Birthday Cards for Adults: Funny, Elegant, and Everything In Between

It’s a common dilemma: you want a unique birthday card for a loved one that celebrates what makes them so special, yet store-bought cards just don’t hit the mark. This is why making a custom card is a great idea, as it gives you the opportunity to speak directly to the person you’re celebrating, whether it’s a close friend, sibling, partner, or colleague.

Thankfully, BeFunky’s Birthday Card Maker makes it easy to design a birthday card for an adult that feels thoughtful and completely one-of-a-kind. Our wide selection of birthday cards is catered to all age groups, so there’s sure to be something to suit every style and personality!

Your custom birthday card can reflect an inside joke, a shared memory, or simply the kind of message that feels more personal than anything store-bought. We’ll show you just how easy it is to customize our birthday templates to turn them into the perfect heartfelt gift for that special someone. We’ll even share some creative messages to help elevate your card!

How to Make a Birthday Card With BeFunky

Creating a custom birthday card for an adult is simple. Just open the Birthday Card Maker, choose a design, and start customizing it. 

Change up the text, swap in your own photo, and tweak the colors and graphics to suit the desired style.

Once you’re finished, save the personalized birthday card as a JPG for sending digitally. If you want to print the card, save it as a PDF file in Print Quality to ensure it remains of the highest quality for printing.

Birthday Card Inspo: Designs and Messages to Suit Every Style

Pairing the right message with the right design can make a birthday card feel that much more personal. Here are some message ideas and design suggestions to help you create a birthday card that feels like a perfect fit for the person you're celebrating.

Embrace Puns

Puns are a light-hearted way to appeal to the recipient’s unique sense of humor – not to mention a great way to show off your funny side. They’re perfect for highlighting a personal joke or keeping the birthday card personalized, yet low-key and casual.

Look for graphic-driven birthday card templates that contain plenty of room for inserting fun illustrations or clip art that pair perfectly with your punny message. There are plenty of relevant graphics in our Graphic Library. These can even be customized to suit the exact color scheme you had in mind.

Message examples:

• Wishing you a gouda birthday. Hope it’s brie-lliant!
• You're the zest! Have a citrusy sweet birthday.
• I haven’t got you a present…but you do avo-card-tho!

Make the Message Heartfelt and Sincere

Sometimes the best birthday message is one that’s straight from the heart. If you're designing a card for a close friend, partner, or family member, consider writing something sincere and reflective. A birthday card template with minimal distractions can let the words take center stage.

In the example below, a single photo puts the spotlight on the sender and recipient’s friendship, while a fun color scheme adds even more joy to the heartfelt message. We’ve also added some photo effects to this image to give it a nostalgic and retro vibe, including Chromatic 6 and Light Leaks 7 texture.

Message examples:

• I’m lucky to know you, and even luckier to celebrate you today.
• Grateful for the light you bring into the lives of the people around you – mine included.
• You make the ordinary feel meaningful. I hope today is everything you wish for and more.

Make a Playful Age-Related Joke

If your birthday card recipient is the type to laugh at themselves, a card that gently pokes fun at their age can be a hit. This works well for close friends and siblings, or anyone who doesn’t take birthdays too seriously. Choose a bold and modern birthday card design and dial up the fun with playful fonts or bright, contrasting colors. You could even include oversized numbers or graphics like balloons, cakes, or birthday hats for a tongue-in-cheek feel.

Opting for a card template featuring a photo also allows you to get creative with the recipient’s portrait. In this example below, we’ve added the Oil Painting GFX effect to our photo to add a creative, yet classic aesthetic to our satirical birthday card.

Message examples:

• You're not old…you’re vintage.
• Don’t let old age get you down! (It’ll be too hard for you to get back up again…)
• Welcome to the "just happy to be here" era.

Keep It Simple

Perhaps the recipient is more suited to a simple, elegant, and paired-back card? Try a minimalist birthday card design and let clean lines, negative space, and a classic font do the talking. This style is perfect for someone you don’t know quite so well (like a coworker), as well as older adults like aunties, uncles, or grandparents who would just appreciate a more elegant birthday card design.

Let the typography shine by choosing one standout font. Additionally, keep the background light or neutral and use negative space to create balance.

In this example below, we applied the B&W Tones 9 effect to our photo to maintain a more minimalist aesthetic.

Message examples:

• Wishing you a really good birthday!
• Hope this year brings you more of the good stuff.
• Sending my very best wishes on your special day!

Wow Them With a Photo Collage

Our birthday card templates also include photo collage-style designs that let you showcase eye-catching images in a clean and modern format. These are perfect for representing the most cherished memories and moments with the recipient, or even just celebrating what makes them so unique.

You can keep the birthday photo collage simple or enhance its design further with decorative graphics or relevant quotes.

Message examples:

• My favorite memories with my most favorite person.
• Looking forward to so many more fun moments with you, just like these!
• Here’s a highlight reel to celebrate your special day!

Create a Birthday Card They’ll Want to Keep

Remember, the best birthday cards feel personal to the person receiving it. Thanks to our collection of customizable Birthday Card templates, you can design something that suits your style and theirs – whether that means going for a laugh, keeping it sincere, or celebrating with a collection of cherished photos. The best part is there’s no need for any expensive software or prior design experience. Simply tweak your favorite template as much or as little as you want!

Check out our Birthday Card Maker today to start creating a custom adult birthday card.

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