2 New Cards for March

This month we have added two more cards to our selection.

“Gifts of Spring” is just in time for Easter and it can also be used to send a spring greeting. Easter and Spring are of course both essentially about rebirth; the gifts that nature bestows upon us are captured in this card featuring plenty of flowers, a fawn and a pheasant chick.

Gifts of Spring

The second card, “Surprise” features an American Staffy who definitely manages to have his cake and eat it too! Set to a piece of Bossa Nova, a Brazilian style that blends samba and jazz, which seems quite appropriate as “bossa” means doing something with particular charm and natural flair.

Surprise

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

As the year draws to a close we want to thank you for your support and many encouraging comments. Some of the mails we received have been profoundly touching, others immensely helpful in their constructive criticism, and either way we want to encourage you to keep sending them!

In the past few weeks we have added three more cards for the holiday season. The latest addition, “Juletide”, seeks to capture some of the season’s spirit in my own country, Denmark. It is inspired by one of my favorite Swedish watercolor painters, Carl Larsson. He painted his homelife in the picturesque countryside and his images very much conjure up the idyllic feeling of family, nature and of course Scandinavia. Most of the card is rendered by hand in watercolor to capture his unique style. The card is well suited for any kind of seasonal as well as secular greeting, including New Year, and features a pair of cats and a pair of mice.

JULETIDE

The second card puts a new twist on the ballet choreographed to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. This card also features many hand rendered watercolor elements and was difficult and time consuming to animate as the ballerina absolutely had to dance gracefully in proper ballet moves!

WINTER WONDERLAND

The third card features the story of the nativity. Because this theme is so ever popular I have placed great emphasis on execution; you really must see this card for yourself, as I have tried to give it my own artistic vision and great attention to detail.

NATIVITY

We Wish you a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season & A Wonderful New Year!

Square greeting cards may be hip, they but costs more

If you are thinking to buy those hip square greeting cards for this holiday season, you may want to think again, according to newsobserver.com.

A rectangular envelope, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2, gets the usual 41-cent first-class stamp. But one of those trendy square 6 1/2-inch greeting cards will cost you 58 cents. If your list is long, it adds up.

So what size do the machines like?

Carl A. Walton, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said that would be any envelope that’s 11 1/2 inches long and 6 1/8 inches high — or smaller, as long as it’s not square. Anything outside of those dimensions could be considered “nonmachinable” and charged extra postage.

A surcharge is also charged for envelopes with clasps, strings, button or other closures; and letters that are rigid or enclosed in plastic material. To learn more about rates and extra services, go to www.usps.com/rates /extra-services-rates.htm.

How much electricity does recycling a Christmas sleeve save?


“According to the Woodland Trust, recycling just one Christmas card saves enough electricity to allow five people to watch the [UK] Queen’s Christmas day message.” in …Turn old cards into gift tags. “Last year more than 93 million cards were collected by the Woodland Trust – enough to enable the charity to plant 22,000 trees – or a forest the size of 44 football pitches.”

That is a lot of tree cut down for the cards, not to mention all other related activities (turning trees into paper cards, delivering cards to stores, buying the cards, mailing the cards, etc.). The best way to save the environment is to reduce consumption.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming around the corner. We have added a new card called “Culinary Masterpiece” for the ocassion, in addition to the existing Thanksgiving card, “Inventive Squirrels”. Creating a culinary masterpiece was never this easy before – watch the cheeky ingredients collaborate for a nice surprise!

Culinary Masterpiece
http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=27

Inventive Squirrels
http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=3

We have also added a new card called “Origami Crane”. There is a saying that if you can fold one thousand origami cranes your wish will be granted. The custom has inspired millions in their hope for peace in the world. In Japan it is also a custom for couples getting married. Send it to spread your wish for joy and peace in the world and for your loved ones!

Origami Crane
http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=26

Happy Thanksgiving!

New feature to distinguish Ojolie ecards from fake ecard scams

The article Has the E-Card Scam Storm Blown Over? describes the situation of the recent fake ecard scams.

Greeting card scams became so rampant at the start of the summer that the FBI issued a public warning about the practice.

“If you get an e-mail claiming you’ve received an e-card from a generic ‘friend’ or ‘family member’ rather than from someone whose name or personal e-mail address you recognize, the e-mail is fraudulent and should be immediately deleted,” John Hambrick, unit chief of the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said in a statement issued July 25. “Do not follow any of the instructions in the e-mail or click on any link.”

The statement explained that fraudulent e-mails claiming to contain an electronic greeting card from an unnamed individual, such as a “friend” or “classmate,” were flooding e-mail boxes everywhere.

These “phishing” e-mails, it continued, which falsely claim to be from legitimate greeting card companies, instruct consumers to click on a link in the e-mail message to view their e-card. Clicking on the link can potentially introduce a virus into a consumer’s computer.

According to the article, the situation has improved.

As the summer ended, though, scammers moved on to other things, Cluley, of Sophos, maintained. “Recently, they’ve been offering things like links to the latest Beyonce video or links to free computer games,” he said.

However, the public in general may still be suspicious of any ecard email. That is why we have added a new feature in our site to distinguish Ojolie ecard emails from fake ones.

In addition to the existing feature that includes the sender’s full name in the ecard email subject, e.g. “Frederikke Tu has sent you an ecard from Ojolie.com”, we have added an optional email subject field and an optional email message field in the “send card” page. Click here to see a complete sample page.

You can add a personal email subject and message that will be included in the ecard pickup notification email sent to the recipients. It will personalize and distinguish your email from the recent fake ecard email scams and increase the chance that your ecard will be viewed by the recipients.

Instead of the typical email subject, your personal email subject will be used instead, with your personal email message included inside the email.

2 new ecards

We have added a new card a few weeks ago called ‘Lily’ ; it celebrates the union of two of nature’s awe inspiring spectacles – the unfolding of a lily and the iridescent flight of a hummingbird. Suitable for almost any occasion or just send it for no reason in particular!

Lily

We have also just added a new card called ‘Jolly Birthday’ featuring Hopscotch the kitten and Spriggs the puppy (in case you’re wondering he is named after English Pirate Francis Spriggs) making a well intended mess. The card has a fixed greeting of Happy Birthday in addition to the personal greeting options.

Jolly Birthday

In addition we are already working on the cards for the holidays and a few new features for the site, so there is more to look forward to.

Celebrate Independece Day with the New “Hope” ecard

We have added a new card called ‘Hope’ featuring the wonderful musical composition of Respighi, inspired by nature and the flight of the dove.

The message of hope and peace is one that resonates at any time in our lives and history. With the upcoming Independence Day celebration for our members in the United States, the card is also well suited for that occasion.

Hope