2020 can honestly do one as far as I’m concerned.

My whole life revolves around my family and not being able to be with them has hit me incredibly hard.

My dad lives in Ireland and it’s been over a year since I have seen him in person. A year since my children were able to play with their grandad. A year since I could just give him a cuddle.

I was recently asked to review Shout.Out which is a video service you can use to create ‘fully branded sharable videos on a smartphone, automatically’.

They were kind enough to allow me access to their Shout.Out Cards to create a festive message for a loved one for free. With the above in mind, I obviously chose my dad (and roped my sister in for the ride!).

The service usually costs  £9.99. I’ll be honest and say that before I started I honestly thought that was a bit steep.

I’m not an expert but I could certainly put together a similar video myself for free. Saying that, I do still think the whole process is actually worth it and I would genuinely pay myself to use again in the future.

Here’s why…

Although you are limited to one card design for the duration of your time with Shout.Out (I went with a very pretty gold sparkly aesthetic) you can customise the text as many times as you want, recording new videos as you go for a whole month! That’s a lot of cards! You can also add music (there are a selection of tracks included but you can also upload your own). The coolest thing about the whole experience? The fact you can include others in the process and make it extra special.

You simply send over your personalised link and they can upload their own messages. In the end you’ll be given everyone’s videos all together where you can edit and reorder to your hearts content until you’re left with something magical. It’s honestly such an easy process that took just minutes to complete once I had all of my footage.

The result?

Lots of tears!

Tears from me, my sister AND my dad when he received his surprise. It was such a lovely moment. The traditional Christmas card just doesn’t feel like it’s going to do the trick next year!

I’d also like to add that Shout.Out Cards are perfect for other occasions (there are lots of design templates to choose from). Milestone birthdays and weddings would benefit for this unique service in my opinion.

Please make sure you’ve got a box of tissues handy though. The end result is an emotional rollercoaster of happy tears.

Click here to create your own Shout.Out card today!