Pigspigot is a user-generated greeting company. The site let upload the art for e-cards on its website. People can both and send and friend e-cards. Cards can also be sent as a $3.99 snail mail card.
Pigspigot is an online, user-generated greeting card company that will allow customers to send both e-cards and snail-mail cards to friends and family. We like to think of it as a sort of anti-Hallmark with a wiki twist.
Browse our collection, using our editor's picks or check out what's "popular" to see the cards people love the most. We offer free e-cards, but try sending a paper card for the insanely low price of 3.99 (including shipping). We're sure your loved ones would love you more if you send them the real deal (and we're pretty sure the converse is true, too; yikes!). Check out our FAQ section for more technical details or contact us with any questions.
Or, if you're feeling clever and art-tastic, submit some cards! You can upload designs that you've created on your computer or you can use our nifty card template. Please do it. Por favor. Because without you, we'd have no cards.
Pigspigot is not currently offering any payment for art submitted to its website although they do mention ways contributing artists may be rewarded in the Faq. The terms they take for using artwork are described here.
American Greetings has announced in a press release that they are launching sound envelopes. When the envelope is opened it activates a song or a recorded sound to play. The envelopes will retail for $3.49. Here's more from the press release.
This patent-pending design has an innovative mechanism in the opening flap, which triggers music or sound to be played each time it is opened. These mailable envelopes allow consumers to add a surprising burst of sound to almost any greeting card. The new envelopes also feature themed designs to create an exciting way to package a greeting card that's not only visually appealing, but also a lot of fun.
"We know that consumers want to create memorable experiences when celebrating special occasions to show their friends and family just how much they care," said Mary McClain, new product concepts creative director American Greetings. "Music and sound envelopes are a unique way to customize a song or sound clip to an already carefully selected greeting card and it adds such a wonderful surprise when the envelope is opened."
Featuring a variety of songs and sounds, the collection has everything to delight recipients, ranging from "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" from New Kids on the Block, and "Happy Birthday" to people cheering and animal noises. The envelopes are perfect additions to any birthday or other festive occasion.
Ray Olson explains how to recycle greeting cards in this video from eHowgreen.
Some of the ideas including cutting off the front and using it as a gift tag. You can also use the front flap to create a new greeting card. Multiple greeting cards can also be put together to make wrapping paper. Take a look:
New Greeting Cards Contain Audio Clips From Movies
Cleveland.com reports that American Greetings has teamed up with Paramount for a line of print audio greeting cards that contain lines from movies. A Godfather card is one of the first 10 from this new line of birthday cards.
The $4.99 cards, which are just starting to appear on store shelves at American Greetings and Carlton Cards stores, will also be sold at drugstores, supermarkets and mass retail outlets such as Wal-Mart and CVS.
Other cards in the series feature characters from the movies "Airplane," "Clueless," "Dreamgirls," "Major League," "The Naked Gun," "Old School," "Road Trip," and "Tommy Boy."
The "Tommy Boy" card features Richard (David Spade) and Tommy (Chris Farley) with the phrase: "It's your birthday - Do something exciting!" Inside, the two say, "Have fun!"
The sound chip adds, "I can't believe you've never been cow tipping before! Get ready to live!"
The cards cost $4.99 and can be purchased at American Greeting stores, Carlton Cards stores as well as drugstores, grocery stores and other retailers that carry cards.
Here's a fun postcard that's also a toy. The postcard aeroplane includes a basla wood guider that kids can pop out. It's sold here on Suck.uk.com for 5 pounds, which is about $7.16 U.S.
s it a plane? Is it a postcard? No it's a postcard aeroplane! Excellent for kids and grown-ups who are just big kids, it's made from balsa wood and the pieces easily pop out to form your very own loop-de-loop, flying glider. It's much more fun than ordinary mail and once you write a little message on it, it becomes post with a bit more love and personality. Don't forget to send it by ‘air mail' though, get it? Air? Because it's a plane and it flies through the air!
Hallmark has announced its fifth online greeting card creation competition. This one is called "YourBloopers" and it involves laugh-out-loud cards. The 60 finalists' designs will be sold in more than 10,000 stores nationwide this summer.
From Jan. 12-Feb. 1, Hallmark will accept submissions online here. Hallmark judges are looking for cards that have photos and writing that work well together, could be sent to many different people and are laugh-out-loud-in-the-card-aisle funny. Each eligible photo must be funny, intriguing and in a vertical format. Wording inside the card should wish the recipient a happy birthday.
"This is our fifth card competition," notes Hallmark editorial director Sarah Mueller. "We're finding people have really funny photos that seem to be meant for a greeting card, so this is an opportunity to pair a great photo with a hilarious birthday wish."
