Snail Mail – My Grandpa’s 90th Birthday

I am starting a new series in my blog called “Snail Mail.”  I will be posting about different handmade cards and stationary projects that I will be sending to people who are very special to me.  This series serves several purposes.  It allows me to express love towards people who I care about deeply.  It also serves as a wonderful place of inspiration for illustration.  This project definitely embodied that and I had a lot of fun doing it.

Today is my Grandpa’s 90th birthday!  We currently live far away from my grandparents, so I am unable to celebrate with him.  I wanted to send him a special card.

The base of the card is made completely from upcycled materials.  I took some junk mail and cut it to size.

On the inside of the card, I covered up miscellaneous words with the interior design of an envelope and an excerpt from the church bulletin taken from this past Easter Vigil service.  The dismissal music seemed fitting to my Grandpa’s personality as he can be a bit rebellious.

On the inside, I wrote a personal note to my Grandpa from my husband Cam and I.

And I wrote a little note on the back too…

Since the card was made entirely from scratch, I did not have an envelope to match, so I made the envelope out of another page from the church bulletin.

The front of the card design was first sketched out in my sketchbook.  There, I played around with the color composition using colored pencils.  For the final piece, I painted different layers of watercolor paper and collaged them together.

From the different patterns, I also created a bolt fabric design sample to put in my portfolio.

This was a really fun project and I can’t wait to create more “Snail Mail!” I hope that my Grandpa enjoys his card and that he has the happiest of 90th birthdays.  Check out the invitation I designed for my Grandparent’s 65th Wedding Anniversary Party.

Background floral pattern featured in these photos is designed by Silvia Dekker published in Flow Magazine’s “Book for Paper Lovers,” given to me by Illustrator Rebecca Green.

Amy DeCaussin specializes in Illustration.  View her work here, amydecaussin.com.

For illustration, image licensing, agent representation,

and other creative projects contact Amy: amydecaussin@gmail.com.