Today is my father-in-law’s 80th Birthday. Yesterday I wrote about how sometimes a design will come together smooth like butter. This is one of those moments, and it was an absolute pleasure to create. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a time pressure 😉
I thought about what I should make. In prior years I made him a card with a wine theme. So I didn’t want to repeat that. Then I thought about the other themes you see in the stores – fishing, beer and sports. None of those seemed like a good fit, so then I thought about cars. He does like vintage cars if I remember correctly. But to me, vintage cars seem slow. I’ve never seen one race down the street. Usually you see them on display at shows.
Then I thought about the number 80. There isn’t a whole lot associated with the number 80. Maybe a temperature? Bottles of beer? Nah. Not good for a card design.
In the end I came up with a speedometer. I had designed a snore-o-meter card last year, similar concept. The needle points to 80. Then I added color in the background, starting with green in the 20s. Then the color grading goes to yellow, orange and finally red.
It’s a basic design, and for the concept I’m trying to create, it works. The design is center and the focal point. Now for the text. With my corny sense of humor (thanks Mom), I came up with “There’s No Slowing Down Now!”.
If that makes you groan, just wait until you hear what the inside says. I printed “Wow you’re already 80 years old? That was FAST!”. Then I added “Wow the years sure SPEED by, don’t they?”.
Then I concluded the message with “We wish you a wonderful birthday with many more to come!”.
Sooner of later it will make it to this website’s store. But for now, time to print! I recently got a Canon Pixma Pro, based on other artists recommendations. I will admit, I liked my Epson Artisan better. The colors just came out better. But unfortunately my Artisan printer stopped working after a few years, and Epson discontinued it. So I will figure out how to make good prints with the Canon Pixma.
Then for paper, all I have is Red River cardstock. I also bought that based on other artist recommendations. People raved about the paper and shared photos of finished cards with their artwork. I was impressed and order a box. To my big surprise, I found the paper very thin. I usually like a 110 lb cardstock, 120 lb is even better thickness. But the printer usually has a hard time printing it. This Red River cardstock was something like 60 lb, I wish I paid better attention. It just baffles me how people rave about how great it is. That’s too thin for greeting cards.
Anyhow, enough about that. I hope he likes the card. It’s not a traditional sentimental one. But that’s not what I’m all about. Well ok sometimes I am. But not in this instance. This card is more modern with a sense of humor. I hope he likes it. If you are reading this, what do you think? Appropriate for an 80th birthday, or no?