Personalized Birthday Card Tutorial

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again: I’m not a cutesy crafts person. I mean, yeah, when someone sends me a cute card, I’m thrilled; but my personal style favors quirky elegance. Today, I’m sharing with you how I created a personalized birthday card that shows that quirky elegance {with a touch of retro}. The tutorial isn’t really meant for you to follow it to the letter, but my hope is that you’ll be inspired by some of the techniques I used here!

First, I started with a 10″x7″ (25.4cm x 17.78cm) piece of card stock. Really, though, you could use any sturdy paper you have laying around — this is just what I had on hand.

Next, I folded the paper in half, meeting the opposite corners to each other. I then used a metal ruler to apply pressure to where I wanted the fold to be.

Really, I should use a bone folder because it renders smoother results {it’s on the “items that are easy to acquire but for some reason I haven’t purchased” list — you know you’ve got one of these lists, too!}; but this ruler works fine. If you don’t know how to make a clean crease for a fold, I’m going to show you in the gif below. Basically, start at the indentation you made in the middle, then firmly pull your ruler/bone folder down. Then, put your ruler in the middle again, and firmly push it up. That will give you a crisp, commercial-quality fold.

Once you card is folded, put it to the side and grab a piece of paper or card stock that contrasts with the card. Since my card is goldenrod, I’ve chosen teal paper.

Use something round to trace around on top of your new paper. I resourcefully grabbed this bowl from the kitchen, but anything round works, really.

Cut out around where you traced, and fold the resulting circle in half just like you did your original piece of card stock.

Next, give your circle scalloped edges by cutting like I am doing in the photo below. Keep the circle folded as you cut, and your task will be finished twice as fast.

{This is what the whole circle will look like afterwards:}

Center a smaller round object in your circle. I chose a spool of ribbon, but you should feel free to use whatever you have handy!

Then, cut the area you traced.

Cut the resulting circle; you don’t need a guide for this, just try to make sure you’re cutting as parallel as you can to the edge of the circle. You’ll want the area you’re cutting out to be about 1/2″ {~1.25 cm} wide

{Like this:}

Then keep cutting.

Once you’ve cut the circle into more circles, glue the largest circle to the card, like so:

Then, glue down every other circle — I used a glue stick, but you can use whatever you want. You can discard the circles you have left, or use them for another project.

Here’s what the card looks like splayed out:

I was improvising on this card, so I tore out the page of a vintage book and connected some words. Of course you could do this with newspaper, a modern book … whatever! I used a regular gel pen and a white Sakura gellyroll pen to outline the words and draw connecting lines.

Then, I cut the words and glued them to the top right corner.

Next, I decided to add some white calligraphy to my circles that would render this a personalized birthday card. An obvious choice for the words is the “Happy Birthday” song!

If you are seeing this step and going, “No way, I can’t do that,” — well, I beg to differ. If you’re not comfortable with a calligraphy pen yet, use a white gellyroll pen and faux calligraphy.

Now, trace around a small cylindrical object; my glue stick tube was an obvious choice.

Cut two circles out using your cylindrical object as a guide:

And put a dot of glue right in the center of each circle.

Gingerly place your circles at roughly the same spot on either side of the card, near the right edge. You’ll notice I glued a circle of vintage paper in the center of one of my circles. As I was waiting for the glue dots to dry completely, I followed the same circle cutout process outlined above to create a vintage paper cutout that echoes the teal one. I put that cutout in the right corner.

Once you know your glue dots are dry, tease up the edges of both of your small circles. Grab a piece of string or ribbon and put some tape on the end of it, then tuck the taped end under the back circle.

Wrap your ribbon once around the circle in the back, then once around the circle in the front. Voilà — a ribbon closure!

Add a pretty envelope to the mix, and you’ve got a wonderful personalized gift card — not too serious, but not too cutesy, with a lot of handmade flair. {Take it a step further and make your own envelope! Envelope templates are included in The Letter Writer’s Complete Resource.}

{Calligraphy worksheets on the Janet style, shown above, coming soon!}

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog post; it’s just a fun little tutorial that’s meant to be a source of inspiration. Stick around for Saturday, when the giveaway raffle for a 24-piece, $230 Holbein Irodori professional watercolor set begins!

Until then, enjoy the rest of your week! If you do make a card like this, please share on Instagram {@thepostmansknock}! It’s always really cool for me to see the inspiration you get from these tutorials.

XO –