I hope you are all settling into the New Year well.

I have a lot of birthdays to send gifts and ecards for in January, so I have been looking around for fun ideas and came across this fantastic page which I thought you might like. Its a write-up of all things relating to dogs and birthdays! The main thrust of the article is about dog themed birthday cakes but when you get down to the bottom of the article there are some great useful links to other dog-themed merchandise and ideas.

Take a look here. I particularly like this ingenius dog cake – its soo realistic!

If you have a dog-lover friend with a birthday soon, click here to take a look at this ‘Dog and Bone’ birthday ecard, which is sure to raise a smile.

Katie x

The festive season is well and truly over. No more mince pies until next year. I hope you all had a terrific time with your loved ones and enjoyed some special times. We had a lovely family Christmas and a nice rest and I am now raring to get going on this years new ecards!

We have lots of cards planned for the next year, starting with a brand new Chinese New Year ecard which I hope you will enjoy.

Anyone tried out the new Facebook app yet? Let me know what you think of it, its a great way to send greetings out to people and I would like to know what you think of it.

Katie x

P.s. Send unlimited e cards for a small membership fee. Click here to join today.

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our new Facebook application which allows you to connect to your Facebook account and send ecards to your Facebook friends AND see birthday reminders from Facebook!

The application is available to members and non-members. Non-members can send cards from the ‘Free e cards’ category of the website and members can send cards from any category.

To use the application as a member to send e cards all you have to do is select an ecard from any category to send, and when you get to the ’send’ page you will see a Facebook button with ‘Click here to post on Facebook’. When you click this button you will be asked to log into your Facebook account, once you have done this you will see a list of your Facebook friends and you can choose who you want to send the card to. You can post the card on the recipients profile page or send them a message to their Facebook inbox.

To use this application as a non-member you can select any e card from the ‘Free ecards’ section and follow the same instructions as above.

To see your birthday reminders, all you have to do is click on the ‘View your Facebook Reminders’ button on the Katie’s Cards homepage. You will be asked to log into your Facebook account and then you will see a list of your Facebook friends who have birthdays coming up which you can then send a birthday e card to using Facebook or in the traditional way, by sending them an email.

This application has been developed by us to enhance your user experience. We hope that you enjoy using it!

Please comment if you need any help with using the application!

Katie x

p.s. here is our new Nativity Christmas e card that you can send to spread festive greetings!

As Christmas is nearing, we all need a few helpful tips which can help us get through the busiest and (in my opinion) one of the best times of the year.

You may remember that I wrote a set of four Christmas tips a few weeks ago, each of them focusing on a particular part of the Christmas season. I have linked to these below:

Christmas Tips 1: Buying Presents

Christmas Tips 2: Planning your Christmas Lunch

Christmas Tips 3: Decorations

Christmas Tips 4: How to Have  a Greener Christmas

I came across some fantastic additional and more general tips on the Nigella website here that I thought you might like. They are submitted to the Nigella website by visitors who are sharing their wisdom and there are some fantastic tips in the list!

I hope you enjoy them!

Katie x

P.s. Here is a Christmas e card from our collection that you might like. You can find and send the ecard by clicking here.

Click here to join Katie’s Cards and begin sending unlimited ecards throughout your membership for a small subscription fee.

Hi all,

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

We had an eventful one. Whilst taking Plum out for a walk, she ran off and went missing and when we found her she had injured her ear terribly. She was taken off to the vets to be looked at and the poor thing had to have a bandage put on her ear!

She is fine thankfully, but she really gave us a scare. She is so mischievous that little dog of ours, though not as mischievous as Fenton – the famous dog who’s video has gone viral on You tube!

Have you got any stories about your pets you want to share?

Katie x

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

As you may or may not know, I started to write a series of Christmas tips last week. I began with my tips for buying Christmas gifts, then went onto do tips on planning your Christmas lunch and finally give you some tips on decorating. Today I am sharing my tips for a greener Christmas with you. I hope you enjoy them and once again, please do leave a comment if you want to add one of your own tips to the list!

