Review and Giveaway: Simple Salutations
October 20, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Giveaways, Recent Reviews, holiday-related product, website
I am seeing more and more ‘mom-owned’ businesses lately – which I think is wonderful. I love how we moms are making our careers work for us instead of the other way around – and hope to keep highlighting this type of business for you. 
So what do you get when you’ve a got a couple of moms who are sisters – one with a graphic design background, and one with the business skills and ‘know-how’ to run a company?
You get Simple Salutations!
What they are:
Simple Salutations is an online invitation, notecard and announcement business that works with you from the initial design, through the very end of the process when you receive the final product in your hands. In their own words,
We are the economical, yet trendy solution to all your invitation, announcement and notecard needs. Our designs are one-of-a-kind and cannot be found anywhere else. They are not from a distributor but original designs created by us.
They offer both folded and flat notecards, as well as ‘Save the Date’, ‘Thank You’ and Birthday cards, and invitations to everything from weddings, baptisms and showers to birthday and bachelorette parties. You can browse through their selection online – and anything you see can be customized to meet your own needs.
Their newest line of cards is for the holidays – here are a few samples of what they have to offer:
Here’s my take on them:
I haven’t had the opportunity to see the cards in person, but I spent quite some time perusing through their online store looking at the different styles and designs available. Especially for the holidays cards – picking just one or two as clear favorites wasn’t happening. I love how the photos are made to become a part of the card’s design, instead of working the design around the photo. There’s a wide selection of everything from very Christmassy to designs that are simpler and more ‘wintry’ instead of holiday-ish, if that’s what you prefer.
Here are some more details that I discovered as I looked around the site:
- All of the cards come with white envelopes.
- Every card can be altered to include more pictures, or no pictures if you wish.
- Cards can be printed with either a matte or glossy finish.
- You can add text (up to 300 characters, for free) that will be printed either on the back side of a flat card, or on the inside of a folded one. The text will be in a design that matches the card (in black-and-white).
- You will be able to proof your card design via e-mail before it’s printed.
- The cards can be customized as you need – free of charge.
I love the idea of having photos incorporated right into the card itself, instead of having to worry about getting enough pictures made or copied to include with all of our holiday cards. And I also absolutely love the idea of having a pre-printed message on the cards as well – my hand always gets so tired from writing ours out for every single card each year. I can see sending holiday cards going from a huge process that takes a ton of time and causes a whole lot of stress, to a much simpler, easier process this way!
The bottom line:
If the actual printed cards look as amazing as they do online (and I’m sure they do!), Simple Salutations is a definite on my list of options for holiday cards this year. And for other card-related needs in the future as well. I love the idea of supporting a mom-owned business, and especially one that makes such an effort to work with their customers.
Where can you find them?:
Their website is located at http://www.simplesalutations.com – and you can browse through all of the various card designs and options from there. A set of 20 flat holiday cards (and envelopes) costs $34 or $46 for folded cards. Prices for each individual card go down if you order a larger quantity – for example, the $46 for 20 folded cards breaks down to $2.30 per card, versus the $146 you would pay for 100 folded cards, which ends up being only $1.46 per card.
Would you like to try them?:
Courtesy of the moms behind Simple Salutations, I have a $20 gift certificate to their store (for holiday cards) to give away. If you’d like to try out their holiday cards this year, here are the rules:
- Enter by checking the holiday card line at Simple Salutations and tell me what your favorite card design is (other than the ones shown above). Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
- The contest will run until Thursday, October 30th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. US entries only, please.
- Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
- If you’d like an extra entry or two, you can either subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar), or mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post – or both. Please leave an extra comment on this post for each of the extra entry options that you choose, letting me know – for a total of 3 comments if you do both extra entry options.
Good luck! 
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #11 as the winner:
Congratulations to dee (no blog) who said, “I LOVE these cards!!! I’ve seen LOTS of holiday cards and the collection at Simple Salutations is by far my favorite!!!! I LOVE the holiday lights one…..but the moose one is oh so cute too! And the retro lines one…..I dont think there is one that I DONT like!!!“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.
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I love the Happy New Years Magenta card. Great graphics
I really like the Foursome Gift!
ibeeeg(at)gmail(dot)com
I subscribed!
ibeeeg(at)gmail(dot)com
Well if I could add an extra “ho”, I’d pick the “HO HO HO” card! Otherwise the Joy to Your World would be nice!
I don’t know if I can get an extra entry for already being a RSS subscriber?
The Three Winter Details is perfect for my new family of 3 boys!!
I signed up for your email updates.
I like the Bubbly Joy Design. Great giveaway, thanks!
Blogged ya:
http://mommyland512.blogspot.com/2008/10/simple-salutations-giveaway-at-just-mom.html
Thanks again!
I love the Reindeer Snow cards
Marianne
http://www.crochetbymommaj.etsy.com
crochetbymommaj.blogspot.com
I LOVE these cards!!! I’ve seen LOTS of holiday cards and the collection at Simple Salutations is by far my favorite!!!! I LOVE the holiday lights one…..but the moose one is oh so cute too! And the retro lines one…..I dont think there is one that I DONT like!!!
I think I like the Retro Blue or the Scrapbook cards. We have never done cards before but this is by far the largest seslection I have ever seen for design options! Love this site! Thanks for sharing it – it’s definitely bookmarked!
I love the HOHOHO card, it’s simple and would look great with black and white pictures of my kids. Thanks for the great giveaway!
I’m a subscriber.
I love this one ” Joyful Swirls
I found you via Adventures in Mommyland
I subscribed to your blog! How awesome it is !
i like that you have a vast selection there are several that i really like i like, including, but not limited to the hohoho card
I love the Winter Details which was so cute b/c I can tell alittle about each child which works great since I only send cards to the realtives/friends we don’t see often! I really loved a lot of them!!!
I am a subscriber
I love the flat holiday card entitled Holiday Lights.
I subscribe to yoru RSS feed.
Bubbly Joy is definetly my fave
jceko77@yahoo.com
I’m a subscriber
jceko77@yahoo.com
I love Three Snowflakes- it’s fantastic. Thanks!
I like the Winter Tree cards!! They are beautiful!!! Love ‘em!!!
Thanks so much!!
Michele R.(CA)
luvkittysmeowmail@gmail.com
I’m a subscriber!!
Thanks so much!!
Michele R.(CA)
luvkittysmeowmail@gmail.com
2008 orange or the holiday swirl.
[...] $20 gift certificate to Simple Salutations (enter by 11:59 pm EST on October [...]
[...] $20 gift certificate to Simple Salutations (enter by 11:59 pm EST on October [...]
[...] Just a mom’s take on things -$20 gift certificate to Simple Salutations (Oct 30th/US) [...]
I love the Joyful Swirls card.
I like the red light one. I like how simple it is with black and white picture’s with one red Chirstmas light. Classy!
They are all very unique – not all the same thing that you see on all the “other” sites!! I liked the Chocolate Swirls. I was a little disappointed of the lack of spiritual choices – for us, it is very much Jesus’ birthday and we prefer to say Merry Christmas & not Happy Holidays! But they are very beautiful
I like the “Holiday Lights” card design!
Emily
averyandemily@sbcglobal.net
I love their designs, so cute! One of my favs is the “deep red badge” in the flat holiday cards.
I really like the Reindeer Snow card. Wish more had the word Christmas – that’s where the personalized part comes in handy.
I have subscribed. Thanks!
I love the Blue Paisley Joy card, beautiful!
That Holiday Lights one is my favorite, but they are all so cute.
I love the three winter details – I love the fact that you can include tidbits on each child on the Christmas card! Thanks