NAPTIMECARDS are fabulous!

[KM]

Naptime cards did such a tremendous job on our birth announcements, that i had them do our holiday cards as well. They were featured in an earlier printing of the baby bargains book, but i didnt see them in the latest reprinting (not sure why??). I believe the website is naptimeproductions.com

[lmintzer]

I second the motion! We used Naptime cards for our birth announcements as well. The quality was excellent, prices were reasonable, and the customer service was quite good (we wound up ordering a second batch of cards because we didn't order enough the first time). We received many compliments on our announcement. Personally, I think Naptime's product is really classy--a cut above most of what's out there.

Lisa
& Jack (8 months)

[lvp49]

What is the website? naptimeproductions.com did not work.

[KM]

try naptimecards.com
They have many more choices now (but i still like the traditional black and white photo!)
Good luck!

[Rachels]

Hi. The website is wonderful, but I found it's also worth getting their print catalog. It comes in just a few days, and it's easier to compare. We too have decided to go with naptimecards. Our baby hasn't been born yet, but we went ahead and preordered the envelopes, which arrived promptly and look great.

[emilys]

DITTO! Naptime Productions' cards are FANTASTIC. Great prices, wide selection, excellent service in getting your order to you and customizing your photos/layout,etc., and seriously a bargain. I shopped around a lot and there are a lot of really ugly and/or expensive cards out there.

www.naptimecards.com or call 800-421-9521 - I looked on line and got the catalog before I decided which to buy.

No, I don't work for them, I'm just a very satisfied customer. I already wrote to the Fields to recommend they list Naptime in the next printing of the BB book!

[KM]

I have to comment once again...just received cards for our newest addition born 12/2/02. There are 'similar' card makers out there if you search the internet, but naptime will continue to get my business! Most other sites had a cutoff date prior to the Holidays of early December. I sent naptime my order on Thursday, and while they cautioned it would take 4 to 6 days during the holiday season, i had a proof on Monday and my order received on Wednesday! This company really knows customer service. I cant say enough how beautiful the announcements are and how easy they are to work with. You will get tons of compliments!

[etwahl]

Question -- did you do a picture announcement? If so, did you take the picture? And how old was your baby when you took the picture? I definitely want to use Naptime, but trying to think ahead about how we're going to get one done with picture. We really like the black and white ones. We do have a good digital camera, so are thinking we could email a bunch of the high resolution ones.

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[Rachels]

I used a picture announcement. I took a color photo with a digital camera, printed it at home (although you could also use someplace like Shutterfly to get prints), and mailed it in. Naptime made a black and white print for the card. It was gorgeous. My baby was three weeks old, but only because we were slow on the draw. But I think it's worth waiting a week or two, so the baby recovers a little bit from birth. If you don't already have it, order Naptime's catalog. It has good suggestions. I'll try to remember when I'm back home to email you the photo we used so you can see how we did background, etc. Also, it's incredibly worth it to preorder envelopes. HTH!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[etwahl]

Rachel, thanks for the information! I did get their catalog, which I loved. Please do email your photo. I was wondering about how long we should wait before taking the pictures. Wait too long and it almost seems pointless, take the picture too early and some people might wonder what's wrong with our child :) hahaha

Did you preorder the envelopes so you could have them all addressed ahead of time? That's a good idea. Did you also print all your addresses on address labels rather than hand labeling? I think that's what I'd want to do. I also wanted to order some new return address labels that was more babyish and family oriented, but I guess I'll have to order them unisex, since we're not "sure" if it really is a girl or not.

PS: Am SOO glad to hear that Abigail doesn't need surgery. Looking forward to excellent news when you get to the children's hospital. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[LD92599]

As an alternative to labels and/or hand writing, I print all of my envelopes right in the printer..I'd be glad to send you the template I created (in Word). I think the envelopes look much more professional than a label...and you can use a much larger/clearer font as well....feel free to email me at [email protected]

Laura
Due: Feb 26th, 2003

[etwahl]

Oh yeah!!! I forgot about that. Actually, I've done that before, just totally forgot about it. Great idea. Thanks for the reminder :)

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[MyFirstBaby]

Tammy,
We also have a digital camera and used naptime cards. I took the picture myself (a real close up) and ordered my prints online (I use Sony's imagestation.com). I chose the Announcement that had the velum overlay and you insert your own picture. I used double-sided scotch tape to affix it. In fact, I didn't even make my picture black and white, but kept it color. Since it was so close up, the vellum overlay mutes the color so much that you couldn't tell if it was black and white or not. I got SO MANY compliments on these announcements! A lot is credited to the naptime cards themselves because they are truly classy; but also maybe due to the picture I took. You can see the picture at:
http://www.geocities.com/rhondareev/Collin_Announcement3.html
It's the large close-up picture in the center of this web page that I used.
Good luck with your choice!

[etwahl]

Rhonda, that is so cool! I also want to have our picture be of the baby sleeping, and I didn't even think about having it be such a close up. Great idea. I'd love to see the actual announcement. Is there a way you could take a digital picture of it and put it on your web site? It sounds like it turned out great. I also like the idea of the vellum, but I wasn't sure if it would fall out or not. They have a new Jack & Jill Design that I was looking at, where the vellum is inserted and looks really cute.

That also reminds me to start working our our web site now! I'm sure we won't have much time later, other than to just insert pictures. Very inspiring. Thank you!!!

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[MyFirstBaby]

Tammy,

I will upload the picture to it's own location: here is the address geocities.com/rhondareev/DSC00017.JPG

The way the vellum works is that the ribbon goes through the card and vellum and tied. The picture was affixed to the card with double-sided Scotch tape, but you'll see in the picture.

And yes, word of advice: If you're going to do a website, start NOW and get as much done as possible. That's what I did! Now that he's here I don't find it too intrusive to upload the pictures. I've even added more pages (like his weight and height), and other things... My family is 4 hours away, so it keeps us all in touch with one another.

Let me know if you have trouble with the picture :)

[etwahl]

Thank you. That's really cool. I totally understand what you're saying now. I'm definitely going to start the web site early 2003. Actually, I used to be a web designer, so maybe I'll even get creative, but you're right, finding time after the baby would be next to impossible! Our family is spread across Canada and the US so a Web site is important to keep everyone up to date.

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[August Mom]

I agree that Naptime Productions is great. We received a lot of compliments on my son's announcement. We chose the original feature design with blue parchment. The picture is printed on vellum in black and white. The vellum is tied to the parchment with a ribbon of your choice.

We took the photo ourselves with a digital camera when our son was around 3 weeks old. According to the Naptime Productions website, 640x480 pixel digital photos often work for Cameo or Expressions designs, but are too low resolution for other designs; 1280x960 pixels normally works well for any design if the subject is taken fairly close up; and 2048x1536 pixels works wonderfully. I submitted our order for the announcements on-line and then e-mailed several color photos with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. I wanted input from Naptime Productions about which photo would work best with the original feature design.

I was contacted by Naptime Productions to discuss the submitted photos. The person with whom I spoke was very nice and helpful. She explained how the photos would be cropped and how much of my son's body would fit on the card. Then I decided which photo to use.

The turn-around time was good and the finished product was wonderful. I chose to assemble the announcements myself. It wasn't difficult, but it was time consuming, especially while caring for a newborn. I would give self-assembly a second thought if I had it to do over again. Overall, I was very pleased with the quality of the product and with the customer service provided by Naptime Productions.