My tips for a greener Christmas:

• Buy a real, living Christmas tree to decorate every year. They can replanted every year in your garden after the season.
• Make sure that all Christmas lights are energy saving or solar. You can find a great selection of eco-friendly decorations and ligts here at Nigels Eco Store
• Buy a holly tree so that you can use cuttings from the bush to decorate your house for years to come! You can buy holly and other beautiful trees here at Tree 2 my door
• Buy eco-friendly gifts. There are some wonderful eco-friendly and ethical gifts available at Amnesty International
• And of course, send your loved ones Christmas e cards! Our e cards don’t just have a pretty face, they are also extremely cost affective AND environmentally friendly!

Katie x

For those of you in the UK, here is Royal Mail’s last postage dates for 2011. As you can see, some of the dates have passed or are very near! But don’t worry, as e cards can be sent in a matter of minutes, you can still send all of your loved ones a Christmas e card that they will receive on the day you schedule delivery! This is a brilliant reason to choose to send ecards to your loved ones this year.

Another great reason to send your loved ones a Christmas ecard is that they can save you money. It costs 46p for a first class stamp in the UK, so if you have over 30 Christmas cards to send, this is going cost you at least double the cost of a Katie’s Cards subscription, on top of the price of your Christmas cards. A subscription to Katie’s Cards only cost £7 and for that you can send as many cards as you like for a whole year!

Last recommended posting services

Standard Parcels - Wed 14th December

Second Class and Recorded Signed For™ - Sat 17th December

First Class and Recorded Signed For™ - Tue 20th December

Parcelforce express48 - Wed 21st December

Parcelforce express24 - Thu 22nd December

International Surface Mail

Non-European destinations except Middle East, South Africa, Far East, USA and Canada - Fri 30th September

Middle and Far East (except Hong Kong and Singapore) - Tue 4th October

South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, the USA and Canada - Tue 18th October

Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta and Iceland - Tue 8th November

Western Europe - Tue 22nd November

International Airmail

South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand – Mon 5th December

Eastern Europe, USA and Canada - Fri 9th December

Western Europe - Mon 12th December

British Forces Post Office (BFPO)

Airmail to Operational BFPOs- Fri 2nd December

Airmail to Static BFPOs- Thu 15th December

Katie x

P.s this is a great one to send!

I am very pleased to be able to show you the brand new Thanksgiving e card we have just added to the website today! We hope you like it!

The card is inspired by the beautiful season that the wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations are held in, the leaves are turning and changing into beautiful brown red and orange hues. Our ecard shows them, having fallen to the ground, being picked up by the wind and being lifted and twirled like a waltz.

Set to the beautiful notes of Rossini’s Sonata a Quattro No.3 in C Major, this Thanksgiving ecard is a peaceful and beautiful greeting that can be sent to all your loved ones and will help the celebrations get started.

Here is a preview of the card below. Let me know what you think!

Katie x

It is very cold here today and feels quite wintery. Although I do like this time of year as it is so picturesque, I do wish it wasn’t as cold for my walks with Plum!

There are only a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving, and Christmas is not far behind. Have you done any of your planning for Thanksgiving or Christmas yet?

We’ve been updating a lot of things on the website which will all be fully working in a matter of days. The developments include some brand new features which will help you to manage sending e cards tremendously, such as the ‘bulk upload’ tool, which allows you to upload up to 100 contacts in one quick and easy go, as well as an exciting new Facebook app which will link with your Facebook profile, enabling you to send ecards to your Facebook friends and receive birthday reminders

A great way to get organised for this festive season is to pre-schedule your ecards to be delivered whenever you choose. You can do this from your personal membership account and it is so easy and quick, which is exactly what we all need at this time of year! E cards are a great way to send personal greetings to loved ones across the globe as they are quick to organise, cheap to send and environmentally friendly.

Please do let me know if you have any questions or need any help with your account. Remember, we are always happy to help you get the most out of your Katie’s Cards membership!

Katie x

P.s. here is an old Christmas e card that you might like.

How were your Halloween celebrations? I hope you all had an excellent time and enjoyed sending your Halloween ecards!

Next on the list in Thanksgiving and we have some new Thanksgiving ecards as well as Christmas ecards on their way to you that I hope you will like!

After years of popular demand and 2 sequels, we are pleased to be working on the new Turkey Breakout card and this year there is a twist – as we are making a fun ecard game for all to play and enjoy!

There will be a version for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The game is fun and entertaining and is a great way to kick off the celebrations and spread some holiday cheer!

In the mean time though, here is a little reminder of Turkey Breakout 2 to put a smile on your face!

Katie x