You’ve opened your presents. You’ve eaten more turkey than you thought humanly possible. You’ve even done all of the washing up.

But there is one task remaining: the thank you cards.

I remember being nagged by my parents to write to everyone who gave me a gift when I was a kid. I was terrible at it. But this was back in the days of film cameras, and our PC ran Windows 2.0 (yes, really!).

Say thank you with a photo

Sending a personalised postcard or greeting card costs only one credit, only takes a minute, but it really shows your appreciation. It’s a win-win: they feel good about giving you the present, and then they’ll be even more motivated to get you a great present next year!

Four simple thank you card ideas

1. The present opening moment

It doesn’t have to be complicated. If you got photos during the present opening, then share that moment – like this little guy. I *think* he likes his new toy…

2. Cherish that wrapping!

Ok, so this person won the prize for the biggest present under the tree. It didn’t even fit under the tree. But there’s some serious wrapping pros out there, so you could always remind them of their handy work, and tell them how much you appreciated it :)

3. Make a greeting card into a thank you card

It doesn’t have to be a postcard. Lots of people have been using our festive cards for birthdays and other occasions. Just choose a theme such as ‘classic’ and put your message on the front. (And stay tuned for forthcoming news on greetings cards...)

4. Don’t forget the dog

Because any excuse will do for a photo…

It’s the perfect way to use any leftover credits, or if you need credits, check our multipack deals, where you can get credits for as little as 99p or 99c.

Send thank you cards now

Via our website, iPhone or Android.

Please check our holiday printing dates - our Germany and Australia printers start again on Jan 2.

We’ve been helping people to brighten up their loved ones’ mantelpieces and fridges with postcards for a while.

But you’ve been asking for more too, and we listened. So today we’re delighted to announce our brand-spanking-new cards.

Holiday cards, Christmas cards – however you describe them, the easiest way to make your friends and family feel special this year is with Touchnote :)

Send all your cards in minutes

Like our postcards, our new cards allow you to transform a photo into a beautiful festive card.

We print them on thick, textured card and post them first-class in premium envelopes. You write your message for the front and inside, enter the addresses of who you want to receive the card, and you’re finished. It’s really easy.

No envelopes to lick, no stamps to buy, no hard work writing out each address. We will even personalise the message inside the card with all the right names for you.

And for this year only, these beautiful new cards are one credit each – the same as our postcards – meaning as little as 99p or 99c per card if you buy a multi-pack.
 

Make your card now

Upload a photo and see for yourself - try the easy card creator now. We think you’ll love our festive card themes - our coder elves have been hard at work on Android, iPhone and our website.

We hope you’ll agree that this is the easiest and most fun way to send cards to friends and family all over the world.

We always love to hear your feedback and suggestions – let us know in the comments, or email us.

When Christmas Day left-overs are finished and the wrapping paper is put away, it’s time for the little ones (and maybe you too) to start thinking about sending some ‘’Thank you’’ cards for all the wonderful presents.

We're giving away lots of postcards just in time to help you celebrate the holidays!

Share a favourite Christmas photo (past or present) on our Facebook wall here and ask your friends to 'Like' them. The first 100 posters* will receive a free postcard and if your photo gets 4-or-more 'Likes' we will gift you another postcard.

Follow us on Twitter and keep sharing the following tweet for yet more chances to win postcards:

In the run up to New Year's Day we'll pick five winners at random every week from our Twitter stream and gift each of them a pack of five Touchnote postcards.

And don't forget you can send Touchnotes from your iPhone, iPad, or Android mobile as well as direct from the Web. Pick a photo, customise it, add your message then select recipients  and we'll take care of the rest. Share those special moments with friends and family who can't be with you: decorating the tree, wrapping presents, Christmas lunch, and use Touchnotes as the perfect way to send a "thank-you" for each and every gift. 

*Please note each entry must be from a unique Facebook user name.

Merry Christmas!

The Touchnote Team 

Apple (you might have heard of them) today announced that they have decided to follow Touchnote into the mobile postcards market. They also released a new phone.

New CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, wasn't available to talk to us, but we were able to get an exclusive, considered quote from co-founder Raam Thakrar of Touchnote:

“We know how important it is to print photos and share photos so that they can be treasured. It seems others are realising this, too. But, wow, their cards are pricey.”

In a more sober vein, it's hard to know how to react when a big player moves into your industry, some of our thoughts are:

- it's flattering and exciting to have your business validated

- it's also scary when that 'validation' is from Apple

- we’ve been doing this since 2008, having sent cards to over 200 countries and territories.

- when a big company gets involved in activities that aren't its core focus, there's no guarantee that they'll make a good job of it

- our print and delivery is second-to-none, despite our cards being half the price of Apple

- our iPhone app remains excellent (have you tried the latest version)?

- we're pre-installed on all major Sony Ericsson Android devices

- we love iPhones, but not everyone is on them. Touchnote also happen to have a most excellent Android app and a website

- we've got some fantastic new features on the way for all our apps (but they're very secret)

We're quietly optimistic about what the future holds for Touchnote. Even with Apple trying to take a bite.

As we hurtle towards the end of the (alleged) UK summer, we thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect on the season via the prism of Touchnote. We counted, we sorted and we tallied to produce the first ever Touchnote Postcard Poll. Specifically we looked at 2000 postcards over two weeks in August from UK, US and Germany… three of our most popular postcard destinations.

We have great pleasure - and a little bit of confusion - in releasing the results of the first ever Touchnote Postcard Poll. A snapshot of modern-day postcard sending if you like.

Rest assured that all results were aggregated and collated completely anonymously.

Drum roll please…

• 38% of UK postcard-senders sent images of their children vs. 29% from the US. Germans had 24% choosing photos of their children

• Americans proved to be the funniest with 15% of all those sending postcards displaying ‘funny’ or irreverent pictures, followed by the UK (9%) and Germany (8%)

• Germans proved the biggest romantics with 32% of all postcards sent featuring couples/romantic images, the US and UK were at 19% & 17% respectively

• Other interesting findings showed Brits beating Americans and Germans in a kiss-off, with UK sending ‘xx kisses’ in 45% of the postcards sent. Lagging way behind were the Americans and Germans (less than 1% each)

• Dogs were the most popular pet across all three of the countries surveyed.  Only 1% of total cards featured other pets or animals

Other findings include:

• Just 42% of postcards were actually sent while senders were on holiday

• Interestingly, only 15% of total images resembled the scenic postcard of the past

• Birthday and wedding images featured in 3% of all postcards

• A small percentage (0.2%) used postcards to share pictures of their pregnancy scans

We asked an expert in personal communications to take a look at the findings and here’s what she had to say:

“It’s heartening to see that with the preponderance of text messages and email, couples still show romance with a real note. That kids and pets are some of the most popular images isn’t surprising at all – those Kodak moments are still ones that we want to treasure. The poll has shown that the age-old desire to combine that photo with a message and a kiss is as alive and well – and that’s a good thing. And very interesting to see that Germans have really taken to expressing their love in modern ways,” said Carole Spiers, Author on Personal Communication & Stress Management and BBC Guest Broadcaster

Was great to see our German friends fare so well in the lurrrve stakes.. perhaps Touchnote has inadvertently facilitated the German romantic revolution? Hmmmm… maybe we’re reading too much into it.

What do you think? Are the results true to form or way off the mark? How would this have differed had we included other countries?

We’re absolutely delighted to announce a new partnership with Buckingham Palace that will consign the customary 100^th birthday telegram to history. From this week, all centenarians will receive a personalised postcard, with a photo of the Queen, ordered from the Queen’s mobile phone.

Here’s the press release we issued earlier today:

The Queen’s spokesman, the Hon. Reginald Isner, said, “This partnership demonstrates that Her Majesty is in touch with modern trends and is not afraid to reinvent traditions. Her Majesty is extremely interested in technology and is an avid follower of Stephen Fry on Twitter. She has downloaded a number of popular apps to the royal smartphone, including Angry Birds, foursquare as well as Touchnote. She loves being able to send personalised postcards and the fact that they cost only £1.49 has gone down extremely well with the Queen’s Treasurer in these difficult financial times. Her Majesty is aware that her views carry great weight and doesn’t want to publicly support only one of the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 or HP WebOS platforms. Fortunately, as the Touchnote app is available on all of these platforms, she can remain impartial.”

