We’ve all heard the horrible greeting cards that have soundbites of 2 bit jingles that normally make you want to tear the battery out… but Hallmark is finally catching up with technology and now including real music in their cards — it might only be about 10 seconds, but hey, it’s a step!

They’re still pretty corny though, and we’re not really sure what even dictates an optimal situation to give someone an audible greeting card — but regardless, [Dmitry Grinberg] thought he could do better than Hallmark — and we’d have to agree. He’s created a new Year’s greeting card using a CD jewel case, and what he’s packed inside is pretty incredible.

The case, when opened, will play a full-length song in full fidelity. next time you open it, it’ll play something new and at random, from its very own micro SD card 300-song library.

He’s achieved this using an ATTiny85 which uses two timers clocked at 64MHz and 32KHz to output the analog musical goodness. He’s also packed a micro USB charger in the case with a thin Li-Po battery, an SD card adapter soldered in place to allow for swapping of music files on the microSD, and the speaker plus amplifiers. When closed you can’t even tell there is something different about the case.

Pretty amazing project. and he’s even thrown up the code (available on his site) if you’re interested in trying your own!

For an even a lot more minimalist circuit, how about a single chip greeting card that might actually be more affordable than Hallmark’s offering? Or why not throw in some great visual effects with a edge-lit musical greeting card?