Illustration by the one and only Rachel Cohen

Today is one of the best days of the year. On this beautiful Wednesday we celebrate the birth of our blog’s namesake, Alex Ovechkin. And since Ovi has everything a guy could ever wish for (except the respect of Canadian pundits), we figured that the best gift would be something creative: homemade birthday cards.

Unlike in years past where we’ve asked you to email us five-minute scribbles in Microsoft Paint, this year we’ve simplified the submission process. You can create a card in any way you’d like: Photoshop, noodles, Vines, GIFs, YouTube, whatever. You can upload your file in the comments or put a link to it. Our commenting system, DISQUS, has a great explainer on how to properly upload JPEGs and link to all other rich media like GIFs, Youtube, Vine, and tweets.

But please, don’t pull a Gormley. It’s not Alex Ovechkin’s 30th Birthday. It’s his 29th.

Please do us proud and vote for your favorite cards. Downvote whatever Peter does. There are a lot of fun topics to potentially cover here. If you need inspiration, check out our last four years of cards.

Have a blast, and happy birthday, Ovi!