Printable Birth Announcements: Web Sites with Customizable Cards

Are you, or is someone in your family, expecting a baby? Do you want to send out a birth announcement but don't want to pay the high prices some companies charge to print the announcement for you? Are you looking to buy blank birth announcement cards that you can print yourself at home but don't know where to begin? If so, check out this nonexclusive list of Web sites that sell printable birth announcements.

www.crane.com. Crane & Co. offers 27 different varieties of printable birth announcements ranging in price from $12 to $25 a pack. The $12 printable birth announcements, which come with 25 cards to a pack, are available in rose, pink, and blue without any borders or other embellishments. Matching envelopes must be purchased separately, also at $12 a pack. Crane and Co.'s $13 to $17 lines of printable birth announcements are more varied in design than its $12 line. New parents may choose among paper collages, letterpress, embossed, engraved, and bordered designs. The company's most expensive printable birth announcements, priced at $25 per pack, come preprinted with a poem about two little birds. All printable birth announcements priced at $13 and up are packaged with 10 cards per pack and include matching envelopes. Each printable birth announcement can be customized using downloadable templates from the web site's print center. A link to the print center can be found on each printable birth announcement's web page. The web site offers a free gift with purchase and free ground shipping on all orders over $75.

www.babycachet.com. According to Baby Cachet Paperie & Design's Web site, almost all of its baby announcements are printable. New parents can either choose to purchase blank printable birth announcements and print them out at home or have Baby Cachet do the work for them. This site offers more variety than Crane & Co.'s web site. There are over 100 different printable birth announcement designs to choose from, ranging in price from $11.37 to $25.55 per 8 to 10 card-and-envelope set. The web site also offers several printable birth announcement designs for twins and other multiple births. The site offers a "Print It Yourself Guide" to help parents customize their announcements but does not offer any downloadable templates.

www.birth-cards.com. Birth-cards.com offers printable birth announcements designed by the company's own artists. Unlike other companies, this company does not purchase preprinted cards from a manufacturer, so for the new parent looking for a unique design, this site may be the place to shop. It offers over 100 different printable birth announcement designs, including both multiple birth and adoption announcements. Prices range from $1.39 per card to $1.85 per card. While the site does not offer a printing guide or downloadable templates, it does offer advice on how to word the printable birth announcements. It also offers 10 free cards with a $75 purchase and free shipping on a purchase of $100 or more.

www.invitationkitsdirect.com. Invitation Kits Direct offers 28 different printable birth announcements that range in price from $9.95 for a pack of 10 cards to $17.50 for a pack of 10 cards. The announcements come with color-coordinated envelopes. Some of the designs have downloadable templates for printing that can be found by clicking on the Instructions or Template tab at the top of the web page. Other designs come with written instructions on how to print announcements to the card. The majority of the printable birth announcements also come with practice sheets for the novice printer. For new parents who want to design the entire card themselves, the site sells plain lined envelopes, card stock, charms, and homemade paper.

www.smilebox.com. Smilebox offers free birth announcements on their web site. New parents can choose from hundreds of designs on the site; customize the design with music, captions, photos, and other embellishments; and then email or add the birth announcement to their blog for free. The only catch is that the site requires parents to download its software before they can begin selecting and customizing their designs. The site claims that the software is both virus and spyware-free. To be able to print the design, parents must either purchase a premium design or subscribe to Club Smilebox. Subscriptions to Club Smilebox are $4.99/month or $39.99/year with a two-week free trial. A sample premium design on Smilebox's "Learn More" link was $2.99. The site claims that once you buy a premium design, you own it, so presumably you can print the birth announcement as many times as you want after purchase. Smilebox does not sell the paper or cards, just the design, so to print, parents must also buy paper or precut cards from an office supply, art supply, or retail store.