A Personalized Card for Mother's Day

Disclaimer:  I received compensation for this post in the form the personalized card shown in this post.  All views and opinions are mine.

About a month ago, I was introduced to this nifty little business called Cardstore.  Like many online photo and greeting card services, it allows you to personalize pictures in card presets and have printed on high quality paper.  Cardstore, unlike the other services I have used personally, will do several really awesome things.  Besides being able to just personalize the photo, many of  their card presets allow you to change the message inside the card, the fonts and font colors, and one of the coolest options is that they'll mail the card directly to the recipient if you'd like!  

Since Mother's Day is coming up soon, I decided to make a special card for my mom.  

(Hint hint, and since Mother's Day is less than a week away now, the direct mail service could be a great option for many of you who won't be seeing mom this weekend!)

You see, when we get together we often forget to take a picture, but knowing I was planning to make a personalized card I had my husband take a picture for us last time we were all together.

I used a flowery preset that allowed me to change the inside of the card - plus I thought the colors of the card and photo went well together.

The cardstore interface sets up a very creative environment!  

I love the natural background!  The editing options depend on the card - some are more or less lenient with how much of the card you can change.

To start my card, I chose the preset and uploaded my photo.

You can do some very basic edits to the photo in Cardstore, so I rotated the photo and was able to crop in closer to us.  

Then all you have to do is click the next page to start editing!

I always feel weird about using other people's phrases in a card, so I changed most 

This preset allowed us the option of adding a picture to the middle of the page on the left inside, so I used a wedding photo to get a picture of our whole family together!  This is the first time my mom will be a "mother" to more than just one!

I needed to have the card shipped to me so I could take photos for all you lovely readers, however I would love to try the "Mail to the Recipient" option one day!

After submitting my order, I got this fancy little package in the mail!

I always enjoy seeing how things are packaged, so I thought I would share!  The card comes in a nice protective plastic cover, which is great in case it encounters bad weather on the way being mailed.  

The paper quality is wonderful, and I couldn't be happier with the print quality either.  

I do believe when I chose this card it told me the size, however when it came it it was bigger than I expected as well, so that's always a nice surprise. 

Not only was the card beautiful, but the envelope for it was really nice with a gold lining inside, and they also sent several gold seals to use, which really gives the card a nice finished touch.  

The inside of the card looks great too!  You can choose several different font colors, but I decided to keep with black since I used a black and white photo inside.

Overall I was very pleased with the service and the quality of the cards!  

I definitely want to use Cardstore again and try out their direct shipment to the recipient service!

Have you used an online card personalizing service before?  What did you think?!

(P.S. Don't forget that Mothers Day is indeed this weekend!)