CHRISTMAS CARDS
I wanted to create something a bit different to traditional greeting cards, and thought to size them like a playing card or something similar. There were several things I was inspired by, two of which were the red envelopes and horoscope art styles. I started designing them on 11 November 2023 and made them just before Christmas. This blog has been transferred from my deviantart.com/o4311.
From left to right is the envelope I made, the back of the cards, and the front of the cards. Supposed to be like a keepsake trinket (even though they don't really stand up as normal greeting cards do). This blog will mostly be a gallery because, as of writing this in 2026, I don't really remember what I was thinking; probably a lot to say, and I think the history and chronological order of these designs and iterations are pretty self-explanatory (as well as it self-describes how I eventually settled on the designs above).
BACK OF CARD MOODBOARD
FRONT OF CARD MOODBOARD
ENVELOPE MOODBOARD
MISC. INSPIRATION
BACK OF CARD IDEAS
FRONT OF CARD IDEAS
STICKER IDEAS
BACK OF CARD - FINAL CONCEPT
The pets get their own self-portraits since they're already animals, so it wouldn't make sense if Sumo got his card when he's a rabbit, born on the year of the Pig. He was a pig, though.
ENVELOPE - FINAL CONCEPT
In hindsight, it was a little difficult looking at these elements separately, so I've included another collage because I'm really proud of the horoscope symbols I made <:
PROGRESS
I used brushed gold vinyl--originally wanted to use shimmer gold but miscalculated the measurements and ran out of budget to get some more, so this was what I had.
I changed the sticker idea to use some of the leftover vinyl--I don't think I had enough materials to make some anyway. I also thought this was easier to open the cards because I was gifting them to ages ranging from children to elderly people.
I don't know how long this took. Probably too long. Hours of cutting, days of transferring and assembling, too little rest and sleep in-between.
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