American Greetings Seeks to Acquire Recycled Paper Greetings
American Greetings is seeking to acquire rival Recycled Paper Greetings Inc. Recycled Paper Greetings filed for bankruptcy as part of the proposed sale. RPG Investment Holdings strongly opposes the actions taken by American Greetings reports Reuters.
RPG Investment Holdings and funds affiliated with private equity firm Monitor Clipper Partners LLC said in a separate statement on Friday that they "strongly oppose the actions taken by American Greetings" prior to the bankruptcy filing.
According to Recycled Paper's website, it is a Monitor Clipper portfolio company.
"Through its unlawful actions, we believe American Greetings is attempting to eliminate Recycled Paper Greetings as a competitor, in an effort to gain more widespread traction in the lucrative market segment in which Recycled Paper Greetings excels," the investors said.
There are other article about investors complaining about the sale here, here and here.
American Greetings Corp. is eliminating 275 jobs because of the weak economy. Internet Retailer reports that the economy will cause the company to fall short of its expected Q3 earnings. The cuts will be made at American Greetings' headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The company employs 18,000 people and 2,200 of them work at the Cleveland headquarters. Ohio.com has more details on the layoffs at American Greetings.
The AP has reported a few facts about holiday greeting cards.
They say that Holiday cards date to 1843 in Europe and 1875 in the United States. The Greeting Card Association says that holiday cards now account for about 27% of the 7 billion paper cards sold each year.
The U.S. Postal Service expect total holiday mail to fall for the first time in decades. The drop is expected to be from 20 billion last year to 19 billion pieces of holiday mail this year.
The AP also says that according to ettiquette experts at The Emily Post Institute it is acceptable to skip cards to save money.
You can skip cards but you can also send more meaningful cards to less people if you are trying to cut back. ShoppingBlog.com reports that American Greetings and Hallmark started noticing that people were looking for more traditional cards during the 2007 holidays. The big card companies have also come out with more traditional and heartfelt cards this year.
Last year we introduced our "holiday video card," and over a million of you sent fun and festive video cards to your friends and loved ones. This year we're bringing it back with even more themes and featured videos for you to choose from, like this one:
To create your card, visit the YouTube Greeting Cards site where you can choose from dozens of holiday videos uploaded by the YouTube community. Or if you prefer, send a greeting video of your own - either select a video that you've previously uploaded or record a brand new one. For your convenience, we've also added a link on every YouTube watch page under the "share options" section so you can send any embeddable video on YouTube as a greeting card.
After you've selected your video, pick a theme, type in your personal message, enter the recipients' email addresses, and voila - instant holiday cheer.
The YouTube Greeting Cards site lets you select a YouTube video to include in your greeting card. You can also record your own video message to use. The ecard can then be emailed to your friends. A bunch of YouTubers have created special Christmas messages for these YouTube greetings.
The White House has selected Hallmark Cards, Inc., for the eighth year in a row, to produce the official 2008 presidential holiday card. The cards will be mailed to foreign dignitaries, friends, and family of President and Mrs. George W. Bush. The card image is an exclusive design of a view from the Truman Balcony of the White House.
Artist T. Allen Lawson, a well-known painter from Main, was selected by Mrs. Bush to create the original artwork for the card. Lawson's painting is reproduced on the card, made with recycled paper, as a tip-on on elegant stock with a debossed edge. An embossed gold foil presidential seal highlights the insert page.
President and Mrs. Bush selected the following Bible verse from Matthew and brief message to be incorporated on the card:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16
The card also says, "May your heart and home be filled with the joys of the holiday season."
Hallmark's presidential card project leader Cindy Mahoney was thrilled to work on the card. "I am pleased that Hallmark was chosen by the Bush family to continue the important tradition of sending holiday cards," Mahoney said. "More than ever, people will find comfort and reassurance receiving cards this holiday season with messages of peace, love and appreciation."
Work began on the holiday card in July when a team from Hallmark began collaborating with Mrs. Bush's office.
Hallmark also made holiday cards for Vice President and Mrs. Cheney's official 2008 holiday cards.
Hallmark began making Christmas cards for presidents in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first White House Christmas card and started what has become a White House tradition. The company has created at least one card for each administration with exception of the Clinton Administration. The 2008 card is the 41st official card created by Hallmark for the White House.
In 1982, Hallmark donated its Presidential Christmas Card Collection to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The Hallmark Visitors Center adjacent to the Kansas City headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc., also displays the Presidential Christmas Card Collection.
Write Hook Lets Users Mail Customizable Print Cards Online
BizTimes.com reports that two Milkwaukee women recently started a greeting card company called Write Hook. Write Hook lets people send customizable print cards from their computer. The cards cover typical occassions like holidays and birthdays as well as "less typical" moments like divorce, break-ups, menopause and pet loss.
