You’re probably already familiar with some of the best eCard makers for custom greetings, like Adobe Spark, Canva, or JibJab. The problem is that most of the others do too. These sites are so popular that they end up being the default, so eCards start to look all too familiar.
If you want to stand out from the crowd this holiday season, check out some of these little-known and creative apps for making e-cards and sending Christmas wishes. While some refer exclusively to Christmas, others can be used for a broader range of greetings.
1. Designs.AI Cards (Web): Create custom Christmas eCards or video cards with AI
Designs.AI gained popularity as one of the best AI video makers, but it has also taken advantage of AI to become an amazing online design tool. One of its best uses is as a digital card maker, especially for video cards, where you can create your own design with its simple AI-powered tools.
The app works a bit like a PowerPoint slideshow, where you add elements page after page to make your personalized card. You can use ready-made templates or add photos, backgrounds, text, grids, skins, shapes, and animation styles. Everything is adjustable and the AI ​​will intelligently replicate changes to the pages if necessary.
Once you’re done making your card, you can preview it and even use the AI-powered “Magic Resize” to tweak its dimensions to better fit an Instagram or Facebook story, Twitter post, or Instagram, an A4 sheet and much more. You can download it as a JPG, PNG, PDF or MP4 video. Converting multiple slides into one cool video is the highlight of this app. If you download the video or image for free, it will include the Designs.AI watermark, but you can remove it for a fee.
2. Greeting (Web): Easy, Free, No-Registration Personal Message eCards in a Jiffy
Some people in your life deserve a little more than a card template used by thousands. These special people deserve a personal message written by you. Greeet is a simple tool to create an online page that acts as a greeting card for any occasion.
Greeet is also the best option if you want to quickly send an eCard to someone without going through the hassle of signing up for a website and choosing from many designs. It’s fast, it’s free, it’s super simple to use, and it doesn’t require registration. In fact, the site boasts that you can create a Greeet in as little as 30 seconds.
When you create a greeting card, you add a short title of less than 20 words, followed by your personal message in the dialog box. Optionally, you can also add an image. Then choose from five basic layouts (which change the background, colors, fonts, and headers) and you’re done. Share the link from Greeet’s personal message with that loved one.
3. greeting (Web): Free, Quick and Simple Video Greeting Cards for Christmas
While there are several free apps for making custom video greeting cards, there are no guarantees that the site or app will last for years. If your recipient wants to revisit the video card as a bit of nostalgia, will they be able to?
The simplest solution would be to upload a video to your own YouTube account, which you can make public or private, and is almost guaranteed to last a lifetime. But sending a YouTube link alone seems tacky, so Greety wraps it up in seasonal gift wrap.
Add the recipient’s name, your own name, and the link to the YouTube video. That’s it, you’re ready to share the exclusive Greety link, which appears as a simple Merry Christmas message with a gift box that the recipient needs to click to start the video. Greety does not store anything on its own servers and is completely free.
Four. bells and wishes (Web): Send group greetings and cards
Wish Grandma a Merry Christmas like the whole family? Bells and Wishes makes it super simple for everyone to add their own message on a single eCard, complete with GIFs, photos, or videos.
Is that how it works. As the creator, you start a card and add the first message to it. The message is plain text, includes your name, and you can insert a GIF, photo, or video. The video option also makes it easy for anyone to record a video message with their phone, as Bells and Wishes can be updated on mobile. You can also set a background from the available templates, change the fonts, and preview how the card will look.
Then share the eCard link with other people whose messages you want to add to the card. Anyone with a link can send a message or multiple messages. The free version of Bells and Wishes restricts you to five messages per card and one final recipient, while the premium versions remove these restrictions.
The recipient can view the card on a desktop or mobile computer with no issues. They can also download the eCard to save offline.
5. become an elf (Web, Android, iOS): Create a dancing elves video with custom faces
Elf Yourself allows you to create cute animated videos of dancing elves, but with your own face or that of your friends. It’s surprisingly easy too. In any video, you can add up to five faces on the goblins.
The app allows you to upload images from your gallery or hard drive, or take a photo with your camera or webcam. You can also connect Elf Yourself to your Facebook or Instagram account to import images from there. Once you select a face, you’ll need to align it with the shape of the elf’s head, following the recommended line for placing the mouth. You can increase or decrease the size of the face, as well as rotate it. Your faces will also be saved for later use in other videos.
Once all the faces are set up, choose from the various types of videos. Most of these will be paid, but Elf Yourself offers two free videos every day, which you can share or save. You can keep coming back to the app every day to use your face bank for these new videos and build a small collection.
Discharge: elf himself for Android | iOS (Free)
Find a way to make it personal
With this variety of apps at your disposal, you are sure to make a creative and unique Christmas greeting card this year. But don’t forget that the secret to a memorable card is to make it personal. If you send it to a single recipient, make it about them. And if it’s the massive card you send out to everyone, then add a dash of your personality in some way.