The Perfect Christmas Card & Moving Announcement in One

*This post is sponsored by Minted and referral links are used. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not impacted in any way by Minted’s sponsorship.*

I broke the news earlier this week that I’m starting the process to buy my first house! Not only am I looking into buying a house, I moved into a new apartment in February, but the complex only allowed for a 10 month lease. So either way, I would need address update cards and Christmas cards this December.

Because buying a new home is so exciting, I really want high quality moving announcements. I also love getting creative, unique and high quality Christmas/Holiday/New Years cards, despite the fact that I don’t always get my own cards in the mail on time. The number one place to get high quality, personalized and unique cards, in my opinion, is Minted.

While I was looking through their options, I discovered the top 5 features I look for when picking out a card that is the perfect Christmas card and moving announcement in one!

1) Multipurpose

Before I started this partnership with Minted, I expected to have to buy a couple boxes of moving announcements and a couple boxes of Christmas cards. This is twice the effort picking out a cute card, twice the money on stamps, twice the time writing everyone’s address out, and twice the likelihood that I’ll just get overwhelmed and three years from now those cards will be in my Christmas decoration box, never sent.

I can’t even tell you how many Christmas cards I never sent, or how many times I had to buy “Happy New Year!” cards because I missed the mailing time frame for Christmas. This will be my 30th Christmas (ouch) so it’s time for me to get my life together and actually send those babies out.

Luckily! Minted has themed cards. You can get your Christmas Card themed for a new home, new marriage, new baby, religious focused or pet themed! How perfect is that? As a single, childless woman, I really appreciate when companies recognize that not everyone needs a Christmas card from “the family.” A new home theme will allow me to send ONE card that meets two purposes: a wonderful holiday wish and an exciting new announcement in my life!

2) A Branded Presentation

Maybe I’ve been blogging for too long, but a branded presentation is important to me when I send cards. That’s why for weddings and birthdays I will consistently pay more for papyrus cards that have a perfectly matching envelope and a cute sticker for the back, than the $1.99 drug store brand cards.

Minted has released these super cute themed envelopes this year and they’re included for FREE with your purchase! You can select the one Minted created for your card, or choose a different one if it fits your style or desires better.

Now, not only will the recipients of your card feel the value in the card itself, but the envelope will be just as luxe. This is a huge bargain!

3) Convenient Shipping

You can also elect to have Minted pre-address the envelopes for you! It doesn’t get much better than that! As a single woman who works full time, I don’t have a lot of free time to sit around addressing envelopes. I also don’t have a spouse or kids I can rope into helping me, like my mom did. If you do have a spouse, you probably have twice as many holiday activities to go to over the next two months than I do. And if you have kids, you might not want pb&j fingers all over your cards.

But if you’re like me, you value the look of high end products and love the idea that you cards will arrive with a crisp, professional look without the crisp, professional price tag!

One thing that I think is super cool is that you can send an address request directly to people via email or facebook, with a special link where they can add their address into your Minted address book. You can also put it all in an excel spreadsheet and upload that spread sheet.  I love it! If only this kind of service existed when I sent my high school, college and law school graduation announcements. *crossed out eyes emjoi here* (ps. you can get those kinds of announcements at minted too!)

4) A Personalized Message

I always love getting yearly update letters in people’s Christmas cards, but feel a little silly writing a whole page about myself. (I recognize this seems silly since I have a whole blog about myself, but most of those people don’t know that. haha) You can also change many of the messages to say “my new home” instead of “our.” Wahoo!

Each card has the option of being a single sheet or a folded card. I plan to buy the single sheet option. This gives me the opportunity to pick a clean, chic card like the one above, and then add a photo and an update about what amazing blessings the last year has brought me right on the back!

Plus, several of the cards have the option to change the holiday greeting!  Are you big on using the word Christmas? Do you want a Happy Holidays note instead? You can switch them out!

This is good for my current purpose as well, because “Happy New Year” is an option on many cards as well! If this home buying process doesn’t go quickly, or if I end up having to move apartments, that will happen toward the end of the month and I can send “Happy New Year” cards instead, with all of the same features as the Christmas cards!

5) A High Quality Appearance that I can Frame for Later

Minted lets you personalize all kinds of things about your card. Like you can see in the screen shot in #3 above, you can change the colors. This isn’t just the background color. You can also change the color of the houses! How perfect is that, especially for a brand new home?

You can also select extra features like gold foil accents, nicer paper and even have a card that’s at the top of this year’s trends like rose gold or neon prints! How fun is that?? An absolutely amazing feature that they are releasing any day now is the option of a completely custom card. That card transforms your own drawing or photograph into a luxe card in a portrait, silhouette, line drawing or map! Incredible!

I don’t plan to make a fully custom card (see above where if I have too many options or tasks, I don’t send them at all). But if I do close on a house in time, I do plan to pick a high quality card, personalized for my new home, that I can frame in a hallway somewhere as a wonderful memory of my first Christmas there. That’s a milestone that I don’t think should end up in the “Christmas Cards 2015” envelope I’ll inevitably create and then put into my Christmas decorations box with years 2004-2014. I think this is a great idea for any of your themes! What a cute way to preserve baby’s first Christmas, right?

So those are my top five priorities for this year’s Christmas card and moving announcement in one. Are you interested in getting your next card on Minted? I have great news, if you’ve never registered at Minted before and spend at least $50, using this link will give you a $25 credit on your first order!

Is there something you think I’m missing? Have you found your perfect card on Minted? Let’s talk about it in the comments!