Vista Print How I love Thee! Let me count the ways....

If you own a small business or just want to create some fun and FREE mom cards check out www.vistaprint.com. This company has weekly special where they give things away!! I know it sounds crazy, but I use them for EVERYTHING and they are great. I have been figuring out how to really take advantage of their products. For years I have admired how some women have the coolest bow cards for their bows. I wondered how they could afford such nice marketing materials. I would look online and find these great predesigned items- and Whoa Nelly! I knew I could not splurge on those. However necessity can be the mother of invention. I have known about vista print for a while. I have used them for business cards or postcards- that I used in the traditional way with their templates. I would promote things I was doing with my business on the postcards. I was recently needing some more bow cards (which previously I designed and printed and cut and punch all on my own- labor intensive- but cheaper) I really did not like how flimsy my cards were. I was browsing through the free products on Vista and I took another look at the standard size postcards and I realized they would be a great size for my "Over the Top Bows." When I read a little further I realized I could download a template to my Photoshop program. I actually took an online Photoshop class a couple of years ago through out local J.C. with the intention of making my bow pictures look better. Thank goodness I did that because our teacher really focused on all the cool design options you could create in PHTShp. Anyhow long story longer, I use the template to create bow cards. This is a different example of clippie cards that I created but it is the same concept. The best part is when I joined ETSY, I paid a desiger for my logo work (I think it was $20) She used my bow drawing and worked her magic on the rest. Since I paid for all the designs she sent me I can use them on all my marketing materials and it makes my business much more cohesive. Today I was reading through a bow makers blog I belong to and I found another little vista trick. The girls said you can save even more money on shipping by creating two orders. Vista print charges you expontentially more for shipping the more free products you take advantage of. You can however place multiple orders and save a TON on shipping. So today I ordered my banner for the Territorial Days Craft show http://http://www.thechamber.net/cgi-bin/foxweb.dll/wlx/cal/wlxcalemain?cc=PRSCC&sd=05/19/2009&action=next, more business cards, oversized postcards and in a seperate order standard postcards, business cards and a pen. I spent $62.43 total! Not bad for a little ingenuity- and great internet deals thanks to Vista Print!