Birth Announcements

Archived Q&A and reviews ▼

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Inexpensive birth announcements

June 2007

Does anyone have leads for inexpensive birth annoucements? I'm thinking of going with Shutterfly because it's only $0.62 per piece when ordering 75. I want to include a picture. I found some places online that charges $2.50+ per piece and that's a bit too much! New Mama

Try purplestork.com- you can buy 4X6 or 5X7 birth announcements from them, or have them create the design only, and then print them cheaply yourself wherever you print your pictures. I had a really good experience with them- I chose the ''Cole'' model-I sent purple stork about 10 pictures, and emailing back and forth about 6 times to get it just right, ended up using 6 of the photos. The emailing was always quick, it only took maybe 2 days to get it right, and then I had the photo announcements printed myself at Ritzpix.com, and picked them up the same day- I had a really good time with purplestork and the ritz on solano in berkeley. Have fun with your new baby! http://www.purplestork.com/Photo-birth-announcements.html purple stork fan
We had birth announcement postcards made by printsmadeeasy.com. It cost about $35 including shipping for 100 cards. Postcards stamps are cheaper, too. It was very simple to upload a photo and design both sides of the card using the easy software right on the site. The print quality was great. We were very happy with them as announcements and they were a hit with our family & friends. We were so pleased we did the same thing for our Christmas cards and plan to continue to do so. anonymous
We used shutterfly and were very pleased. I think everyone likes to get a picture as opposed to just info or a footprint. They have several varieties, from postcards to fold-over cards and tons of designs. They are also really fast and convenient. anon

Where to get birth announcements?

Dec 2006

Where's the best place to get birth announcements? Georgina

Bekki at BZB Designs does really beautiful birth announcements. For full disclosure, she is also my friend, but even if she weren't I'd still recommend her because she is super professional and kind and receptive to input. She has a lot of samples on her website, bzbdesigns.com Emelie
One fun and pretty easy option is to create your own birth announcements at one of the online photo processing sites--we used shutterfly.com and were very happy with the results. That way you can incorporate a photo into the announcements and don't have do double-duty inserting a snapshot into each one. Congratulations on your new little one!

Creative birth announcements

Aug 2006

I'm looking for someone (a graphic designer?) to help put together a beautiful and creative birth announcement...the initial idea is for a trifold ''brochure style'' using a series of photographs (one of mom pregnant, then the couple, then the babies.) I found a few names in the archives but they were all about work related projects...has anyone worked with a designer to put something like this together?

Dee-Jade Chock, who used to be do graphic design where I work, now does freelance assignments on the side. She did an absolutely gorgeous invitation for my three year old's birthday party. contact her at deejade[at]mac.com Jennifer
Try my friend Erica. She does fabulous work! Everyone that has seen her work has used her and loved her. She is also very reasonably priced. Here are examples of her work. (Though, these pictures really don't do them justice): http://www.ifthesecardscouldtalk.com/index.cfm?act=products=15=15 She will work to your needs and wants. She is also one of the nicest persons you will ever meet! Her contact infor is: questions[at]ifthesecardscouldtalk.com Cathy
I highly recommend Emily Reilly for graphic design work, especially birth announcements and wedding invitations. http://www.reillysdesigns.com/

Birth announcement ideas - creative but low-cost

July 2003

We are excited about the coming of our first child. But we have not pick out the style and format of birth announcement yet. One idea is to have foot ink in the birth annoucement. With a foot stamper, I can place baby's foot on the stamper and then on cards. Does any one know where I can buy a foot stamper? Or any other ideas of birth announcement (creative but less expensive) are welcome. Thanks a lot. fumbling mom-to-be

perhaps an ink-pad from a stationary store, like the one on College Ave near Ashby, would work. You could create a single foot-print, then have it copied on to heavy-weight paper that could then be cut into separate announcements for friends. Maybe you could even use food coloring to get the initial foot=print so that the foot is not left with an ink residue. anon
Hi, Having just gone through this, and wanting to do something ''creative'' as well... my advice is DON'T EVEN TRY! Unless you're very efficient and have the invitations pre-addressed, stamped, and ready for Baby's footprint they will just add to the piles of unattended-to chores once your hands are full with the newborn.

