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You may have created a personalised birthday card, but now there's an app that lets you star in an animated GIF and share it with friends.

JibJab Messages allows you to superimpose your face on variety of moving comedy personas, animals and even objects.

California-based JibJab first became a cult phenomenon when they started offering animated e-cards several years ago.

Silly sausage: The JibJab Messages allows you to superimpose your face on variety of moving comedy personas, animals and even objects, such as a dancing sausage (pictured)

Now California-based JibJab has re-invented itself and moved into apps.

GIFs are a type of compressed file format with a limited colour palette that can be quickly transmitted over the internet. The animations are short in length and automatically repeat so the action is on a loop.

The iOS app lets users make personalised GIFs with photos of faces as well as adding Instagram-style filters and a short message. 

Simple as a selfie: To create a GIF users have to down load the JibJab Messages app and take a selfie with their face in the right position, lining up their eyes and mouth with the guidelines (pictured left)

Purfect: Users of the app select their favourite GIF (an example of a surprising cat is pictured) and can then apply filters and text to their creation 

The idea of yet another fun messaging service may seem audacious, as the app will be going head-to-head with popular services like Snap Chat, which already let users send emojis.

To create a GIF users simply have to take a selfie with their face in the right position in a special viewing window.

The photo is then superimposed onto a number of animated GIFs including dancers, pop stars and animals.

Users of the app select their favourite GIF and can then apply filters and text to their creation.

People can share it on Twitter or Facebook, text or email it to friends, or save a still as a photo on their iPhone, with one click.

The app is free, but after 10 messages, users have to pay for additional content for $1 (62p).

Creative: Once a user has taken their picture, it is superimposed onto a number of animations (pictured left) which they can choose from and then add filters and text before sharing it with friends (pictured right)