My mom’s birthday was Sunday and she was just tickled by the birthday card I gave her that had cats dressed as pirates and a ship named the “S.S. Little Dutch Boy.” We have several family jokes related to cats, pirates and the nickname “Little Dutch Boy,” so a card with all three was sure to make my mom smile.

What made me smile was that the $2.99 personalized card (it came with the cats but I was able to add the ship name) didn’t cost me a penny. It was one of the freebies I’d received earlier this year from Cardstore.com giveaways.

And my mom didn’t mind at all that I hadn’t bought her a birthday card. She thought it was pretty cool that I was able to get a personalized one for free.