Electronic cards make the perfect Valentine's Day greeting

by Mark Reed

Forget messy paper and glue; design and send your own online valentines this year and you won't even have to worry about envelopes or stamps.

To create an electronic card simply go online and select from thousands of greetings, but like a box of Valentine’s chocolates, you never know exactly what you’re going to get once you start sampling. Here are a few examples of what is available to help you look for love in all the right places.

At the heart of online valentines
When you send your valentine, or any electronic greeting, an e-mail message is delivered to the person receiving your card. The message contains a link to the electronic card, and when the recipient clicks the link, they are taken to a Web page where they will find the amorous masterpiece you created.

Most online cards contain animation, pictures, music, and of course, poems or pithy sayings. You’ll find plenty of pre-crafted messages to peruse on the sites listed below, so you can let the cyber-scribes be your Cyrano, or draft your own Cupid’s dart to woo your one-and-only.

Mountains upon mountains of greetings
The mission of Blue Mountain Arts is "to help the whole world communicate," and communicate you certainly can. You’ll find thousands of cards in nine languages covering hundreds of holidays on almost any day of the year. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to help you celebrate the day St. Urho banished a plague of marauding giant grasshoppers from the vineyards of Finland? Cards are listed by special days, by occasion, by language, and by numerous other categories. Many include music, animation, or original poetry by Blue Mountain Arts co-founder Susan Polis Schutz and other authors, including famous Trekkie Leonard Nimoy. If the object of your desire finds Valentine’s Day highly illogical, send a card on National Pie Day or Peanut Butter Lover’s Month--after all, the way to someone’s heart can be through his or her stomach.

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Cull the Corbis Collection
If you’re feeling snowed under by too many cuddly teddy bears and cute pink hearts, try Corbis e-cards. The greeting selection on this site offers cards from the vast Corbis Collection, which includes over 1.6 million images from more than 3,000 sources, including Ansel Adams, the Bettmann Archive, and the State Hermitage Museum-St. Petersburg. Cards are organized by categories that contain groups of pictures--mostly exquisite photographs and works of art--specially selected by Corbis’s editors. There are plenty of ways to dress up your card with borders, colors, and stamps, and pictures are updated every month. Many of the images can also be purchased as prints or downloaded for personal use at home, so if the apple of your eye is especially sweet, follow up your Valentine’s Day greeting with a special gift.

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Cupid goes electronic
Here is a twist on online greetings, one that may help you meet your secret crush. SecretAdmirer.com lets you send an anonymous e-mail message from their site to someone you secretly have eyes for. Your potential flame can try to find out who sent the message by going to SecretAdmirer.com and sending a secret message--to someone he or she has a crush on. If Cupid is smiling, it will be you. If so, SecretAdmirer will e-mail you both and reveal your identities to one another. From there the rest is up to you. Even if you don’t make a connection, you can browse SecretAdmirer’s collection of romantic gifts, or visit the “heartache” section for some solace and remedy.

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With the scores of salutations to select from on the Web, you'll be sure to find the right card for whatever you wish to express. There are plenty of occasions to send online greetings, so don't just wait for love to come calling; turn your Internet connection into a love connection.

 
Mark Reed hopes to break his sixth-grade record for valentines received this year.