Make a Card Monday!

I'm starting a new series, it's called "Make a Card Monday".

I've been thinking about cards for awhile. Thinking about how I always make them at the last minute, right before the event. Why? Why don't I just sit down and make a bunch all at once? Birthday cards, Thank you cards, Birthday cards, Wedding cards, Baby Shower cards, Bridal Shower cards...thinking of you cards...the list goes on. I could do them ahead of time.

By making them ahead of time I will have them on tap for when I have an event. I won't have to rush or even take the time to make one. This solves my never ending problem of never feeling like the card was good enough because I just threw it together.

So then I thought...what if the cards I have for the birthday don't fit? A 4 year-old shouldn't really get the same card as a 60 year-old. Well, if I start ahead of time I could find a design I like and do a bunch of adaptations to fit different age groups. Bingo. Problem solved.

Okay, so that led to thinking about my blog. I could make it official to the blogging world therefore I HAVE TO do it not just think about how great it would be if I did it. Now that I've made it a series and publicly announced it. I have to do it.

So...my first card is actually going to be 2 cards and it will be 2 cards I needed to make for a birthday. So not exactly what my plan was making ahead of time but it's a place to start and next Monday I'll just be making a card to make one. Not because I need it for something.

Card #1 - a Birthday card for a 4 year-old boy

Card #2: a Birthday card for another 4-year old boy

*note: I have 2 nephews born 3 days a part.*

My original concept sketch:

 

• I just wanted a basic card with a HUGE 4 on it.
• I decided to add a cupcake in some form or another sitting on the edge of the number 4 cuz what kid doesn't love a cupcake. right?
• Then I thought why not put it up on pop dots and have "Happy Birthday" written over and over behind it like it's own background paper. That'll give it a bit of interesting flair and 3d affect.
• Use a stamp to make a bigger and more prominent "Happy Birthday" within the 4 otherwise I don't think the little ones will show up enough.

So this was my base sketch an idea. Some of it worked and some of it I changed around.

I ended up cutting out a 4 using my silhouette.

I made my page size the inner border (4x5.5 in.). I did this so that I would make the 4 big enough to cover the area I needed it to. It's easier for me to know how big to enlarge this when I have the card size constraints as my page size.

I put the 4 on my page and decided that the cupcake would look better on the top of the four as opposed to on the far right area that juts out.

The cupcake is from Pebbles. It's called "Build your own ice cream sundae" It's so awesome and clever. There are different colors for ice cream, transparencies with sprinkles and chocolate chips on them; candles in different colors, cherries, toppings, holders, bananas, sundae dishes, etc. It's so much fun to play with.

The happy birthday also comes from that pack.

I ran those cupcake pieces through my xyron X although now that I am thinking about it I could have put the frosting on pop dots for some dimension...but that's neither here nor there.

No monday-morning quarterbacking here. I left this one just like that and said, "done."

For the second one I just took the paper remaining after cutting out the 4 as a background.

I decided to add the "happy birthday" repeated behind the blue paper.

All I did for that was open a new 4x6 file in Adobe Photoshop (I have Elements) and create a line that said "Happy Birthday" repeated. Then copied that line over and over. When I placed them I staggered the lines so that Happy Birthday would be offsetting.

Here is my file. I used "Young and Beautiful" font  in a light gray color that I downloaded from dafont.com. I didn't want to go too dark or the print would take center stage and I didn't want that. I wanted the 4 to be the focal point.

I printed this image and glued the blue background to it then trimmed any white paper that was sticking out past my blue paper. I then glued this down to my card. I ended up not doing pop dots as I liked how it looked as it was.

I decided to use a cupcake stamp instead of making my own sundae/cupcake.

I used staz-on ink and then colored in the cupcakes with colored pencils.

I then added the "happy birthday" tag above the four and I was done.

Easy peasy and they look cool.

I think these cards took me about 15 minutes to make. Not too shabby if you ask me. I'll probably use this sketch again and change the colors and ages. So 60 would be all black. A first birthday for a girl would be pink/purple; blue/green for a little boy.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and please come back again to view more cards or my other crafty blog posts.

Have a great day!