Birthday Invitation

A handcrafted invitation for my Mom’s surprise party.

Reaching your 60th birthday is quite a milestone. When my mother turned 60, our family decided to throw her a bash. To get the word out, I designed these cards with a pull-out surprise, held snugly in place by a birthday candle.

We knew from the start that we didn’t want friends and family to bring gifts. Having all of them there would be perfect enough. However, we didn’t want to lose that moment of “gift giving.”

Each family or person that received this card was instructed not to bring any gifts. Instead, they were to write “a fortune, a saying, some good advice, a fond memory, or something for posterity” on the ribbon of paper provided. They were then to wrap it around the candle and bring it to the party where it would be read aloud.

The result was some touching, endearing, occasionally riotous moments. My mother, an inveterate scrapbooker, was left with dozens of these ribbons to paste as she pleased…and reflect back upon, of course.

The design for this had to be very economical. Over a hundred of these cards were hand cut and assembled, many late into the night. If you look closely, you can see that a typical birthday candle is inserted through a custom fold in the spine. This secures the ribbon of paper by friction alone. When the slip is pulled from the card, the candle slides out smoothly.