The last of the cards! December birthday cards

December birthday cards
December birthday cards

Yes, it’s true – I’m wrapping up the card project with the end of 2012. It’s been fun creating so many different designs and illustrations for my friends and family and I feel I’ve learned a lot from the process. After two years though it’s time to move onto some new projects so I won’t be making any more cards (except for maybe a couple here and there ^_~).

Apart from my Christmas cards, I created three birthday cards for friends during December. All of them were handmade, with some even having a bit of interactivity (apart from the obvious opening and closing).

Numbers Card

My last typography card for the year. My friend is an accountant so I figured why not use numbers! It was pretty fun thinking up all the different types of of to use to fill the design.

December birthday cards - 23rd birthday card tracing
Traced and ready for colour
December birthday cards - 23rd brithday card with watercolour
Watercolour done
December birthday cards - 23rd birthday card finished
Inked and cut out

Peasant Flick Card

The history of the peasant flick goes way back to my high school days when it was created as an amusing pay out to one of our friends. I wanted to make this card a little more interactive and decided it should actually give the peasant flick!

I watched a few videos about creating basic pull tabs cards before having a go at creating my own. It’s a little more complex than you think!

December birthday card - pull tab birthday card original drawing
I drew the hands digitally before printing it out and drawing on it directly to do corrections. They needed to be the same size so they could be glued together.
December birthday cards - pull tab card workings
Behind the scenes – how it all worked inside.
December birthday card - pull tab birthday card front side
How it looked from the front before the hands were attached – the card had a back that glued around the internal workings to hide it from view
December birthday cards - pull tab birthday card watercoloured hands before cutting out and gluing
Hands coloured in – my friend likes her fancy nail polishes so I did some funky green colours.
December birthday cards - pull tab birthday card artwork glued onto the tab
Hands cut out and glued onto the tab, also added some pattern work to the edges
December birthday card - pull tab birthday card finished
The final card – you pull the tab to make the hand flick from one side to the other

Android Card

This card was made for my boyfriend, who loves the android mascot. We even have a set of 4 plushies of him in all the available colours above our bedroom door ^_^. If you’ve ever watched videos of the android mascot at events, you’ll find he’s quite the dancer and I wanted to base my card off this.

Using the same basic functionality from the last card, I created an android that danced from side to side.

December birthday card - android pull tab birthday card original drawing
Tracing the android – printer was out of ink so I had to create the picture to trace by hand!
December birthday card - android pull tab birthday card coloured in
Coloured in, now to make the pull tab card
December birthday cards - android pull tab birthday card - how the pull tab works
The internal workings of the card – much more complex than the peasant flick card with a lot of trial and error!
December birthday cards - android pull tab birthday card front side
How it looked from the front, the android is ready to be stuck on!
December birthday cards - android pull tab birthday card completed
Finished, the android now dances from left to right. The added ‘boop beeps’ are in reference to a separate robot in-joke

Get ready for some new projects in 2013! Also Happy New Year to everyone!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.