I Made a Custom AI Birthday Card for $4

For my wife’s birthday, I used AI to create a custom birthday card then printed it for $3.49.

Step 1: Create a Main Image

I used Midjourney. I messed around with different prompts based on personal interests she has (we have cats, she loves plants/gardening, one of our sons plays trumpet, the other runs cross country). Ultimately, this was the prompt that resulted in the image I picked.

Birthday Card Art for “Emily” including cats, plants, a trumpet, a cross country running shoe. Sunny and fun

I did a bit of finessing with panning/zooming so I would have some flexibility to crop the image. Here is the final result, which actually features a cat that happens to look very much like a younger version of our orange cat Simon (aka Tuffy, Tony the Tough Guy & Diet Dave).

Midjourney settings: style raw, ar 3:2, stylize 200

What is that circle thing next tothe cat? Is that trumpet even playable? Who knows, but it looks cool nonetheless!

Step 2: Create a Message Graphic

Next up, I made another image for the birthday message. I gave this a few tries as it would often generate the text with spelling errors, e.g. Happpy Birthday

Graphic sign that says “Happy Birthday Emily” in detailed typography on a white background

Midjourney settings: style raw, ar 2:1, stylize 400

Step 3: Combine the images

I uploaded these two images to Canva and combined them together.

Step 4: Print the card

Last, I uploaded the image to my local Walgreens Photo service and selected the option for a 5x7 Folded Greeting Card. It was printed out and ready for pickup within an hour.

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