Introducing Cartolina Postale!

I have something special to show you this morning!

This is the new Cartolina Postale iPhone app. YAY!

We've been working on this for a few weeks and are thrilled to announce that it's available, as of today, at the app store.

The response to the Cartolina app has been so overwhelming over the last year that we thought that the natural next step was an app that actually allows you to send physical paper postcards. So the Cartolina Postale app lets you combine our pretty, vintage images with your own photography - it's so fun!

There are 32 postcard designs to choose from, including some lovely holiday designs! You can take a picture using your phone or you can choose a picture from your photo gallery and it pops right onto your chosen card. Then you can scale the image, move it around or change the card design. It's so simple! After you've customized your card and you're happy with how it looks, you can write a message on the back. There's loads of room for your message. You'll be asked to open an account, which is very fast and simple, and from there you can address your card and it will be printed and sent. The app is FREE and the cost of printing and mailing a 4 x 6 postcard in the US is $1.99. Cards arrive very quickly - within 5 days according to our tests (in the US and UK) and a little longer to Canada. The quality of the cards is great, shiny, bright, heavy weight card. For even more information why don't you visit the Cartolina Postale website - it's very fun!

Details: Our super talented developer is Denis Hennessy at Peer Assembly - thank you Denis for all your hardwork!

The app is available for iPhone and iPod Touch right now and will be available for iPad by the end of the month. It will work on your 3GS as long as you have iOS 4.0 installed. The cost to mail a card to Canada is $2.99 but apparently Sincerely, who take care of the printing and mailing of the cards, are working really hard to bring us a $1.99 card in Canada asap, so stay tuned!

The New Cartolina iPhone app.

Yay - we have a brand new Cartolina app ready for you to download today. Due to some complicated details we had to get our new developer to rebuild the app from scratch over the last few weeks and so today we are happy to launch the shiny *new* Cartolina iPhone app! The new app is slightly different in function and flow and I think you are going to love it.

Along with

the 18 current Cartogram designs there is now an option to buy the new Post & Salvage Collection - 9 fab new designs for 99 cents. The new designs are pictured below and are all based on layered vintage ephemera. Some of the pieces are almost 150 years old - isn't it fun that we can reuse vintage paper in such a hi-tech format?

So if you already have the Cartolina app you can just update your app to the new version - you'll find the option to purchase the Post & Salvage Collection at the foot of the thumbnails page - it's an easy, in-app purchase. And, if you are seeing the Cartolina app for the first time - you can read more about it and find a link to the app store here.

Here's what the new Cartograms look like. . . . .

Thanks for all your support over the last few months - the Cartolina app has been such a success and we are really thrilled that you love it :-)

Australian Home Beautiful

We are very excited and honoured to have the Cartolina app in Australian Home Beautiful this month. Here's a little clip of the page. We took the Cartolina brand into Australia last year and I'm very grateful to all our Australian fans for making it a huge success. Thank you!

Cartolina iPhone app - version 1.3

Hey, guess what? The free update is ready for your Cartolina iPhone app. There are 8 new Cartograms which I think you will have fun with. The new designs are based on the layered ephemera look that was so popular with the holiday app. We have changed a few things with the functionality - there are now 4 lines available for your message - and, we have one *brand new feature* that I think you will enjoy - now you can post Cartograms to your Facebook page!! So making Facebook announcements can be really fun - and really pretty! Enjoy . . .

Here's a direct link to the iTune page.

Sneak Peek! New Cartograms!

I couldn't resist sharing this with you this morning. A sneak peek at 1 of the 9 new Cartograms available as a free upgrade to the Cartolina iPhone app. They should be available at the app store in about 2 weeks. Hope you like!

Cartolina Collection XI

Hello everyone - sorry for my absence for the last couple of days - I definitely did not anticipate how busy we would be this week. But, I have it all under control, and after another super busy week next week we will be back on track - phew!

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Cartolina Collection XI. Yay!

I'm very excited about these new designs. I am absolutely loving the new imagery and the bright colours for spring. These new cards will be in stores in the next few weeks . . . . .

This first card with the red birds was actually a request from our UK distributors - they asked for a design with bright colours and the word LOVE prominently displayed on the front - as signage for their trade show booth. But it turned out so nicely we turned it into a card. I know it's going to be a hit with the buyers because on the 1st day of release this week we sold 3/4 of the entire production run! That's never happened before!

The cards with the cakes are very exciting for me - I work with a few people around the world who source imagery for me and we looked high and low for these very rare prints. I only work with original antique prints so when my favourite image expert called to say she had managed to find originals I was thrilled. I hope you like them too.

The background on this poppy card is a 17th century, copperplate engraving that I bought from a dealer a long time ago. It's amazing how big that poppy grew when I planted it on that lawn!

This Horse Chestnut card is interesting to me because this tree is actually on the back of one of last year's cards. I got so many comments on that tree that it has been promoted to the front!

More Cakes - luv em!

A new feature that we have on all new cards(and reprints) this year is QR codes. A QR code is that tiny checker board icon that is popping up everywhere these days. Now some of you will know about QR codes but, if like me, they are a new feature for you, here's what Wikipedia says(better than I could):

"QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or on just about any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader applicationcan scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser."

So every card we print will have a QR code on the back. To scan the code you just need any smart phone and a scanner app like Quick Mark. Our codes, when scanned, could link to a multitude of things - depending on how we've set it up. This code, above, for instance, leads to our iPhone app page at the iTunes store. Other codes might lead to our website or our blog or a fun giveaway or a promo code! Each code is a fun surprise to enhance the experience of buying or receiving one of our cards! I hope you try it out some time :-)

If you are interested to know more about QR codes for your business this is a good video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDbFTai0iE&feature=player_embedded#!

Shameless self promotion :-)

I'm not sure why I always feel like apologizing when I indulge in some shameless self promotion. I think it's because, like many other designers, I'm really not comfortable selling my own product. But, on the other hand, there are only 16 days left until Christmas which means 16 days left to get yourself the Cartolina Holiday app and send all your friends and other favourite folk a pretty little Cartogram. I send out lots of holiday cards at this time of the year but this year I'm going to also use Cartograms to send casual greetings and invitations. I've received so many Cartograms from my bloggy friends and my Twitter pals - it's wonderful. Even though I designed them I still love to receive them in my inbox! So why not send something pretty hi-tech this year - or even better, why not gift an app from Apple?