when I shop online!)
Cathy Zielske says
I have never even heard of debates! Will have to check it out!
Leora says
HI Cathy! I LOVE your card. Since you first posted it, I have been scheming about how we can pull off something similar. Of course, this would mean having the four of us all in one place…
I do have a technical question related to the photo shoot. How the #$#@#$#!#$ did you pull that off. Were people standing on chairs? Did you Photoshop? Did you use a timer? Inquiring minds (and good friends) want to know…
Thanks for sharing,
Leora
Cathy Zielske says
Leora, we just all leaned in and Aidan’s boyfriend snapped ONE photo.
I have a post from last week that does mention the Photoshop involved.
heidig says
testing…
Cathy Zielske says
It’s working! 🙂
Joanna says
I ordered designer cards from tiny prints a few years back and the cards were beautiful, but pricey ($50-60 for 30 cards and they screwed up and sent me the wrong size envelopes which would have increased the postage charges). I got a better deal designing my own cards and printing them at persnickety prints – they had an option to upload your own card and they printed on a nice weight of paper and came with envelopes too. I think they cost about $27 for 25 cards.
The very cheapest way to do it is to print them out as photos at the local drugstore, but one year I did that I had a heck of a time finding envelopes the right size – who knew 4×6″ envelopes were so rare? The photo counter lady gave me a bunch of envelopes for free the following year. Of course those cards are photo paper weight, which I didn’t like (but a lot of the cheapo photo cards from certain big chain stores are anyway).
I think I’ll take a look at overnightprints this year and do a cost comparison. Thanks for the rec.
Cathy Zielske says
I didn’t know Persnickety offered that as a service. Thanks for pointing that out! I love their quality.
Joanna says
It’s a little tricky to navigate their website but you can upload a completed card design and/or add frou-frou on their site (I think) http://orders.persnicketyprints.com/Photo-Greeting-Cards/Preview.aspx/Blank
Tami says
Your card is AWESOME! Simple and clean, just like your stlye! By the way, where did you get the art from your card from last year, that is equally adorable and I don’t remember seeing that.
Cathy Zielske says
Tami, I had it done at Minted last year!
Chris says
yeah, i started building a card on minted and went to check out and saw the cost for just 25 cards and said no effing way!! for the exact reason you said… so i went to shutterfly and paid next to nothing with a promo code. they were in shrink wrap and in a box, so they were in perfect shape. my cards are 5×7 and with surprisingly heavy envelopes.
chris
Christine K. says
I love both cards. Thanks for the review.
Outi says
I have a very humble request. Could you create small Stamp Sets that have no words at all? Since I scrapbook in Finnish, I can’t or don’t want to use English words (and don’t want to buy those kinds of stamps). I would be most grateful, and I think many others who speak and use different languages than English would also be grateful. – And it is even our month to be grateful! 🙂
Cathy Zielske says
Outi, do you mean physical stamp sets, like the one show in this post? I have only two sets to date that I’ve had made into actual sets. 🙂 I’m not a seasoned product designer for the physical products. Always good to keep this stuff in mind while I create. 🙂
Kathleen says
I just received my Studio Calico order last night with your holiday stamps and I danced around the room. I love them! I’m feeling Merry and bright already/ thanks so much!
Camie says
After seeing your review I promptly purchased, downloaded and used your card design to make my Christmas card! Love the designs! I uploaded and ordered at Overnight Prints and just received my order today. The printing itself looks great, but they totally botched the cutting job. There’s more of a border of white on the right than the left and the bottom of the cards is completely crooked. On every. single. one. of my hundred cards. I’ve emailed them to see if they will reprint – just wondering if anyone else has had this issue?
Cathy Zielske says
First of all, that is not good to hear, so I’m sorry for that. I would assume they will replace all the cards. They seem like a company with good customer service. Please let me know what the outcome is. All of my cards trimmed perfectly. That was not an issue.
Martha says
I tried to use these guys to order some business cards because I heard good things about them (fast, cheap, decent quality)…but then they tried to charge me $30+ to ship 50 business cards to Alaska. Yeah, I live on the moon…but there are other ways to get things here besides FedEx Overnight shipping! A team of dogs would have been fine…and much cheaper 😉
Cathy Zielske says
That’s a crazy amount! Wow. Sorry to hear that!
Camie says
Cathy –
Just thought you’d like to know how my process went to resolve my Overnight Prints order being cut incorrectly. They were very quick to respond to my inquiry about my order. They asked that I send pictures of a few samples of my order, which I did. Last Friday they sent me this email…
Dear,
Thank you for your email. In reviewing your order I see that a border has occurred on the order.
No compensation is offered for any of below items, such as incorrect file submission in accordance with our specifications, duplicate orders, customer misunderstandings of turnaround time, slight color variances within four color (CMYK) industry standards for pleasing color, disregard for cutting and folding tolerances within stated limits on the website, undeliverable packages/3rd delivery attempts or refusal or delivery and orders returned without an RMA.
Blank Card
Border
Incorrect card orientation
Crop Marks
Folding Out of Spec
Hard to Read
Inverted Stamp File
Mini Image
Missing Logo
No Text
Not Full Bleed
Colors out of the CMYK color gamut. Please reference Section 3.
Text or important images out of the safe zone
Pixilation
Visible Template Lines
Files with rounded corners designed into image
Print As Is
We appreciate your business and hope you choose Overnight Prints in the future for all your printing needs. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions. Remember to include all previous correspondence and your invoice number when contacting Overnight Prints.
Thank you,
Mireya
I was a little unclear about what that meant so I called them. I spoke with Mireya who was the person who sent the email. She proceeded to tell me that since my card had a border on it that they would not fix my order. I tried my best to explain that the problem with my order had nothing to do with a border on the design of the card but that the cards were actually cut crookedly and therefore not only is the card crooked, but the rounded corners are not “round” on all four corners. I can put the cards in my paper trimmer and see right away that just the bottom edge of the card has been cut unevenly.
Long story short…they will not fix my order. Even if my card had no border, they give themselves a 1/16 in. leeway in cutting, so basically they are saying they don’t care if they cut things unevenly. What???!
Boo.
Cathy Zielske says
Hey Camie, just sent you an email.
I feel really badly about this. I would not have promoted a company whose work I was not happy with. This is unacceptable to me.