Amy Arnold and Jessica Stanley created their successful Card My Yard business to help others create moments of surprise and to celebrate their special moments. 

Arnold and Stanley, both native Texans and moms to three kids, became fast friends after meeting during Bible study. Hoping to make a positive impact on their Northwest Austin community, they created Card My Yard, a premier yard greeting service, in 2014.

Rather than sending a card through the mail, customers order a custom yard greeting sign to be delivered and set up in their yards with a personalized touch in celebration of the important moments in the lives of their family, friends and neighbors.  

Card My Yard became an overnight sensation and, by 2017, had  expanded its reach into 32 states with 150 franchisees, all on a mission to serve joy into every community across the United States. “Spreading joy is what we get to do everyday,” says Arnold.

Card My Yard Cares was launched as a way of bringing smiles to the people and communities needing it most. Last year, they worked with a design team to create an #ElPasoStrong graphic to raise funds for the El Paso victims fund.  

Card my Yard has delivered over 50,000 yard greeting signs, and managed to capture far more smiles as a result.  

How did you come up with Card Your Yard?

Before we started Card My Yard, we loved celebrating special occasions in a big way for our families. Both of us were stay-at-home moms with small children when the idea of Card My Yard was conceived. It was fueled by an idea to create a business delivering joy, while also having flexible hours so we could keep our families as our first priority. Now, Card My Yard franchisees get to spread joy in their local communities.

Have you received any strange requests?

We often get invited to send surprises that are part of an inside joke and usually have wording that we may not be able to make sense of or that includes a funny nickname, but that is what is so great about our business, we can truly “say anything.”

Is there a design you’ve really wanted to do?

We try to stay on top of what’s trending with our customers and keep our graphics fresh and appealing. We keep our eyes open for “what’s next” or “we could totally do that” all the time so that we can get new graphics and designs out to our customers for their celebrations. 

Has anyone surprised you with a greeting?

Jessica’s husband and kids set up a surprise sign when she was returning from a mission trip to Nicaragua. Being on the receiving end certainly was sweet and very unexpected.

Do you have a favorite display? 

I don’t think we can pick just one but we love when we get to celebrate a last chemo day with a cancer survivor. “Hip Hooray, Last Chemo Day!” never gets old! Another favorite is welcoming home a military family member from deployment. These are just a few signs that define our WHY. We truly believe we have the best job.

Cover photo courtesy Card My Yard

Lisa Davis lives in Austin and is the Editorial Assistant for Texas Lifestyle Magazine and an honors graduate of Concordia University Texas with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Public Relations.