Handmade Birthday Cards

With basic materials, a couple of special touches and a few minutes of time, you can make a beautiful, unique birthday card that will make anyone's special day even better.

Rubber Stamped Cards

Rubber stamping could have been invented just for cardmaking. What else allows you to create beautiful, original, mini works of art like these stamped birthday cards, so quickly and easily?

Stamp Susan Branch's Birthday Cake (All Night Media, stamp #995G03) on Impress Rubber Stamps' light blue circular note. Position note inside Me & My Big Ideas just write! black notecard so that desired design shows through the window. Color the design and add glitter with Crayola's glitter glue pens or tap with a Sailor glue pen and sprinkle on glitter.

The variety of tones of just two colors--purple and green — make this card fun and modern. Make a notecard out of minty green cardstock, and then cut a smaller piece to layer on the front. Stamp Impress Rubber Stamps' harlequin background once on the second piece using Tsukineko's Brilliance ink in pearlescent crimson. Then re-ink the stamp using a blend of the same ink and pearlescent ice blue or platinum, and stamp all over the front of the notecard. Glue the paper to the notecard. Stamp Susan Branch's Heart Cake (All Night Media #995E12) onto a light green circular note card from Impress Rubber Stamps (using the pearlescent crimson ink), and glue it to the front of the card. Experiment with other background stamps.

Don't forget to "hallmark" the back of your work using Hero Arts' "handstamped" barcode stamp #A1296.

Simple "Sticker" Cards

These cards are simple, but the "stickers" themselves are anything but. You can't walk through a craft or scrapbooking store these days without being amazed by a new line of "embellishments" — stickers that have so far surpassed the original form of a design on paper with a sticky back, that they aren't even called stickers anymore. Created with glitter, beads, metal and wire, fabric, dried flowers, buttons, bells, trims of all kinds, sand, shells and anything else you can imagine, these embellishments can stand alone on a notecard and still be something special — and it couldn't be simpler.

Create a card of Making Memories double-dipped paper, with the lighter pink inside. Trim a photo of the birthday girl to fit in Jolee's Boutique ballerina stickers (or any of the other "outfit" stickers from that line). Apply the stickers to the photo, and attach it to the card. Extra touches: Trim the card's edge with scallop scissors and line the envelope with rose-patterned paper. Inside, stamp a birthday cake (E-2462 from PSX) using Stewart Superior Splash Metallics ink in radiant white and a birthday greeting (Hero Arts Whimsical Happy Birthday stamp #D2456) in Splash Metallics rose quartz. Keep the sparkle going on the cake with Crayola's glitter glue pens if desired — there's never enough glitter for little girls.

Stamp a birthday cake (E-2462 from PSX) onto the inside of a large, square silver Envelopment from Kate's Paperie. Decorate with metallic colored gel pens and Crayola's glitter glue pens. Then adhere Happy Birthday hanging letters from Jolee's By You so that the adhesive stars on each end of the words are on the flaps of the card, making the letters move when the card opens. (You can secure the letters here and there with a touch of glue if you'd rather keep them in place.) Add more sparkle with tiny silver star stickers from Stampendous.

The ceramic birthday cakes from Impress Rubber Stamps make quick work of fun, upscale-looking birthday cards. Simply adhere one (using Glue Dotz) onto one or more layers of decorative paper, all on top of a notecard. Here, circular notes are from Impress Rubber Stamps. Extra touches: Tie a bow out of festive polka-dot ribbon and secure with Glue Dotz, and trim card edges will mini scallop or other decorative scissors.

All-In-One Cardmaking

These cards were all made using just write! cardmaking products from Me & My Big Ideas. Their threads labels are one of my favorite products these days, because they add such a fun, contemporary touch to cards. (Apply them quickly and cleanly with double-sided tape.) M&MBI's notecards with or without a window cutout come in a neat notepad in a variety of color themes. Add a sticker or two (layered on a square of fun scrapbooking paper to make them a bit more substantial), "write" your message with a threads sentiment, and embellish with ribbon, trim, sequins or beads — all from the just write! line — and you're done. They even have packages of vellum envelopes that fit their cards perfectly.

Place just write! sticker so that it shows through the window of the card. Apply sticker or label sentiment to the front of the card, or (as with card on the right) stamp sentiment and sprinkle with fine embossing glitter while ink is still damp. (Hero Arts Whimsical Happy Birthday stamp #D2456) Inside the yellow Happy Birthday card on the left, in addition to the just write! sticker (applied directly to the card in this case, not layered on paper), use a threads "eat cake" label for a whimsical special touch. Apply the label with double-sided tape.