National days are easier to mark with a face than with another thistle or daffodil from the bargain bin. On Ottermagic you upload a photo, run Style Swap, Face Swap, or Pet Swap, preview until it looks like your lot, then order a UK A5 printed to order and posted with Royal Mail. The card is 148×210mm folded, 330gsm gloss, envelope included, blank inside or a printed message. Start at Ottermagic.com.
Burns Night (25 January), St Andrew's Day (30 November), and St David's Day (1 March) are three different evenings. The humour, the food, and the patience for a costume gag are not the same. Use the photo you have and a style that fits the room.
Shared UK buying facts
Printed A5: recyclable stock, water-based inks, around 3–5 working days with Royal Mail. Count working days, not calendar days, and watch UK bank holidays around New Year if you are aiming at Burns Night. The e-card is a hi-res, watermark-free download when you have left it late or you are emailing someone who moved away. Posters and canvas are available from the same artwork; check Ottermagic.com for live wall-art details.
Checkout is in pounds in the UK shop and dollars in the US shop. Support: support@ottermagic.com (reply within one working day).
Live styles you can actually try: Brick, Chibi, Emoji, Anime, Watercolour, Caricature, Cartoon, Classic Cartoon, Action Figure, Clay 3D, Retro Halftone, Retro Game, Royal Portrait, Pixel Art, Bobblehead, Sticker Sheet, Tarot Card, Photobooth, Sketch, Lucky Leprechaun.
Text Swap is there if you only want “Happy Burns Night” and a name. A text-led catalogue elsewhere may have more ready-made headlines. When you have a picture of the host, the piper-adjacent uncle, or the child in the daffodil jumper, use a photo mode.
Burns Night
Burns Night is a supper as much as a flag day: haggis, whisky, poems, and a table that gets louder. Cards go to the person hosting, to a Scot far from home, or to a friend who takes the Immortal Memory seriously.
A kitchen photo in warm light is common and often too dark. Step someone near a lamp. Then try:
- Sketch or Watercolour for a card that can sit next to proper stationery
- Royal Portrait if they will enjoy looking slightly lairdly
- Caricature, Cartoon, or Photobooth for a supper that is already a send-up
- Action Figure or Clay 3D if that is their ordinary taste, not because you think Scotland equals novelty
Face Swap into a tartan costume scene is only funny if they would do it to you. Putting someone’s face onto Robert Burns as a gag can land or it can feel cheap; look at the preview with that in mind. If you hesitate, stay on Style Swap.
Pet Swap for the dog who waits under the table is a known genre. Use a clear animal photo.
Inside, a short toast you would actually stand up and say beats a long pastiche of Burns unless they collect those. Leave the A5 blank if handwriting is the point.
Order early in January. The 25th sits near enough to the New Year holiday that a 3–5 working day window can shrink. The e-card covers the year you remember on the 23rd.
St Andrew's Day
St Andrew's Day is Scotland’s national day. It is quieter than Burns Night in a lot of households, and louder in others if there is a dance or a work do. Search boxes often drop the apostrophe (St Andrews Day). The card does not care. The person does.
Photos from late November are often indoor and grey. Face the window. Style Swap in Photobooth or Cartoon suits friends. Watercolour or Sketch suits parents. Pixel Art or Retro Game suits the cousin who would rather that than a saltire cliché.
You do not need a saltire on the artwork. A likeness plus “Thinking of you on St Andrew’s Day” is a complete card. Face Swap is optional and should stay a celebration portrait, not a joke about the saint.
If you are posting to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK, the same Royal Mail window applies. If the recipient is in the US, the US shop can send the printed A5 by airmail in around 2–3 weeks. For family further afield, the e-card reaches them the moment you pay.
St David's Day
St David’s Day is Wales’s national day. Daffodils and leeks appear in school photos, which are adorable and often poorly lit. Take a second picture in the porch if you can. Search will also show St Davids Day without the apostrophe.
Style ideas that tend to sit well:
- Watercolour and Sketch for a card that can go to a grandparent
- Chibi or Anime for children in school colours
- Photobooth for siblings
- Classic Cartoon when the family already sends daft pictures
A Face Swap that turns someone into a walking leek is a choice you should be able to defend at Sunday lunch. Many people would rather look like themselves in a daffodil jumper, redrawn in Watercolour.
Welsh and English copy both belong on the inside if that is how you write. Do not invent a phrase you would not say. “Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus” is right when you use it; “Happy St David’s Day” is right when you do not.
This is still a UK A5 print job. 1 March is not adjacent to Christmas, so the 3–5 working day window is usually easier than Burns Night, unless a half-term post rush sits in the way. Check the live estimate at checkout.
Printed in the UK
Ottermagic prints in the UK and posts with Royal Mail. You do not need a Scottish or Welsh printer for a Burns Night or St David’s Day card. You need a photo and enough working days.
Moonpig and other catalogues will have thistle and daffodil designs. Check those sites if you want a rack-style front and no likeness. Prefer Ottermagic when the front should be them.
Ready when you are
Mark the night with a face they will recognise. Upload a photo, try Style Swap or Face Swap, and order the UK A5 when the preview feels like your table (148×210mm, 330gsm gloss, envelope, printed to order, Royal Mail around 3–5 working days). Take the e-card if the date is already on top of you. Start at Ottermagic.com.
FAQ
How early should I order a Burns Night card?
Allow around 3–5 working days with Royal Mail, and more if New Year bank holidays sit in the window. If you are inside that, buy the e-card.
Can I make a St Andrew's Day card without tartan?
Yes. A Style Swap of a clear photo plus a short greeting is enough. Tartan is optional, not a requirement.
Is Face Swap all right for St David's Day?
Yes, when the scene is something they would laugh at with you. Skip saint costumes and vegetable gags unless that is already your family’s joke.
Do you print these in Scotland or Wales specifically?
Ottermagic prints to order in the UK and posts with Royal Mail. You do not pick a national printer. The artwork is what makes it a Burns Night or St David’s Day card.
What if I only have a name, not a photo?
Use Text Swap. If a picture arrives later, you can still make a Style Swap for the next year, or an e-card for this one.