My advice, beyond the witty bulk e-mail announcement, would be a newborn photo announcement printed through ofoto or a similar service. Make it as easy on yourself as possible... the less you have to write the happier you will be! J

OK, so this idea will only work if you have a computer nerd in the family, but...

When my daughter was born, we made a CD. Her name is Maud, so we burned a CD with the theme song to the 70s Bea Arthur TV show ''Maude''...then we recorded my husband and I speaking after the song giving the details of her birth...it was a big hit and was really cheap! Amy

For Baby # 1 we bought a non-toxic, roll-on ink, then inked his feet and stamped them on the paper. We have some fairly hilarious photos of doing this while he was totally asleep. We then photocopied them onto high-quality card stock with a message we had designed on our word processor. Total cost--about $15, not including stamps.
Your idea about the baby's foot impression is creative and fun! If you want to save some money, why not take the original print and scan it into a computer, then make digital copies and send out an ''Evite'' or some other computer generated FREE ''Welcome Baby to the World'' type card to your email friendly friends. For others on your list, who do not have email access, you can send something through snail mail. Card Maker
I just had adorable (and inexpensive) birth announcements done. It was remarkably easy- I worked by email (or phone and mail, if you wish) with a woman named Emily. While Emily is more than willing to implement your own design and use paper, etc. of your choosing, I had Emily chose the paper, font, and layout for my announcement because, not only do I trust her design skills and eye, I really didn't have the time or energy to do those things myself during my baby's first month! She gave me options and I OKayed everything. All I had to do was email (or send, of course) a favorite photo of baby and important stats. Emily also does Christmas cards, party invitations, etc. You can contact her at EWHOTT at YAHOO.COM. (Oh, and I must mention that she addressed the envelopes for me!! Perfect handwriting- and again, what a timesaver!!) Molly
Newborn feet are smaller than you probably realize - any ink pad you find at any office/stationary/craft supply store will do. Hint Stamp several. Pick a few you like, cut and paste onto an 8.5 x11 piece of paper and photocopy it as many as needed. Cut those out and paste onto nice paper, either as a card or postcard (needs to be heavier if latter). For the relevant info, type in a nice font and do the same with the photocopying as the footprint. Ellen
I think that Martha Stewart Baby had an issue or two with very cute and creative birth announcement ideas. I have back issues if you would like copies. scrunchmeep
Kids' stores have non-toxic stamp pads you could use. Another idea is to get interesting postcards from bookstores and giftshops as announcement cards (25-80 cents each). If you have an online photo service like snapfish.com or ofoto.com, you can send in a roll to be developed, choose your favorite photo and have it converted into cards or postcards. Can't remember prices, but it's pretty economical. They'll also print the addresses, stamp the cards and mail them for you, which would be a real time saver! I just had a baby in March and did email notification with attached photos. To those without email, I sent notices in the mail. I looked around a bit and found Piedmont Stationers on Piedmont Ave. had birth announcement cards I really liked. My all-time favorite store-bought cards are made by Sarah Midda, which you could use to write on one side and put a footstamp on the other. (To view, you can look it up on Amazon.com. I've only seen them sold in one store around here--a baby store a couple blocks south of Chez Panisse on Shattuck.) new mom
I just had a baby 2 months ago and we made our own announcements with her foot print. We drew pictures and did the lettering on the computer (cut and pasted by hand), then made her footprint with a nontoxic ink pad we purchased at Rockridge Kids for about 2 dollars. She had a blue tint to her foot for a few days but rubbing alcohol does take it off. We bought paper and envelopes that matched at Office Depot and ran off copies at Copy Central (7.00 for over 100). The whole process was easy becasue we did as much as possible before she was born including addresses on the envelopes. Then we filled in the date and info on her and foot print and mad ethe copies. very cheap and easy and everyone loved them. Linda
We sent out photo cards from Costco -- about $20 for 50 cards, plus postage. Very well received; everyone likes to see the new arrival. Also required minimal writing and effort on my part, which was critical when we were first home. Stamping a baby's foot over and over (if you have as big a family as ours!) would have been exhausting (cute, though). And I don't know if the ink would be OK for a newborn's skin.

