Homemade Cards, Expat Style

We celebrated Mother's Day (or Mothering Sunday) back in March, but when American Mother's Day rolled around, I knew I wanted to send personalized cards to my mom and my G'ma.  I ended up running late with getting the card done and was scrambling to make cards when Ross had a genius idea.

I was putting the card together by hand when Ross pointed out that there must surely be a company that would do a custom card on the internet and mail it straight to my loved ones- and all for less than just mailing a card from here would cost!  A cute professional looking card that would get there more quickly and for less?!! Well, duh!  So I hoped on Shutterfly...

(Sidenote:  I've looked all over the internet for a company that does similar stuff in the UK to no avail.  I love Shutterfly and there doesn't seem to be an equivalent here.  I wanted to order birth announcements, but couldn't find a company that would let me upload to an existing cute template.  There's Vistaprint, but their templates aren't as good so you have to do the design yourself and I'm not that gifted...  So does anyone know of a great resource that I'm missing?)

...and uploaded some cuteness.

I started with this image for the front of the card.

I used some red paint to do Linus' footprints and joined them at the bottom so they looked like a heart.  I wrote "I love you!" across the bottom and Ross scanned it in for me.  For the inside top of the card, I wrote a little poem:

I've got two bright eyes,

a sweet mouth, and a nose.

But I've got one thing that's better

(as every boy knows),

and that's a Grandma/Great-G'ma who loves me

right down to my toes!

See what I did there?  I tied in the footprints with the "right down to my toes" thing... clever, right?  What can I say.  It's a gift. ;)  For the inside bottom of the card I uploaded three super cute pics of Linus and put "Happy Mother's Day!" across the bottom.

The on the back I included a little picture of all 3 of us and the words "Lots and lots of love from Meg, Ross, and Linus".

From a little photoshoot we did when Linus was one month old

Needless to say, the cards were a BIG hit!  Both Grandma and Great-G'ma loved them which made me so happy.  I was able to send them quality cards with a personalized touch and for just about $4 each- including postage.  Ross and I discussed it and I think we may well send a monthly update card to my G'ma.  Since she doesn't have the internet ("It's too dangerous to go on the internet in San Antonio because it's so close to Mexico."  She's hilarious!) it would be a great way to update her with pictures and Linus' development and I'm pretty sure it would make her exceedingly happy.  

So, hooray for having a great option for sending awesome cards and for finally having a reason to use Shutterfly!*

*It goes without saying that I am not affiliated with Shutterfly and they don't know a thing about little old me. I just get excited about cute custom printed stationery :)

How do you keep in touch with non-internet savvy family members when you're far apart?