New Year Cards for 2009

For me New Year is really about renewal, renewal that is part of a cycle of the year and of life. Without this hope, the long dark winters would have seemed almost unsurvivable to my ancestors in Denmark, who would worship in various ways to hope that the sun would once again return. And so despite much disheartening news affecting all of us around the world, New Year’s is a time to celebrate hope above all I believe. With this in mind, I was inspired to create a card that sends this message, both through visual beauty and a message to cast your gaze up at the stars to see Sirius, brightest star, in its culmination on New Year’s Eve.

Celestial

Here are some other New Year cards.

Black Tie

Cocktail Dress

JULETIDE

You can see more New Year cards here.

New Year Invitation eCards

We have added a new card in two versions called “Black Tie” and “Cocktail Dress” to our site for the upcoming New Year’s celebration as well as any festive occasion. The card has a real vintage feel to it including a nice big band music piece. We made two versions of the card so that it would be suitable for both women and men to send. If you are planning an upcoming bash for the holidays or New Year, this card would make a nice way to send the invitation.

Black Tie

Cocktail Dress

We are still working on one more New Year card and will let you know as soon as we add it to the site.

New Christmas eCard – Jingle Bells

We have added another new card called “Jingle Bells” featuring a horse drawn sled dashing through a winter wonderland – all handpainted in watercolor in great detail – a classical card centered around the joy of preparing for the holidays with your loved ones.

Jingle Bells

But before Tim and I can get around to the family preparations with the boys, we still have a bit of work to do to bring you several more cards for your New Year celebrations.

Merry Christmas!

We have added a new card called “Hellebore” for the upcoming holidays featuring elements hand painted in watercolor in great detail and a charming ensemble of little guests that inhabit our garden even in the depth of winter. Perfect for almost any occasion during the winter months or send it simply to spread a little color and joy.

Hellebore

In addition we have several other cards suitable for sending your Thanksgiving greetings, including the recently added “Turkey Day” card.

Turkey Day

Culinary Masterpiece

Inventive Squirrels

Practice safe ecard sending


With the holiday season upon us, people will be sending their greetings via paper and electronic greeting cards. While paper cards will consist majority of this tradition, ecards have their places. Sending ecards are much more environment friendly. It is also economical, particularly during our current financial downturn.

However, there are a few precaution that one needs to be aware of when one receives ecards.

  • Make sure you recognize the sender’s name. The sender’s FULL name should ALWAYS be included in the subject line (and sometimes in the “from” field) of the email.
  • The web site should be easily identified in one or more of the following places: the “from” field, the subject line, or in the email itself.
  • Do NOT click any links with simple IP address. In a fake ecard email, the IP address may be hidden and can only be seen by hovering your cursor over the link or right clicking on the link to view properties. The link should not be a series of number (e.g. 169.180.1.15, commonly referred to as an IP address).
  • An ecard email should NOT have any attachment of any kind. The recipient will go to the web site to “pick up” (i.e. view) the ecard.
  • Legitimate ecard emails will always include an option to pick up the ecard by typing the web site address and enter a code.
  • Use a webmail or email application that has good spam filter. My experience with Gmail has been very good. It filters out almost all spam mail.

Let me know if you have any other tips that I am missing here.

How ecards can help the environment


With the coming of the holiday season, people will be sending a lot of greeting cards. Most of us know that paper cards are not a good idea for the environment. But how bad can sending 50 paper cards hurt the environment? They are just 50 cards!

Well, according to Creative Citizen, the cost of sending 50 regular cards is 5 pounds of waste, 1,000 pounds of emissions, 1,000 kilowatt hours, and $30!

But what is the impact of sending 50 ecards instead? One calculation estimates the impact to be 3-4 lbs of CO2, i.e. 2-3 hours of electricity used for sending the 50 ecards on a computer. So this year, you may want to consider sending ecards as an alternative.

Tomorrow is the US presidential election. Democracy works best when we all participate. I hope if you are able to vote in the upcoming US election you will take the time to exercise that right. Remind your friends and family to do the same by sending one of our ecards. Let’s hope on Election Day there will be a great turnout.

Here are some suggestions for suitable cards:

Stars and Stripes Forever

Hope

Origami Cranes

Pigeongram

Vintage Halloween Animated eCard

With just a few days to go before Halloween we have added a new card to the site called “Halloween Frolics”.

I love vintage greetings cards and Halloween cards are perhaps my favorite of all because unlike the gory cards that are more common now, vintage Halloween cards have a certain innocence to them. Despite this, lots of people used to send them to ward of any bad luck and wish for a bright future for the person on the receiving end. After all, you never know, maybe there is such a thing as ghosts …

Thus inspired, the little witch in my newest card is meant to bring some of the nostalgia and magic of Halloween alive again … so better make sure you send your wishes for a bright future to all of your friends and loved ones of all ages.

Halloween Frolics

Wishing you are safe and fun Halloween!

Thanksgiving eCard

We have added a new card inspired by the colors and bounty of the season featuring a little dachshund and his family, perfect as a general greeting for the fall season or for sending best wishes on Thanksgiving.

Canadian Thanksgiving is right around the corner this Monday, October 13, so please remember to send Your Thanksgiving Greetings as soon as possible to alll your Canadian friends and/or family.

Turkey Day