Past Projects: Birthday Card #1

One of the things I make on a regular basis are birthday cards, unless there's any major event coming up like Christmas or Valentine's day. That's because the joy of completing a beautiful project, and the pride in seeing someone else's eyes light up makes the effort (and cost!) worthwhile. Just a month or so ago, I was at popular queuing in line to purchase some craft essentials (like double sided tape) and this lady who was in front of me handed the cashier this really plain white card from Memory Lane...on a second thought, it might have been hallmark, I'm not very sure. But the point is, there was a single design element (a simple, small picture) on a plain white card with no words inside and it cost her $13! I was truly shocked..and even more so that she found it normal to pay $13 for a single card that was unremarkably...unspecial. But I guess not everyone has the time to make their own cards...it's not exactly a cheap hobby either. But when you divide overall cost by the numerous cards..and by the heart put into it...I'd say it's worth it(:

So, I'll share a few cards I've made, some of the ideas I got them from other card-making websites based in the US, such as Kristina Werner's blog or Jennifer Mcguire's blog which are extremely inspirational.
Here's birthday card #1 and I hope you'll find something you like here eventually!(:

Birthday Card #1

This birthday card was made for a good guy friend of mine, and made with 8 strips of paper with different designs (and 1 washi tape; but more on that later). The strips are all of the same length, but with differing widths to create more interest (rather than being too neat and perfect). Some of the strips were cut from designed paper (those kind you can buy at papermarket or one and only gallery) such as the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th strip. While the rest were made by stamping the various stamps I have.

The funniest part about making this card, was the numerous amount of calculations I did. I thought I had left maths far far far behind. But in trying to make the strips fit within that perfect rectangle, I had to specifically measure the width of each individual strip and calculate ( I couldn't find the rough paper anymore, I'll be sure to take pictures of every step in the future!) 

And further evidence as to my horrible math skills, I miscalculated and there was a larger than necessary gap at the bottom. To cover this up, I used some polka dotted washi tape, which was a bit transparent. But with the name element over it, you can't really see the transparentness of the tape!

Finally for the name element, I cut this out from some patterned paper, outlined the small banners, pasted some silver letter stickers, then mounted it on the card with foam tape. 

It was not an extremely difficult card to make, although the challenge lies mainly in trying to find 8 different strips of paper that could somehow match well with each other.

And finally, here are the stamps that I used for the stamped portions of the card:

The two wooden stamps were at 4 for $10 (approx $2.50 per stamp) from one and only gallery [which I will post a reccommendation/review of really soon!] and from the middle set (which is an echo park christmas stamp), I used the "present" stamp and bought the set at $3.50 from one and only gallery as well.

That's all for today, and since the year is coming to and end, my next post will probably be in 2013!!(: Happy New Year everyone!