Vistaprint business cards + my first outsourced manufacturing issues

     Hi hi patrons! As promised, I wanted to share my new business cards with you guys when they arrived 🥳 It took me a while to actually order business cards, since I personally am not huge on holding onto business cards when I receive them from other people, but I wanted to at the very least have some to hand out in person. 

     I initially ordered business cards through awesomemerchandise.com because they have a deal where you get 100 business cards for $8 (shipping included), so I figured that was a really good deal to get a small amount! I love the idea of having multiple different designs for business cards, that way if someone placed multiple orders in my shop, they could have different designs, so I placed an order for two sets of 100 business cards - totaling to only $16. 

     I have actually ordered through awesomemerch before (I get my 4x6 sketchbook prints through them) so I was really surprised when the business cards came and they were,,, very bad colors 🙃 When I contacted the company after receiving my initial order, they said the discoloring was from having submitted my original files in RGB format (which like. yes. my bad) so I resubmitted as an adjusted CMYK and uhh,,, they were... still bad... when I got the reprint.

     I really don't even remember which of these sets was the initial order and which was the reprint, but they were both so bad that I felt like I didn't even want to hand them out with orders... so I currently have 400 of these ugly boys that I'm holding onto. (also... very very important to note that the one on the left is waaaay way way darker in person. the picture at the end of this post is a better representation of the colors)

     At this point, I didn't like the designs at all anymore, and I didn't understand why the colors were printing so poorly, so I just gave up and figured being down $16 wasn't the end of the world.

     Cut to several weeks ago, where I decided to try again with Vistaprint ✨ I've also previously ordered through VP - I got my self-inking stamps that I use for Patreon envelopes through them, the sticky notes I sell in my shop, and my thank you cards that I include in shop orders. I waited until their Black Friday sale and placed an order for very luxurious cards with the soft touch finish + rounded corners,, I figured if I was gonna order through Vistaprint, I might as well make them nice 😂 Their Black Friday promo made them 50% off, so after shipping, it ended up being $45.56 for 500 cards. I really didn't need this many business cards?? but it was a way better deal to order 500 as opposed to 250 (I think it was like.. $5 more or something silly like that) so I went with the larger amount!

     The cards turned out absolutely gorgeous and the colors were spot on (thank god) so I'm really happy with how these turned out, and I'm excited to put them in all shop orders when I reopen in January!! 🥳

     Here's a better photo comparing all of the business cards, which shows the colors a lot more true to life than the previous photos (especially of the bad ones). One set of the awesome merch cards were super yellow toned and ugly, and the other set was immensely dark and, surprise surprise, also ugly,,, but I'm really really happy with how the Vistaprint ones turned out!! So far the company hasn't done me dirty so I look forward to ordering more things through them 😂

     There are a lot of other companies out there who do business cards (plus a lot of companies send free samples! I've gotten business card sample packs from Vistaprint, Catprint, and Moo in the past) so it's definitely worth the time to shop around if you're personally interested in getting some done - but here is my experience for you guys! I will absolutely be sticking to Vistaprint for business cards from here on out haha

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!!

♡ Chrissy