Where I get stuff.

For Real Youth, we create a lot of our print materials ourselves, but recently, I've gotten kind of sick of using cheapy looking stuff. Kids are getting bombarded all day, everyday with high quality stuff. What would make them remember our stuff if it's not on par with what they see everywhere else? When I ask our kids to hand something out to their friends, I want our kids to be proud to hand it out. All that to say we've really stepped up the quality of our printed materials. If any of the rest of you are in ministries like ours, you'll appreciate these places.

The first place I found that we now have printing all of our banners is a place called Superior Billboards. If you check out their website, they don't look like much, but they have been excellent for us. Their customer service was great as well. You won't find the prices anywhere on the website, unless they've updated it, but here's the best part. They'll print and ship your banner for $1.20/sq. ft. It is a little more to add grommets or have it made on glossy vinyl. To give you an idea, I had an 8x3 banner made for $28.80. I don't think you'll find anything for close to this price.

The next place was introduced to me by our business administrator. Vista Print does all kinds of print jobs, and I've been able to use them for business cards, post cards, and magnets. If you don't need large numbers of the stuff right away, you can get all kinds of their stuff for free or dirt cheap. Once you place one order with them, you get tons offers for their free and super discounted stuff. This stuff is also way better quality than the stuff I've been able to get locally for way more.

The little issue with both of these place is that you need to be able to design your own stuff if you want it to pop.