Ever misplace your car keys? How about your glasses? Ever spend 20 minutes looking for your coffee cup, only to find it sitting in the microwave?? Good– join the club!
Occasionally I’ll discover a forgotten illustration in an odd folder on my computer. Take this birthday card design, for example. I found it by accident the other day.
The idea made me laugh, but I was embarrassed about my font choice and the smoke. The “Hey…” is almost unreadable, and the smoke looks very sloppy and unconvincing.
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 32 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-zvhE_K.jpeg)
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles happy birthday greeting card guy sleeping in bed big cake with many lighted candles teetering on bedpost hey wake up and smell candles](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-Ujenxe.jpeg)
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 32 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-pdE6a6.jpeg)
“I must clean this up and get it into my online store!” I cried. Yes, I’m subject to these occasional bursts of resolve… : )
Here’s the revision. The smoke looks more realistic, and the white-on-black text really catches the eye. I added a line of reflected light on the cake, and used the same font for the “wake up” pay-off line.
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 32 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-c7YP22.jpeg)
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles happy birthday greeting card guy sleeping in bed big cake with many lighted candles teetering on bedpost hey wake up and smell candles](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-MgN9xJ.jpeg)
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 32 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-arcsK4.jpeg)
I know what you’re thinking: Shouldn’t the pay-off line go inside the card? You’re right.
So what’s it doing on the front of the card? Good question.
It’s like this: I’ll be selling the card in my online store. My fulfillment partner, Fine Art America, can only print it as a blank card. I didn’t want to lose the pay-off line, so I put it at the bottom. Not what I’d prefer, but the best I could do.
Here’s a detail image:
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 32 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-6IS6ec.jpeg)
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles detail of happy birthday greeting card guy sleeping in bed big cake with many lighted candles teetering on bedpost hey wake up and smell candles](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-j3jlJu.jpeg)
![BlankVertSpace.16pixels blank vertical space, 16 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-o5efr9.jpeg)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
![BlankVertSpace.16pixels blank vertical space, 16 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-zWqSLs.jpeg)
Do you buy blank cards at all?– or do you prefer inside captions?
Ever had a smoke detector go off while you were in bed?
Have you ever reprimanded a birthday cake for smoking in bed??
Hope you’ll leave a comment.
![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 24 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-XcDnbD.jpeg)
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![Wake Up And Smell The Candles blank vertical space, 24 pixels high](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/89/896102/wake-up-and-smell-the-candles-L-2Yw_ke.jpeg)
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