Raam Thakrar, CEO of Touchnote, said, “we are extremely excited about this announcement. The Queen is the ultimate British brand and we are proud to help the Palace in any way possible. We will start showing the Royal Warrant in our apps, on our products and on the Touchnote website from next week.”

If you’re approaching your hundredth birthday, look out for the Royal postcard.

We've changed the style of Touchnote postcards. The back of a Touchnote postcard is now more subtle and sophisticated. The front, as always, is up to you.

Henceforth, anyone fortunate enough to be the recipient of a postcard sent from Touchnote.com or using of our mobile apps (for Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile or Nokia) will receive a postcard with subtle blues and greys as the main colours on the reverse.

Postcards were previously printed in cheery reds and oranges, to reflect the happy holiday memories that postcards normally represent. However, we've seem postcards being used to express so very many different sentiments, from love to thanks to commiserations, that we've decided to allow the photo and the message to be the strongest aspects of our printed postcards and tone down our colour palette.

We hope you like the new look. If you have any ideas for further improvements to any of our cards, website or mobile apps, do let us know. We love to talk about these things!

Users have voted Touchnote the must-have entertainment app for Nokia phones in 2010. We're truly humbled, and rather pleased.

Nokia "think you will agree that the quality, value and the overall user experience that goes along with these winning apps make each and every one of them a long-term keeper that we expect you will find yourself using again and again."

If you haven't already used our app to turn photos into postcards directly from their mobile phone, it's now available for Nokia, Android, Windows Phone 7 and iPhone.

And we want even more people to use and love our Touchnote app in 2011 which is why we're already working on new, improved and easier-to-use versions. Sign-up to our newsletter at the foot of this page if you want to be the first to know about the new features we've released.

With bank holiday coming up in the UK and hopefully more great weather, what a better way to pass time then by hitting the beach and taking some photographs? Beaches present digital camera owners with a number of wonderful opportunities, as they offer beautiful landscape, colours and light.

Here at Touchnote we love beach photography and have numerous images in our gallery that are extremely popular to create personalised cards with. Below are a few tips on how to take great photographs at the beach, so next time you want to create a personalised card you can use your own photo instead.

Find a focus

Many people can feel lost when taking pictures at the beach as while they might capture a beautiful scene they actually have no point of interest and as a result can take pictures that feel empty and boring. When taking a shot look for a point of interest or focal point that will give those looking at your photo a place for their eye to rest. Some typical examples are: footprints in the sand, chipped paint on beach huts or boats, shells on the shore or intersecting blades of dune grass. What is also fun is to look for the little things that tell the story of going to the beach, like shoes at the water's edge, sand castles, sunglasses, sunscreen lotion etc. For best results zoom in closely on your focus point, you can even get down in the sand and stabilise the camera on something to ensure details remain crisp.

Look for some wildlife

The beach is home to many interesting and colourful creatures and shells. Look for starfish and crabs in rock pools, shells in the sand or coastal birds such as gulls.

Capture the movement of the sea

The flow of the sea is a beautiful and tranqiul motion to capture on camera. Set your camera on a tripod and dial in a slow shutter speed, how slow will depend on the brightness of the day, but you could use a polarizer or ND Grad filter to reduce the amount of light entering the lens.

Be creative with post photo production

Why not do a little post photo production and see what impact stripping a photo of color has upon it? There's something about a black and white shot at the beach that completely changes the mood and feel of a shot. It's also a great way to bring to life beach shots taken on dull days as shadows and light will stand out more.

Head to the beach when it doesn't look so inviting

A beach can really come to life on days that everyone avoids it. Stormy seas, threatening and dramatic clouds and wind slowing lifesaver flags all make for atmospheric shots.

So whether sunny or stormy, the beach is a great place to practice and experiment with your photography.

We look forward to seeing some of your own creations next time you create a personalised card. They are particulary good for creating postcards, thank you cards, birthday cards and get well soon cards.