You know it's Back to School when you hear the joyful tune of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" blaring during the infamous commercial. With the first day of school still looming, it's hard to think about the end of summer, the arrival of colder weather and, gulp, one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year - Christmas! I always get a little stressed about Christmas when I think of all the presents I need to buy. And I often end up with that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach over how commercialized it has become. It's so hard not to get caught up in the materialistic frenzy caused by the anticipation of good ol' St. Nick. This year, however,  I have high hopes that I will be able to come up with some homemade and personalized gifts in lieu of buying pricey items that may never be used for their intended purpose. I will also be sending out a personalized and stylish Christmas photo card to my family and friends thanks to Storkie Express.

Storkie Express was established 20 years ago by a creative group of business and artistic professionals who shared the goal of providing quality printing and outstanding service at a great value. They currently offer an incredible variety of customizable birth announcements, invitations for baby showers, baptisms/christenings, birthdays, and weddings, in addition to their beautiful collection of Holiday cards and Christmas cards.

Snowman Photo Holiday Card - $1.49 per card You can even change the colours of the snowman's accessories!

I love sending out pictures of the kids for the holidays but I'm always rushing last minute to get a picture of them taken with Santa. So for this review, I decided to try out one of Storkie's Christmas photo cards using a family photo that we took just recently. We were all dressed up for a wedding and it was one of those rare opportunities to have our picture taken of the whole family while looking pretty fancy shmancy. My husband's facial expression looks a bit... well... sour. But it would have to do.

Screenshot of photo card in iDesign

To begin, select a template that you would like to use and click on the green button that says "Click to Customize". On the next page, you will be prompted to add your family's last name and then the name of your family members. This is also where you can browse for a picture file to upload. You may opt to save it for later or continue to customize using their design tool. Here you can make changes to the saying/header, text, layout, ink colour, and typestyle/font. Once in the iDesign tool, you can click on any of the existing text boxes to edit the text. What's really neat about it is that a toolbar will pop up once you click on the text box which makes editing and formatting very quick and efficient. Alternative wording suggestions pop up on the right as well which makes it super easy to customize the photo card the way you want. When you click on the picture, the toolbar that appears above it allows you to change the size of the photo, rotate it, change the colour filter to black and white or sepia, or upload a new photo altogether. If you're not sure what each icon on the toolbars stand for, just hover your mouse over them and a little description will appear. You can also scroll through some tips on the top right of your screen. Doncha just love applications that are so user-friendly?

Holiday Wrap with Photo - $2.39 per set I really like this stylish design.

Once you are happy with your customized photo card, click on continue and select a proofing option. You can approve it exactly as shown on the preview, allow Storkie to make stylistic/grammar changes or pay for and place your order and approve a final proof that is placed in your Stokie.com account, which may delay the shipping of your order. I went with the second option. I ordered it on a Sunday, the package was shipped on the Tuesday of the same week and it arrived the day after. No wonder they call themselves Storkie Express.

When I opened up the carefully packaged cards from Storkie, I was truly impressed with the quality of the recycled (yay!) card stock and the digital press printing, too. It came in a nice matte finish so I didn't need to worry about finger prints. The 5" x 7" photo cards really turned out beautifully and I am excited to share them with my family and friends. I even had my return address printed on the envelopes to make my life just a little easier come Christmas time. You can add that option for an additional cost or inner lined envelopes if you so prefer. You can even add 3D bling gemstones, too! One other item that would really tie it all together nicely would be a set of holiday stamps from their pre-designs or customize your own by uploading a photo of your choice. How fun is that!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. I received a set of 20 photo cards for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any other way. The thoughts expressed above are strictly my own honest opinions.