Disclosure: I partnered with Cardstore from American Greetings and Life of Dad, LLC for the #WorldsToughestJob Dad Casting Father’s Day promotion and was compensated for my involvement.
Fatherhood is full of unscripted moments. I laugh when I think of this because images of all sorts of accidents and misadventures from my childhood come to mind. There was this one time my dad got a car for cheap.
We were living in Oklahoma at the time. It was summer so I remember it being super hot outside. My dad had just purchased a red Toyota Tercel Wagon. This was during the late 80s so you can image how awesome it looked. The twin brothers who lived across the way from us were on their way home from a baseball game when they stopped to talk with my dad.
I was maybe eight years old. I remember the words “pretty solid vehicle” coming out of my dad’s mouth as he kicked the bumper lightly. It was no doubt done in an effort to show the strength of the vehicles construction. This plan sorely backfired though. I know this because as my dad kicked the bumper it fell off of the car and onto the blacktop along with several chunks of rust. That was an unscripted moment that still makes me laugh all these years later. My poor dad was super embarrassed, but things worked out. We kept that car in good running condition for years after the bumper incident.
My dad makes me laugh and smile all the time. Life has been rough for him the last several months healthwise. We still talk to each other often. Father’s Day is in June and so is his birthday, so I thought I’d make a custom card for him from Cardstore this year.
Creating And Sending A Card From Cardstore
Cardstore, by American Greetings, is a new service offering personalized cards online. A card’s sender can create a card online and have it mailed directly to the recipient. I tried the process out for the first time earlier tonight and loved it. It was super simple to do and allowed for several kinds of customizations.
Here is the process I went through, step-by-step:
Look at all of these options. Cardstore is not just about Father’s Day cards, but that’s what I chose tonight. Father’s Day is just around the corner after all.
I chose the Father’s Day photo cards because they look awesome.
The site showed me a preview of the card template I selected and pointed out some of the item’s features with a “Design me!” speech bubble.
I clicked on the “make your card” button and was shown a project screen like this one:
Uploading a photos was easy. There were options to choose photos from Facebook, Dropbox, Instagram, Flickr or uploading my own from my computer.
I chose Instagram.
It was a breeze to connect, select and upload images from Instagram to Cardstore.
Once the images were uploaded I looked through my selected options and chose this photo of my son and I. I was able to zoom the photo in a bit and get the perfect fit for the front of the card.
The inside of the card worked much the same way. I selected my prefered layout of four custom images.
I then filled in those images with ones of my family. I particularly like the image of my dad kissing my son on the head at the top right corner of the card. I know that’ll make my dad super happy to see.
Once I was done laying out the card I was able to approve it step by step, Front, Inside, Back, etc.
The “Mail to the Recipient” option is great, but I was pleasantly surprised with the option to have it shipped to me along with a blank envelope to address myself. It is a great way to further personalize the card by handwriting the name and address of the person the card is being sent to. On to “Checkout” for payment options and then the card was ordered. I can’t wait to see how it looks!
#WorldsToughestJob
To demonstrate the contributions of fathers, Cardstore from American Greetings held an open casting call for actors to play the real life role of “Dad” and filmed it, showcasing there is no script for being a dad. If you haven’t seen this follow up ad to the Mother’s Day “World’s Toughest Job” ad released in April you have to check it out below:
Show The World How Awesome Your Dad Is
Everyone is invited to participate in the World’s Toughest Job social conversation by tweeting unscripted dad moments and telling Cardstore why the dad in your life deserves a standing ovation with #worldstoughestjob. Every hashtagged card, tweet and post about dad will be tallied up by the American Greetings Dadmiration Tracker below and then aggregated: http://www.cardstore.com/
Go ahead and give your dad an awesome card from Cardstore and send him shoutout via your social channels using the hashtag #worldstoughestjob. He’ll appreciate it and you’ll get to publicly brag about how awesome your dad is. I know my dad is cool. He’s taught me so much and raised me right. I hope to do just as well with my son.
P.S. If you order from Cardstore by 6/9 and use the code CCG4527 you can get a Father’s Day card for just $2.49!