What a personalised card looks like when it isn't a template

Personalised usually means a stock illustration with a name dropped into a text box. A card that's actually about someone looks different: the cover shows their thing — the otters they're obsessed with, their allotment, the ridiculous campervan — and the words inside refer to something only the two of you would say.

How to describe someone so the artwork is theirs

• Name one thing they love that a stranger wouldn't guess: sea swimming, sourdough, their tortoise.
• Give the occasion and the tone: 30th birthday, funny; sympathy, gentle; new job, proud.
• Mention a place if it matters — the beach they grew up on, the city they just moved to.
• Skip adjectives like 'nice' and 'special'. They produce nice, special, forgettable cards.

"Otters holding hands in a river at sunset, for my girlfriend's 30th, warm and a bit funny" makes a better card than "birthday card for girlfriend".

The words are yours, whoever drafts them

You can have a first draft written for you and then change any of it by tapping the words on the card, or choose to write every word yourself and leave the inside blank until you fill it. The draft exists to get past the blank page, not to replace what you'd say.

Adjust the picture until it's right

If the cover is close but not quite, ask for a small tweak — warmer colours, a different time of day, one more otter — and it's repainted using the first version as the reference, so you don't lose what was already working.

Then send it however suits

The same card can be emailed as an animated envelope for $1.99 or printed and posted for $9.99. One payment either way, and no subscription.