This Card Is A Big Dill
- Shannon Cyr
- Jul 30
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 6
Meet Kirby, the wicked cool cucumber behind the Mainely Cards A Big Dill greeting card. Follow his journey from early prototypes to final design and discover how a simple pickle became an original paper character.
Kind of a Big Deal
As we get closer to launching Mainely Cards, each finalized card design feels like a milestone. This one feels especially meaningful. After a year of redesigns and an unexpected detour, I'm excited to introduce you to Kirby. He's kind of a big dill.
Meet Kirby
With his signature sunglasses, welcoming smile, and friendly wave, Kirby is the star of our dimensional, handcrafted A Big Dill paper art greeting card. He's about as chill as a pickle can be, and he's always happy to meet new friends.
If you're wondering how a paper pickle ended up in the Mainely Cards Pun Intended collection, read more to find out.
A Big IdeaÂ
Like every design in the studio, the A Big Dill card design started with two simple questions: Who's the audience and what's the desired outcome?
These two questions are at the heart of every new design. Before I think about artwork, colors, or paper, I first identify who the card is for. Who do I imagine receiving it? Under what circumstances are they getting the card? What do I hope they'll feel when they hold it?
For this design, the audience was people in Maine care communities. I wanted to create a card that could be sent in many different circumstances while remaining bright, cheerful, and lighthearted. Most of all, I wanted it to make almost anyone smile.
With the audience and desired outcome set, I explored ideas. I considered different themes, characters, and styles of humor, looking for something that felt welcoming, memorable, and universally approachable.
One idea stood out almost immediately.
It's a Big Dill
As I explored different ideas, I kept coming back to puns. I've always loved wordplay. Looking back, it probably isn't surprising that I eventually named my paper art studio Mainely Cards. Wordplay has a way of making people smile without relying on shared experiences, inside jokes, or complicated humor. It's approachable, lighthearted, and safe enough to share with just about anyone.
As I brainstormed ideas, one concept quickly rose to the top: It's a Big Dill, featuring an oversized pickle.
Expressions like "It's a big deal" and "I'm kind of a big deal" have been around for years. At some point, I came across the idea of swapping deal for dill and turning the phrase into a pickle joke. It made me laugh almost immediately, and it fit exactly what I was looking for: a simple, lighthearted idea that could make almost anyone smile.
At first, I planned to use the phrase You're a Big Dill on the front of the card. The more I thought about it, though, the more I preferred A Big Dill. Without the word you're, the greeting became more versatile. It could celebrate a person, acknowledge an accomplishment, mark an important event, or simply make someone smile because there's an oversized dill pickle on the front.
The concept was simple enough: create a pickle big enough to live up to the pun. The challenge was figuring out how to bring that joke to life on paper.
Licensed to Dill
At the time, I was transitioning from creating cards primarily with Sizzix dies to designing with Cricut using artwork available through Cricut Design Space. Although I'd owned a Cricut for several years, it wasn't until we founded Wicked Good Cards in 2025 that I truly committed to learning the tool.
I was still figuring out the software, discovering what the machine could do, and exploring new ways to transform simple ideas into dimensional paper art. Every decision introduced something new to learn. Which mat to use, which blade worked best, how much pressure to use for different papers, and the hardest question of all: how do you give a paper pickle a personality?
First Prototype
For my first attempt, I started with artwork available in Cricut Design Space. I paired a layered pickle image with a simple stick figure cut from matte black cardstock.
I selected light green matte cardstock for the pickle's base layer and dark green glitter paper for the top layer, then layered the pickle over the stick figure. I created a smile in the pickle, added a pair of sunglasses, and finished the design with flowing copper glitter paper lettering that read, "A Big Dill."
The early results were encouraging. The concept survived the transition from screen to paper. The oversized pickle carried the joke, and the sunglasses gave him just the right amount of personality. Even so, I wasn't sold. The lettering didn't complement the pickle. Instead, it felt like a separate design element rather than part of a single, cohesive design.
Second Prototype
I wanted to build on the pickle's personality, so I swapped the dark green glitter paper for dark green foil and replaced the flowy script with a thicker, retro-inspired typeface.