Lori Palay and Seraya Amirthalingam created the company to allow people to create greeting cards for some of the "less typical" moments in life.
Readers can browse hundreds of images and sentiments, and choose elements that express their exact thoughts at the company website (www.writehook.com). The custom cards can then be mailed to recipients.
"I am a cancer survivor, and when I was sick, people were incredibly generous," Palay said. "I was too sick to write thank you notes, and I kept thinking there has to be a better way to do this. There has to be other people who are in my position."
The cards cost between $2.25 and $4. They are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. Write Hook also donates five cents from every card sale to charity.
The financial crisis has made this holiday period very unpleasant but greeting card publisher Order of St. Nick has a way to add a little cheer and humor. They have released a set of "financial crisis Christmas cards" for the 2008 holiday season. You can see the cards here.
"Humor is essential to making it through tough times," owner and creative director Andrew Shaffer says. "The current global financial crisis is no different. People need to laugh now more than ever, and that's where our Depressing Times(TM) line of holiday greeting cards comes in."
Topics that the cards make light of include the subprime mortgage crisis, high gas prices, unemployment, vanishing 401k, and health insurance woes. The paper greeting cards feature vintage photos from the Great Depression, enhanced with humorous verse such as "Have a Great Depression and a Subprime New Year" and "Obama's new health care plan rocks! I only wish I still had that kidney I sold to pay my heating bill."
Halloween is the Fastest Growing Greeting Card-Sending Occasion
Halloween is here at last. Americans will spend an estimated $5.77 billion this year on Halloween costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards, according to the National Retail Federation. And nearly two-thirds of American adults say they plan to celebrate the fall occasion in some way. Below are some statistics and information provided by the Greeting Card Assocation.
Halloween card-giving is also on the rise. The Greeting Card Association
estimates that approximately 35 million Halloween cards will be exchanged in 2008. Although the majority of these cards are sent to young children, humorous adult-to adult card sending is gaining ground, as oldsters share the fun and delight of a holiday they enjoyed as kids.
Halloween now ranks as the third largest day for parties in the U.S., behind New Year's Eve and Super Bowl Sunday.
Americans are also transporting the Halloween spirit into their homes, making it the second-largest holiday for home decoration purchases after Christmas.
It is also the fastest growing greeting card-sending occasion.
There are large number of website providing electronic Halloween greetings including 123greeting.coms, American Greetings and Blue Mountain. In addition to print cards you find in stores there are always ways to build Halloween cards online. For example, this post on ShoppingBlog.com describes a feature on Hallmark's website that lets you add your own photograph to a cute printed Halloween card. Hallmark will even do the delivery part for you.
Photo (top): Screenshot from American Greeting's "Heard It Through the Graveyard" e-card.
The Greeting Card Association has released the following brief history of Halloween. They also say that today approximately 35 million Halloween cards are sold each year in the United States.
Halloween is an ancient festival that evolved from a combination of ancient
religious beliefs and the harvest celebrations of the Celts and their Roman
conquerors.
Many historians believe Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celts,
whose New Year began on November 1. At the end of October, they celebrated
Samhain, an end-of-harvest festival that marked the beginning of the “dark” or
fallow half of their agrarian year.
This distinctive division between dark and light was also thought to be a time
the spirits of the dead could breach the world of the living. This led people to don masks or costumes as a way to disguise themselves from these spirits. Sometimes townspeople would parade in their disguises to the outskirts of their villages to lure the spirits away from their homes.
As the Romans conquered the Celtic world, they combined their own fall
harvest festival and celebration for the dead with the existing Samhain practices, and the unusual fall celebration continued to evolve.
During the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved the All Hallows church
festival to the first of November. The night before, October 31, became known as All Hallow's E'en or "Halloween." In modern times, Halloween has always been
celebrated on October 31.
In the United States, Halloween was not widely observed until the 1840s,
when Irish Catholics fleeing from the potato famine brought their Halloween customs to America. Halloween decorations and cards began to appear in America around 1910, although most of them were imported from Germany. When World War I
broke out, imports were curtailed and American companies began to fill the void.
Today approximately 35 million Halloween cards are sold each year in the United States.
American Greetings is seeking to acquire rival 
American Greetings Corp. is eliminating 275 jobs because of the weak economy. Internet Retailer 
YouTube 
BizTimes.com 
The financial crisis has made this holiday period very unpleasant but greeting card publisher Order of St. Nick has a way to add a little cheer and humor. They have released a set of "financial crisis Christmas cards" for the 2008 holiday season. You can see the cards 
Halloween is here at last. Americans will spend an estimated $5.77 billion this year on Halloween costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards, according to the National Retail Federation. And nearly two-thirds of American adults say they plan to celebrate the fall occasion in some way. Below are some statistics and information provided by the 
The 