Birthday cards for kids

I am in serious need of rebuilding my birthday card stash so I’ve been trying to make a few birthday cards whenever I don’t have another card project to work on. Today I’m sharing some birthday cards that would be great for kids (or kids at heart!).

Bright colors and fun patterned papers always make great birthday cards. On the left card I added a die-cut sentiment and a few punched balloons. On the right card, the focal image is from the pack of patterned paper; I just cut it out and matted it with black card stock. I added a strip of yellow polka dot ribbon to both cards.

Last Christmas I received my first House-Mouse Designs stamp set, and it’s sized perfectly for an easy birthday card. I stamped the image twice on white card stock and colored them with colored pencils and Gamsol. Then I die cut the images into panels for two cards — one more boyish (above), and one more girly (below).

The last two cards aren’t necessarily for kids, but the colors and style of these cards fit well in this post. And they’d be great cards for older kids, tweens or teens.

When I made these cards I wanted to use up some leftover paper from making valentines. For the card on the left I die cut the word “celebrate” and two shadow layers from two of the paper patterns. I embossed an aqua card base with the Bursting Dots embossing folder (Taylored Expressions) and added the layered sentiment with foam tape. I finished the card with a few pink pearls and a strip of silver glitter card stock along the bottom edge. For the right card I die cut several balloons out of the patterned and coordinating solid papers. I adhered them across a lime green panel and used a black marker to add the strings. I added a die-cut sentiment and several dew drops, matted the panel with back card stock, and attached it to a white card base.

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Cards to share

I’ve been getting back my crafting mojo little by little, but now I’m behind on my blog posts. I just can’t seem to get everything together. Oh, well. Today I’m going to share a bunch of cards I brought to work to share with my coworkers. I wanted to celebrate spring, so there are lots of flowers, and some rainbows and unicorns for good measure.

I used patterned paper for many of the cards to make the process a little faster (at least in theory; I still spent plenty of time deciding on just the right layout or paper combination). Then I just added a little embellishment — ribbon, twine, and/or sequins — and a stamped or die-cut sentiment.

I tried to use as much of each patterned paper as I could, so I made several cards with leftover strips or small shapes. Using packs of patterned paper makes it easy to coordinate colors and patterns.

This is a layout I’ve used before that I really like. It’s a great way to use different patterns and/or textures because the repeated shape ties everything together. You just want to use a shape that’s kind of “chunky” and not too detailed — hearts for Valentine’s Day, leaves for autumn, trees for Christmas. The colors on these cards are a little fall-ish, but they are still some of may favorite cards in the bunch.

I focused on making cards for a variety of occasions/needs, so I used lots of different word dies and greeting stamps. I also made some cards with no sentiment on the front so they could be used for anything. (I might make more of those next time.) All of the cards are blank inside.

A rainbow die is an easy way to get focal images for multiple cards — just cut the shape out of multiple colors of card stock and then mix and match the pieces. (The die I used is from Taylored Expressions.) I combined the rainbows with fun patterned papers and several “colorful” sentiments. And I have some fun unicorn sentiments, so I had to include a few of those, too.

These are actually the cards that started this project for me. I had an old card kit that had been my mom’s, and when I was struggling find some creativity I decided to work on the kit. I used the kit directions as a guide and changed up most of the designs at least a little, including using additional sentiments. I liked how the cards turned out, but they didn’t feel like they were quite my style, so instead I decided to share them at work.

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