Results were mixed. The larger lettering gave the card more presence, and the foil added shine, but the card was overwhelmingly green. The lettering and pickle competed for attention instead of complementing each other. The reflective foil also introduced a practical problem: it readily showed fingerprints and smudges that made the surface difficult to keep clean.
One thing I did love was the personality. The retro styling gave the pickle a fun, confident attitude, and I knew I wanted to carry that playfulness forward into the next iteration.
Third Prototype
For the next prototype, I returned to dark green glitter paper for the pickle and shifted my attention to the lettering. The green lettering proved you really can have too much of a good thing, so I started exploring other colors. Black felt too heavy. Purple made the pickle look more like a Mardi Gras character.
Then it hit me: yellow mustard. After all, pickles and mustard have been getting along just fine for years. I reached for a rich gold no-shed glitter paper that captured the color of yellow mustard while keeping the right amount of sparkle.
The change immediately felt right. The gold lettering was easier to read, the green glitter brought back the texture I loved, and the overall design finally felt balanced.
For where I was in my journey, I was happy with the result. The card accomplished exactly what I had hoped it would: a bright, cheerful design that could make someone smile.
I considered the design finished and moved on to the next card.
A Bit of a Pickle
In September 2025, Cricut announced changes to its Angel Policy stating that designs created using Cricut Design Space artwork could no longer be used to create products for commercial or nonprofit use.
Up until that point, the A Big Dill card had been built using artwork available in Design Space. Overnight, what I thought was a finished greeting card became a prototype.
I had only one option: start over.
Dill with It
With the Design Space artwork off the table, I had no choice but to find my own way forward. That meant learning an entirely new way to create. Instead of beginning with existing artwork, I had to create my own illustrations and learn how to transform them into dimensional paper art.
Over the next two months, I taught myself how to transform my original illustrations into production-ready paper art by digitizing each design, separating it into individual cut layers, and preparing those layers to be precision-cut and assembled into greeting cards.
A Cool Cucumber
With the technical side of the process behind me, it was time to redesign A Big Dill from the ground up. This wasn't about starting over. It was about capturing the spirit of the character using my own original artwork.
I started with a simple question: What makes this pickle who he is?
He's cool. Wicked cool. Confident without being arrogant. Friendly without trying too hard. He waves because he likes people. If someone waves back, great. If they don't, he shrugs and waves at the next person.
The sunglasses stayed. The smile stayed. The friendly wave stayed. Even the oversized mustard-yellow lettering made the cut.
Looking at the completed card, I couldn't help but compare it to my earlier prototypes. The leap in craftsmanship was hard to ignore. For the first time, I wasn't looking at a character assembled from separate design elements. I was looking at one I had created myself.
Satisfied with the redesign, I considered the card finished and turned my attention to the next project.
Year Later
It's been a year since I created the first A Big Dill card, and what a year it's been. I've refined my skills as a paper artist, created dozens of new designs, and Michael and I established Mainely Cards LLC, a paper art studio in Southern Maine.
As we prepare to launch the studio, Michael and I are taking one final look at every design, including A Big Dill.
As part of that process, I made three final refinements:
Lettering. I replaced the original lettering with a thinner version of the Never Better font, cut from gold no-shed glitter paper. The slimmer letterforms gave the card a cleaner, more polished appearance while keeping the playful spirit of the design.
Composition. I moved the pickle to the left side of the card. That simple change created better visual balance, allowing both the character and the lettering more room to breathe.
Finishing Touches. I added a top layer of black no-shed glitter paper to Kirby's sunglasses. The subtle sparkle adds another layer of dimension and gives his signature shades just a little more personality.
There was just one thing left to do. Give him a name.
Why Kirby?
I named him "Kirby" after the Kirby cucumber, a small variety commonly used for making dill pickles. Naming the star character of A Big Dill card after one of the smallest pickling cucumbers was one layer of wordplay I couldn't resist. And now I can't imagine calling him anything else.
Send Kirby to Someone You Know
Ready to send a smile? You can find Kirby in the Mainely Cards shop.
Mainely Yours, Shannon
