I love prawns

On Thursday night, I came home intending to start work on a birthday card for a friend, but I watched TV instead. On Friday, I had the same intentions, but went to my gym instead, then spent some time convincing myself there is nothing wrong with giving people store-bought cards.

My friend's birthday party was today, and I woke up this morning with the deep desire to go ahead and make the card. Given that I was also intent on squeezing in a workout, and given that I take forever to make cards, it felt like quite the rush job, but I think it probably came out OK.

The recipient of the card is someone who loves movies, and the party had a movie theme. One of his favorite movies last year (and mine) was "District 9." We actually saw it together. So it seemed a good subject for a card, which I ended up making in three 3.5-inch panels.

The first panel was a sketch of Christopher Johnson, the alien who is persecuted in the film. He was probably my favorite character from any movie I saw last year.

The second panel depicts Wikus, the bureaucrat who persecutes Christopher and other aliens — or prawns — before coming to his senses and fighting for them. Wikus has a lot of scenes where he looks bewildered and frantic, so I took a stab at one of those. I did this part last, when I was really running late, so I'm afraid Wikus got an especially hasty treatment.

On the third panel, I wrote a caption that wished my friend a better year than Wikus and Christoper Johnson. I connected the panels by making slim rectangular hole punches along the left edges and stringing them together with a light-green satin ribbon.

I guess the card came out well enough given the small amount of time I had. It's just a little frustrating because if I'd started a few days ago, I could have done a better job. It would have been nice to watch the movie again and get inspired, as well as to remind myself more of what the prawns look like. Sadly, this card is also not as elaborate and probably not as good as the card I gave this same friend last year. I hate having a precedent to live up to!

My friend hadn't yet opened the card when I left the party, but he did give away a few small door prizes, and mine was a keychain with a "District 9" prawn on it. I actually really love it! If he is half as happy with the card as I am with the keychain, then everything is good.