(This post is sponsored by Bond; all opinions and photos are my own.) Growing up, I remember my parents having me write thank you cards to all the relatives and friends who had given us gifts for birthdays or Christmas. As a mother, I have the best of intentions, yet I can’t tell you how many times we’ve actually written “Thank you” cards to people and they’ve sat waiting to be mailed until they’d be so embarrassingly late that I finally just ditched them. Yes, I am truly guilty of and completely embarrassed by that, but owning it! What is it about that last step of actually mailing something that always kills me? I don’t think that I am alone in that, and I’m sad to say that handwritten notes have become a thing of the past, a lost art. When Bond approached me about sharing their unique concept of sending handwritten cards through an app, I knew this was the answer to sending thoughtful cards in a timely manner. Personal cards are a great way to strengthen a relationship and let someone know you took some time out of your day to think of them. In today’s society, text messages are the norm, but the simple action of sending a card says so much more than any text message could ever say. Bond provides an easy way to send customizable cards with a “handwritten” feel to them; and the best part for people like me is that they take care of the mailing for you; no more cards just sitting, waiting to be mailed to the recipient.
Since Emmy is a creative child and enjoys drawing immensely, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to create cards featuring her artwork. I asked her to create something so that we could send a “Thank You” to Santa.
She drew an adorable snowy owl with colored pencils. She also wanted to create a card for a best friend of hers that was moving one town over. This particular friend loves fun color and pattern, so Emmy and I selected this piece she created in art class this past Fall.
With the phone app, using Bond is really simple and the first card you send is free! (And even beyond that, cards are only $5 each and that includes customization, writing, and most importantly for me, the actual mailing process. 😉 You can simply take a photo of the art using your phone. In my case, I wanted the optimal photo quality, so I took photos with my real camera and then just emailed them to myself and saved them on my phone. That adds some steps, but allows me the best photo possible.
Once you’ve added your photo to the app, you can continue creating your cards. Before creating the meat of your content, you can add a header and closer if you wish. I took screen shots of the process so you could see how to use the app.
Next you can add your personal note. I don’t know about your kids, but mine LOVE typing on my phone, so Emmy loved this part of the process. Also, I recall writing thank you note after note as a child, and by the end my hand was so tired and cramped. With this process, there’s none of that. Simply type in your message. And, if you have several to write, you can even copy and paste it, changing it a tad each time to make it personal. Back in the day I would say the same thing, but I still had to write it over and over and over…
Once your note is typed, the next step is choosing the handwritten style. You can browse several and select your favorite.
After that step is complete, you can select your stationery, and if you’ve added your own images you can choose from those, which is what we did.
And now, this last part was my personal favorite…. Enter in our return address as well as the recipient address. Why do I love this so much? Because Bond will mail it for me! That’s the step I always fail at, but no more! (Of course we mailed these to ourselves so that I could share this post with you; that’s why we’re listed as recipient as well as sender.) Check it out… you can also schedule for later, which is ideal if you want to send out a birthday or holiday greeting.
When the cards arrived, I was so impressed with the quality. They’re printed on thick cardstock, and the clarity compared to the original is fabulous. (My photo clarity in wordpress is never as crisp as it should be, so please know that they are truly crisp in person).
The backside and mailing addresses of the cards are printed in the selected handwriting styles.
Since the cards are so thick and great print quality, they actually will make great little framed pieces as well. If you’re customizing like we did, the recipient now has a great little piece of your child’s art to treasure.
I placed one of ours up on the shelf for the moment before we give it to Emmy’s friend. It adds a fun splash of color for now.
Emmy was thrilled when she saw the cards; knowing her original artwork was on them filled her with a sense of pride. The process was fast and easy… almost as easy as a text message, yet so much more personal. Now that Bond has made it this simple, there’s no excuse, and my kids will finally be mailing out those thank-yous before it’s embarrassingly too late! 😉
