diy: homemade humble birthday cards

birthday cards can be pretty pricey. i'm looking at you papyrus. so why not save yourself a couple of bucks and make your own.

all you'll need is:

• scrap booking paper, any design. pick something that fits the person's personality. (tip: i buy mine at michael's when they're on sale for cheap; $.12 compared to $.59.)
• scrap of colored paper.
• regular scissors and craft scissors.
• glue and tape.
• ruler.
• pens to write your greetings. 
• glitter glue (if you have any)
• an old picture of whoever's birthday it is. the more embarrassing the better. (i picked an old school picture of my now 15 year old cousin in which she does not look pleased. )

how to:

• cut your card-stock paper into a rectangle. since the picture i used was 4x6in, my rectangle was 7x12in. size can very depending on how big you want the card or how big the picture is. 
• fold the rectangle in half ('hamburger style'), so it makes a 6x7in card. 
• using the scrap of color paper make a thought bubble with a clever/witty saying. (my card was late so i wrote 'you do know this card is late, right?!')
• use a strand of tape to tape the thought bubble to the picture. i taped them together from behind, not directly on top of the picture.
• as decoration i cut a strand of the scrap paper using craft scissors to taped it to the picture. since half of the caption was outside the picture i thought the decorative strap would even things out. 
• now glue or tape the picture (w/ thought bubble and decorative strand) to the center of the card.
• then use glitter glue to decorate the strand. to continue decorating the remainder of the card, cut out a variety of small shapes to decorate the rest of the card. i used yellow triangles to decorate the other side of the card. i scattered them and then proceeded to glue away. 
• now using white or colored paper cut a smaller rectangle that will go on the inside of the card for the greeting. i used a 'aztec' craft scissor to do so.  
• write a greeting on the card: happy birthday!, congrats on being born! , etc. (tip: if you don't like your penmanship you can write the greeting on a word document and then print it out.) 
• glue the greeting into the center of the inside of the card.
• cut more triangles or any shape and glue along the side of the cards to decorate.
• one everything is glued/taped on,  use glitter glue to tastefully decorate the card. i drew dots along the strip and decorated some of the triangles along one side. 
• and voila you have a homemade humble birthday card just as good of better than your average store bought card!

the front

inside of card

this idea would be great for any occasion. picking the most ridiculous picture of them and reminding them of their not so greatest moments. it'll keep them humble when they're being showered with gifts and being praised. aha! and this is how i got the name for this project. i plan on using this idea again come graduation season!