So, my girlfriend's sister Jenny just had a baby. And far be it from me to send an appropriate card.

Backstory: Jenny enjoys/fears aliens and cryptids. She loved the Monster Spotter's Guide to North America, by Scott Francis. That book had excellent illustrations by a fella named Ben Patrick, but Jenny was curious to see my rendition of El Chupacabra, since it's my personal favorite.

So I drew the little goat-sucker on the front of a card, then pasted that card inside ANOTHER card. I cut the front of the outer card so that it looks like El Chupacabra is leering in the bedroom window. The inner card, once you get past the scary monster, flips up to a more normal "congratulations" kind of thing.

In hindsight, I wish I'd done more to dress up the front of the outer card, to make it look more like a bedroom (or at least be more interesting). And it would have been fun to reveal El Chupacabra holding a balloon or something to welcome the baby, but I didn't come up with that in time.

But I did think to add "this card may be too intense for young children" as a disclaimer on the envelope, in case Jenny's four-year-old son opens the mail that day.

Well, I promised a look at one of my card-making projects, so here it is:

It's a garden-variety blank card covered with scrapbook paper. I added a belly-band of more paper to give it some extra visual interest. The little lizard-guy is a drawing of a felt gift my girlfriend made for me (I think he appears elsewhere on this site). I drew him on green cardstock, then cut him out with an X-Acto knife. He's pasted on, but I left his arms free so they're reaching out with affection.

Or, since I want to sound more manly, he's hungry and reaching out to grab a bug.