If you are over the vintage-ified look of Instagram, Hipstamatic or Disposable but too lazy to make your own card or just stop by Walgreens (or some other convenience store) to buy one plus a box of chocolates, do not worry. If you have an iPhone and a few minutes, you can create a multitude of awesome, cheesy and kinda adorable photos of you and your sweetie, whether that sweetie be in the form of a human, a cartoon cat or an inanimate object.
Valentine Cam is so cheesy that only one of the preselected glossy marketing photos from the app store felt appropriate to use here. Grab a photo from your phone or take a photo and use that. Then pick one of 12 free Valentine’s Day backgrounds – like a giant teddy bear with a red heart that says “I love you,” or a frame made entirely of red roses. Place your adorable picture in the middle.
Valentine’s LoveCam is a slightly more sophisticated Valentine’s Day app. Select your photo, and then either pick a picture from your phone or take one with your phone camera. Then choose from a variety of frames – you and your sweetie inside of a splatter of paint (um?), a Polaroid picture frame (so retro) or a rectangle garnished by a background of horrifyingly neon colors. Then add a few elements such as flowers, candy or angels, which you can make bigger or smaller depending on how prominent you think it should be. Drop in an “I love you!” or “I’m in like with you!”, publish the photo and share it via email, Facebook or RenRen (yes, really).
Holiday Picture It is not just limited to Valentine’s Day. Plus, there are strange goodies like eyeballs, Rocky Horror lips and random wigs. If you want to go beyond the hearts, flowers and lovey-dovey imagery into something less Valentine’s Day appropriate, try this app. Besides, cupids are way overrated, right?
Tom Letters is an app for the cat-lovers among us. The app serves up cute scenarios of two cats in love, coupled with sing-songy music and digital quotes. Like a pinball machine that’s been fed an infinite amount of quarters, the digital LUV does not end. After one lovey-dovey message arrives, hit the checkmark and move on to the next digital pair of cats and quotes. Meowsers!
Cartolina is a beautiful alternative to these other, more pixelated alternatives. In the age of social networking and electronic interactions, it strikes that old-fashioned aesthetic that we love and try not to associate with the word “hipster.” It is the only app on this list that isn’t free (cost is $1.99). Cartolina works for any occasion, including Valentine’s Day. To create your own cartogram, choose from a variety of designs, then customize the message and email or text it to a friend. Or, you can choose to post it on a friend’s Facebook wall. It’s like real paper. Almost. What’s neat about this app, even moreso than the cards you can send, is the calendar. Instead of passively relying on Facebook to tell you when your friends’ birthdays are, you can enter them into the Cartolina calendar.
Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.
