Linocut Printmaking: Happy Birthday 2025

Usually, the creation of this print comes hot on the heels of the Happy New Year print, which I’d been procrastinating on doing. While this year was no different, I had a better time making this one because I learned a bit from having to embellish the previous Happy New Year print with additional media. That was the plan from the beginning for this print, so the process was a lot less stressful.

This year’s print is similar to last year’s, featuring a cake inside a border. The inspiration came from a print I found online that you can see here. While I usually hate copying myself, I needed something simple that I could produce quickly and get out the door given I’ve already missed three birthdays already!

This was the first birthday card since 2002 which I used colored cards for, and, to make things easier on me, I went back and studied the color combinations from last year’s Happy New Year print. It helped to see which combinations worked well and make a spreadsheet detailing what colors to use for which plates on which cards on the first and second day of printing.

The plates came along well and, as I said already, the printing process went smoothly as well because I wasn’t sweating the results of the print, knowing that I’d be embellishing them afterward. The first six cards that I worked on turned out better than expected. Rather than do them all at once, my plan is to finish them as I send them out, which probably means anyone receiving them will get them even later than usual!

Anyway, see the pictures of the process below and view the final cards (as they’re finished) on the gallery page.