I love Christmas.

I love Christmas cards.

I love sending them and I love receiving them.

Growing up with a military Daddy, I have friends from all over the world and receive some pretty spectacular cards. I’ve always thought my cards were pretty nice too, until I got my order from Blue Whale Invitations this year. They’re in a completely different league than anything I’ve ever bought, made for myself or reviewed in the past.

Owner & artist Melissa Aird leaves no stone left unturned when she’s working with you to custom design your card. She has a great selection of pre-designed Christmas greetings on her site ranging from $2.25 – $2.75 per card, but if you don’t see exactly what you want she will literally do anything to ensure you get what’s perfect for you at no extra cost. The process begins with Melissa asking some simple questions about your style & preferences. From there, she designs several cards and mails you a completed sample of each one complete with envelopes and a price for each one should you choose to order some. You make your choice(s), let her know of any editing you’d like and WHAM. Gorgeous, custom-designed and hand made cards appear in your mailbox.

Pictured at right are one of the two sets she designed for our family – a gorgeous double figure skate with our picture attached. They feature shining silver grommets and quality satin ribbon, and look truly stunning . We also got some of the negative film strip cards that are listed on her website, and just had her change the text and font for us and include our pictures.

The single figure skate on the Blue Whale Invitations website sells for $3.75, and our custom designed double ones sell for close to $8 each. Steep? Yes. I don’t recommend you order 100 of those, but they’re just perfect for the extra special people in your life. That dude you haven’t seen since high school can have the one you had printed at Costco.

Blue Whale Invitations isn’t just Christmas cards. In fact, that’s the least of what Melissa does. If you need a mailed greeting, she can make it. And make it well. I’d highly recommend her for any occasion, but you’ve still got time to order your Christmas cards!

Win it! Blue Whale Invitations is giving away a set of 20 mailed greetings – custom or not – it’s up to you! To enter, simply comment on this post with your favourite item from her site or email theopinionatedparent at gmail dot com with BLUE WHALE in the subject line & put your fave in the body of the email before noon mst on Monday, November 23, 2009.