Family Review Network

Life has a way of getting away with you so I was relieved when I was recently given the opportunity to check out cardstore.com. I needed to do birth announcements for Beefcake and this was the perfect opportunity. I went to their site and instantly was greeted with a beautiful landing page. I easily found my way to boy birth announcements by utilizing their scroll over drop down menus. There were a TON of choices, 6 pages to be exact. They had everything from very simple announcements using muted tones to really bright ornate cards. There really were not any choices that I did not like so that made it all the more difficult to choose. We ended up choosing a super cute very simple 4×8 photo card where we could drop in two pictures, my fav and my husband’s fav.

We were able to very easily create our photo card, create a cardstore.com account and then save it to come back and purchase at a later time. After we purchased the cards our order was saved so we could always go back and order cards again, which I really liked. Our cards cost us $1.89 per card which included the envelope. We had them shipped to us but a really awesome service they offer is to address and mail them out individually for you. You do pay for this service of course but if you are in a hurry, it would be well worth it. You can even create an address book that saves on their site so you can always go back on another occasion, create a card and send it out. This I can foresee being a HUGE time saver especially during those busy times like Christmas.

The cards were shipped using standard delivery but we got them super fast. I think like 3 days. I was surprised to see how the cards were made when I opened them. I am so used to glossy photo cards and since I ordered the announcements from the photo card drop down menu I assumed they would be that way. I just never looked that closely to see how they were printed. The cards were printed on a really nice heavy duty 100% post consumer recycled paper from Milo Paper. The envelopes were pretty decent too. I hate when you get a nice card and they give you a flimsy envelope to send it in. The cards are definitely geared toward the consumer looking for a more high-end and personalized look. It is definitely reflected in their choice of paper companies to use and just the all around design of their web site.

The only issue I can see people having is not realizing that the brilliance of the picture is kinda lost when printed on regular paper vs. printing on photo paper. But as I said before, cardstore.com is offering a more high-end and personalized look to their product.

Check out cardstore.com next time you need photo cards, thank you cards, really anything. It is a website you will surely add to your favorites.

This post was written for Family Review Network as part of a program for Cardstore.com. Cards were supplied by cardstore.com free for review.

This review was written by Erika Bodwell who was thrilled to show off her new Beefcake aka Wyatt, to all her friends and family.

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I love cloth diapering. I tried it with my first son and it seemed like too much work. When I had Spencer I promised myself I would try harder and I did. We’ve been cloth diapering on and off for 2 years. I’ve tried almost every cloth brand out there and I have my sure favorites. When I was approached by Family Review Network to test out a brand that was new to me I wanted to see how it would go. The AppleCheeks mini test includes one cover in your choice of size and color and 3 bamboo inserts which is a perfect gift for a new mom trying out cloth. I gave AppleCheeks reusable cloth diapers mini test a try and was pleased with how they worked.

AppleCheeks are a bit different than my favorite diapers, known as pocket diapers. AppleCheeks are called envelope diapers. The way they work is instead of having a pocket at the back of the diaper to put your insert, they have an opening in the middle. I wasn’t sure I was going to be a fan of this style, I somehow felt it would just get really messy with an opening in that area, but I was wrong. It didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t notice any extra mess.

The absorbency of the bamboo inserts was not quite strong enough for my 2 year old. He is a big boy and when he pees I guess he pees a lot. I had to double up, but honestly that isn’t a problem at all. I want to mention that so if parents who are new to cloth diapers purchase AppleCheeks they aren’t put off by this. There are many diapers that need to be doubled and the good thing about AppleCheeks is that adding a second insert does not make the diaper too puffy. The bamboo inserts are rather thin so it keeps a nice fit on babies bottom.

The one thing about AppleCheeks that I wasn’t pleased with was the fit. My son is big, just over 30lbs. The AppleCheeks diapers come in two sizes. Size 1 goes to 20lbs and Size 2 goes to 35lbs. Spencer won’t be wearing the AppleCheeks very long because even on the furthest snap they are a bit snug. Keep this in mind when purchasing. However if your baby is small like my first born, these diapers will last you a long time.

One last thing I wanted to mention is the quality. This diaper is one of the best made diapers I own. It is super soft, continues to be super soft and the hardware is strong. I have popped a snap off of a few brands of diapers but I have not done this with AppleCheeks. I’ve given the diaper quite a few firm tugs and everything has stayed in place.

I recommend AppleCheeks diapers to parents new to cloth diapers and those who have been practicing for years. As long as you keep the fit in mind you should be fine. AppleCheeks can be found on the web at http://www.applecheeks.com

This post was written for Family Review Network as part of a program for AppleCheeks, who supplied The MiniTest for review.

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