Terms of Use and Sale

1. Who we are

This website is run by Paper Lantern, a FillFold solution, USA (“Paper Lantern”, “we”). Contact: hello@paperlanterncards.com. We are a small team with strong ties to Ireland, Scotland and the rest of the UK, so these cards are close to our hearts.

2. What we provide

Paper Lantern sells animated online greeting cards. You choose a card, write a message, and we deliver a link to the card by email on the day you choose, or you share the link yourself. Each painting is an ai-generated illustration, hand-finished. We also paint cards made for you (section 11), for which you may send us photos of animals, places or buildings.

3. Who can send a card

You must be 18 or over to send a card.

4. Prices and payment

Prices are shown in full before you pay: in pounds and euros including VAT, and in US dollars with no tax added. You choose the currency on the last step. Payments are handled by our payment processor, on this site. Current prices: see our prices. The year pass is paid once and does not renew.

5. Cancelling and refunds

• A card scheduled for a later date can be cancelled until it has been sent, with the link in your confirmation email: a card bought on its own is refunded, a card from a pack or a pass goes back into it.
• A card we cannot deliver (the address keeps refusing it for three days, or its owner has asked never to receive cards) is refunded, or goes back into your pack or pass.
• A card sent straight away is delivered at once. Before paying, you will be asked to confirm that you want it sent now and understand that you lose your 14-day right to cancel once it has been sent.
• Packs and passes: unused cards are refunded in proportion if you cancel within the cancellation period.
• The exact wording of these rules for the UK, Ireland and the US: to be confirmed.

6. The year pass

The year pass does not renew automatically. Renewal is not offered yet. If we offer it one day, it will only ever be switched on by you: we will show you the price, the date and how to cancel, ask for your express agreement, confirm it by email, and write to you about 30 days before it renews. You will be able to switch it off online at any time, in one step.

7. What you may not send

Messages must not break the law or be used to threaten or harass anyone. The full list of prohibited content, and how we moderate it: to be confirmed.

8. Reports and complaints

Anyone can report a card with the “Report this card” link under it. We acknowledge each report, decide, and explain our decision. You can complain about a decision by writing to hello@paperlanterncards.com. Detailed procedure: to be confirmed.

9. The person who receives a card

We use the recipient’s email address only to deliver the card, never for marketing. The email we send them is plain: it carries no offer and no advert. See if you received a card.

10. Governing law

To be confirmed.

11. Cards made for you

• What you buy. A winter scene painted to your description and, if you send one, your photo; animated (up to 2 animals that move); with 2 rounds of changes on a proof; that you can send as often as you like for 12 months (30 cards a day at most) through our writing desk; and a still picture of the painting for your own use. The painting is an artistic interpretation, made with an AI image tool and then checked and finished by hand (AI-generated illustration, hand-finished), not a photograph: we do not promise an exact likeness, and we never paint text, signs or house numbers. Business orders also include the right to send the card to your customers and to show it on your website, social pages and newsletters; no other commercial use (to be confirmed).
• You pay first, then describe your card. The order opens when you have paid; you then send your description and photos from your private order page.
• Photos. Photos may show only animals, places or buildings, with no people at all. You confirm that you took them yourself or have the right to use them. We remove their location and camera details when they arrive, keep them encrypted, use them only to paint your card, never publish them, and delete them as soon as your card is finished.
• What we refuse. People of any kind, including faces, figures in the distance, reflections and photos of people; Real public figures, celebrities and characters from films, books, games or brands; Logos, brand names, shop signs and any text to be painted; Anything hateful, sexual, violent, cruel or illegal; Photos you did not take yourself and have no right to use. If your order includes any of these, we tell you why and refund you in full. We may also refuse an order we cannot paint well, with a full refund.
• How long it takes. Standard: 7 days; express: 48 hours; business: 10 days. These times count our working time only. The clock starts when you send your description, stops when we send you a proof, starts again when you ask for changes, and stops when you approve the proof; the last step, finishing the card, has its own short time. Your order page shows each date. If our working time goes past the promised time, we refund you in full, without you having to ask, and we still finish your card.
• If you do not reply. If you do not reply to a proof within 30 days, we send reminders, and after 30 days that proof becomes your finished card, with no refund. If you do not send your description within 30 days of paying, we close the order and refund you in full.
• Cancelling. When you order, you ask us, by ticking a box that is never ticked for you, to start work on your card as soon as you send your description, and you acknowledge that you lose your right to cancel once we send you your first proof, because the card is made to your own description. We keep a record of this and confirm it by email. Until we send your first proof, you can cancel from your order page and we refund you in full. After that, the order can no longer be cancelled or refunded, except as these terms say (a refusal by us, or a refund because we are late). When you approve a proof, you tick one more box to ask us to finish the card; you approve the exact version of the proof you see, and the card we deliver is that version. A card you send from your order can be cancelled until it leaves, like any other card. Wording for the UK, Ireland and the US: to be confirmed by our solicitor.
• Times. Your order page and our emails show due dates and times in your own time zone, as your browser gives it to us (Irish time if it does not).
• If we are late. The refund for lateness does not take your card away: you keep the finished card and its 12 months of sending.
• If the payment is disputed. If the payment is disputed with your bank or reversed, the card can no longer be sent or downloaded from that moment; cards already delivered still open for their three months. If the dispute is settled in our favour, we make it available again.
• Privacy of your card. Your card is never shown in our shop or anywhere else without your written agreement.