How many times have you found yourself in this scenario: It’s a friend’s or relative’s birthday and you’re driving to the store at the last minute to buy them a card. I’m not proud to admit it, but I’ve been there more times than I care to remember. While I understand the symbolic importance of sending someone dear to me a card, I don’t believe it’s necessary to drive to the store and spend four dollars to do so.
So what’s the alternative — make a card myself? That was a feasible plan back in the days when I still wore Superman underwear (which was last week), but no, the answer is much simpler, and it’s Red Stamp. Find out more after the jump.
What is Red Stamp?
Red Stamp allows you to create personalized cards, notes, invitations, announcements and more (for the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to all of these options as “cards” going forward) right from your iPhone. Whatever your creation, you can send it via email or text message, post it to Facebook or Twitter, and even mail a paper version to anywhere in the world. Domestic mailing starts out at $1.99 for single card (international mailing starts at $2.99) and the price of a card decreases depending on the number you order.
Getting Started
Upon firing up the app for the first time you’ll be directed to the side menu, which includes navigation buttons to other areas within the app. Red Stamp uses gestures (always a welcome sight) to close and open the menu, meaning you will need to swipe from the left or right on the screen. At the top of the menu you’ll see a prompt to login or sign up for an account, which are free and allow you to use many of the great features within Red Stamp (such as saving favorite designs or keeping a history of all the cards you send).
Signing up for an account is quick and easy.
Creating a Card
When you’re ready to create your first card, you’ll first need to select one of 12 categories. During my time with Red Stamp, I often came across the same cards in different categories, so I recommend that you choose the one that makes the most sense (for example, choose Happy if you want to send a birthday card) and you’ll tend to find what you’re looking for.
No matter the occasion, Red Stamp has got you covered.
After choosing your category, the app will transition into a new page that is formatted with a grid of cards to choose from. Depending on the category you chose, you’ll see a navigation bar along the top, which lets you select a secondary category (if you chose Holidays, you can choose Christmas as a secondary category).
The grid layout makes it every easy to spot a design you'll like.
When you’ve discovered a card that looks appealing, tap on it and the screen will transition again. From here, you can select a different color option for the card by tapping the thumbnail options along the right side of the screen. In addition, you’ll need to write out a message, which is done by tapping the text present on the card. If you’re not great with words or are unsure what to say, Red Stamp provides pre-written messages, which you can access by tapping the speech bubble icon above the keyboard (the icon is also present above the color options).
I'd be really awesome if you could choose your own color scheme, but Red Stamp offers a lot of great alternate color options.
Some cards offer an option of adding your own photo in lieu of using a graphic based card, which is denoted by a camera icon with a plus. When you tap on the icon, a menu will pop up, prompting you to take a new photo or choose a photo from your camera roll. If you’ve linked your Facebook or Instagram accounts (more on that later), you’ll have the ability to import a photo from either account to use in your card.
Instagram support allowed me to easily import this rather amazing photo of my lady friend.
When you’ve finished creating your masterpiece, tap the Send button at the bottom of the screen to make your final preparations. A new menu will pop-up and you’ll need to choose between the option of mailing a paper postcard, sending the card via email or text message, posting the card on Facebook or Twitter, or simply saving the card to your camera roll for later use.
With Red Stamp you can paper mail, email or text your finished cards (and more).
Collections
Red Stamp offers over 400 different free designs for your projects, but if that’s not enough for you, it also includes Collections. At the time of this writing, three Collections are available: Instagram, Pierrepoint Hicks and Austin Collection (free as of this writing). Each Collection offers a unique style of card, but I personally wasn’t a big enough of fan to spend $1.99 (Pierrepoint) or $2.99 (Instagram) for them.
You can download individual designs from Collections.
Facebook & Instagram
As I mentioned earlier, you have the option to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts to Red Stamp, which allows you to import photos into your projects. In addition, linking your Facebook account also allows you to use the Events feature. Events (accessed by tapping the Events button in the side navigation menu) lists your Facebook friends’ (and iPhone contacts) birthdays, so you can send out a card on their special day.
Red Stamp makes it really easy to remember family and friends' birthdays.
By default, Red Stamp will notify you at 8:00 AM on the day of a friend’s birthday (a tad early for my taste), which can be changed by going into your Account and tapping the settings icon in the top right corner. From this menu you can also turn off this feature, or simply turn off Facebook or Contact birthdays.
Don't want an 8:00 AM birthday reminder? Set a custom time.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to deny that Red Stamp is a well made app. Creating a card is quick and easy, and you can send your creations in a lot of useful methods. Ultimately, you’ll love or loathe Red Stamp because of the cards’ styles, which are pretty simple and modern. I tend to send people humorous cards, because that’s my personality, but Red Stamp is so convenient and offers such a great selection that it may have changed how I send people cards (and more) forever.