One caveat about the Costco cards check and make sure they all look OK; we got a couple that were streaky and weird looking. Sara

All the other postings sound terrific, but one little thing I would add is that when I get a birth announcement, no matter how clever it is.... what I really want to see is a picture of the baby. A really great picture of a newborn baby is the best thing to find in my mailbox. patricia
We took the footprint that the hospital made to a rubber stamp shop on University Avenue and had a rubber stamp made. We used that to make our announcements. It was very inexpensive, didn't involve putting ink on our baby and our daughter now has a wonderful keepsake (the rubber stamp). When your child is old you can make his/her hand as well. GREAT FUN! Shoshana
lakeshore parent teacher store(Walnut Crk & San Leandro) has non toxic ink pads. anon
If you want to do the footprint idea, I've heard that crushed frozen blueberries work as well as ink but don't stain as badly and are certainly cheaper than ink.

I've also seen announcements where someone decorated a onesie with fabric markers with all the birth information, then took a picture of the child in the onesie and mailed out copies of the picture.

What ever you do, don't make it stressful for you, you'll have enough stress in those first few weeks! Julie

Non-pastel, non-ribbony birth announcements

Nov 1999

We are looking for birth announcements without ribbons and pastels. We like bright colours instead (Miffy like) but we don't know where to find these. Any suggestions? Heleen

We did our own birth announcements using our own computer. If you go to somewhere like Papyrus, or the stationary store on Piedmont nr the Yoga Center (I think its called Greetings?)you can find some really cute paper (8/5 X 11.5) with colorful borders that are baby-like. They come in packs of 50 or so, and are very reasonably priced. They usually have matching envelopes too. There are also more expensive, vellum types too.... Once you come up with the announcement, it is really easy just to print a batch out. Hilary
We ordered ours through Papyrus. They have a number of stores in the city and I think some in the East Bay too. They had a huge selection, many with bright colors (which we preferred too) and were great about having the order all ready to go so that we could just call in with the details once the baby was born. Ann
I, too, was looking for birth announcements that weren't so frilly and busy. I found some great paper at Ideal Office Products in Mill Valley, but I've seen these at other reasonably large stationery stores all over the place. Anne Geddes (the woman who takes those great pictures of babies in fruit baskets, etc.) makes some very adorable (without being too cutesy) paper with simple borders or designs that you can print directly on to with a regular laser or inkjet printer. You can get sheets that have a perforation in the middle, so that you end up with two 4x5.5 cards, or you can get full-size sheets (they come with envelopes). There are lots and lots of designs (not just Anne Geddes) so you can really be as simple or as elaborate as you wish. We used a really nice font from MS Word to type a simple message with her name, time of birth, weight, etc. You could also color xerox a photo, or add additional clip art, etc. The best part was that it ended up being much cheaper than either pre-printed birth announcements or cards made up by a specialty printer. And we could personalize them just how we wanted. Have fun! Gretchen

We had ours done at Papyrus on College Avenue. No ribbons, no pastels, not too formal. They have anything you may want there. Linda
Stacy Claire Boyd out of Birmingham, Alabama is a graphic artist who does lovely birth announcements, many in bright colors and fun themes (taxis, sailboats, fire engines, etc.) Papyrus on Grand Avenue (and maybe all Papyri) represented her. Good luck. Christy