Thinking outside the box

Happy Father's Day
Originally uploaded by desireux

This design was quite a tricky one. It looks simple, just like the Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary ones but initially the little apostrophe gave me some trouble.

For my pop-ups, I like to have my cut outs well anchored so they do not "hang freely". In this case, if I did a normal [ 's ] like the rest of the fonts, the apostrophe would only be joined to the top and if you can imagine, it would be able to swing up and down because it is not connected to the bottom. This creates a problem especially when you close the card because it can get squashed.

So, I was thinking of different ways to remedy it.. which led to complex ideas like using string to connect it! Then someone made a casual comment about thinking outside the box, and the 'aha' moment came soon after that. The current design completely by passes the freely hanging apostrophe, and looks rather charming too! It's not too cute for a man, and retains the elegance of this design. Reminds me of the sweetheart candy too :)

This card is available at tracychong.com if you would like to get one for your dad this Father's Day.