Today’s post is multi-purpose I’m going to show off my printed cards and give you a chance to win them. I’m also going to be doing a review on having your printable cards printed at Viovio. I first created these free printable cards as a gift for our Facebook fans. Users had the opportunity to download them and either print them themselves or choose their favorite card printing service.
While choosing a printer for my free printable cards give-away I was looking for a very specific feature. I needed to be able to customize all sides of the cards to allow a full jpg or image without having to add text or other formatting. In other words just a blank space with the option to add your own image. I searched many card printers but sadly I could not find one with these options.
I knew Viovio had the option to create fully customizable cards as I have designed templates for them in the past. I didn’t choose them as my first option however because I didn’t feel like making a template at the time and quite frankly I had forgotten how to do so. After searching and failing for this option at several other online card printing services, not even Shutterfly allows this anymore, I decided to bite the bullet and use Viovio. My other option would have been to use one of the other services with Zazzle coming closest to what I needed but I’d have to give up my custom designed back.
Creating Printable Cards at Viovio
At the time creating my cards the company Viovio still had it’s original name and url in place. I just learned today that they will be renaming themselves Prestophoto rebranding and relocating as well. The layout seems pretty much the same so this review should still ring true.
The template system at Viovio is in my opinion confusing and I’m pretty tech savvy. Let me be clear, if you plan to use one of their ready made templates then it’s relatively simple. There was no ready made template for the card sizes I needed or at least I couldn’t find it so I had to make my own. It took forever to remember how to do that. I should point out that they don’t have the option to create a 5×7 vertical card so you need to create your card in landscape view. It’s fine for printing but can make designing a bit confusing. Another problem I had was that while designing flat cards I had no idea which way the back image should face. As a result you have to double flip my printed cards to read back as opposed to just flipping it over.
Card Print Quality
The quality of the cards is very nice. The print quality of the design and color perception is spot on. All of my cards look just as they did when I designed them on my computer. The texture, weight and feel of the cards is also very nice. I’d say they have a bit of a semi gloss and very smooth feel. Here are my cards as printed. They are actually quite beautiful.
5 x 7 Horizontal Folded
5 x 7 Vertical Flat front & back
5 x 7 Horizontal Flat
5 x 7 Vertical Flat front & back
5 x 7 Vertical Fold
The Envelopes
Compared to the cards the envelopes are nothing special. They lack the same lustre and feel that the cards have. However, they are functional and serve their purpose. A bit higher quality would be nice.
The Devil Is In The Details
For as nice as these cards are there are unfortunately a few flaws. For instance:
- Photo 1 – These cards are scored Backwards. You can see that the protruding edge of the score is on inside of the card. The indentation from the scoring is on the outside of the card. Why should that matter? Because with the raised edge on the inside these cards don’t stay open properly and they don’t close properly. The card simply would not lie flat or stay closed when folded. And when open they don’t stay put especially the horizontal fold which kept trying to lie down.
- Photo 2 – A lot of the cards have fraying on the edges to some small or even larger degree. Typical holiday card giving I suppose this would not bother me so much as I don’t think most people would pay that much mind. However, if I had ordered these for a client that would be a deal breaker. I would be too embarrassed to send a client cards with such imperfections. I’m not sure if the damage was done on site or due to the poor packaging. The cards were shipped in standard cardboard envelope with no layers of protection.
- Photo 3 – The Viovio logo. There was an option to remove branding for an extra $10. I was unclear if that was per card or per order.
Card Printing Options & Pricing
I didn’t go price shopping when choosing where to have these cards printed as I was looking for specific features so I can’t really say how the prices compare to other sites. It seemed reasonable enough to me at the time and since they had a coupon if you spent $25 I order $30 worth of cards and the coupon brought my price down to just under $25 which I thought was pretty good. And I opted for the premium stock which explains why the cards feel so nice. As you can see it say 7 x 5, this is actually a 5 x 7 but they don’t have an option to order that. And the card is lying on it side which is the format you have to use while designing.
These cards were a smash hit when I offered them as free printable cards so I thought wouldn’t it be nice If i offered the printed versions as a gift? So that being said here’s a chance for two winners to take home these beautiful printed cards. 2 winners will each receive a total of 8 cards w/envelopes. Sets include 3 5 x 7 flat designs as shown with sentiment and blanks and 2 5 x 7 folded cards with sentiment.
Congratulations to the She’s So Crafty Week 3 Winners:
Darlene Harger & Doreen Rohacek. You ladies have each won a printable gift box from Manu Scraps!
Free Printable Cards
Who’s ready for the next prize? For your chance to win these beautiful Christmas Cards just enter in the Rafflecopter form below.
Like Us on Facebook
The post Viovio Greeting Card Printing Review & Free Printable Cards Give-Away appeared first on Digiscrap Boutique: Digital Scrapbooking Kits.