I do not like throwing away old birthday cards etc, as they are very expensive to buy in the first place. I think its such a waste, so I have been hoarding them for many years, especially my sons birthday cards since his first birthday. It wasn’t until I told a girlfriend the other week that I had to sort through Ben’s boxes, which I keep all of the cute baby mementos in. I realized just how many cards I had collected over the years and I wondered what was I really keeping them for. Did I honestly think that Ben was going to look at them when he was older and think, Oh wow birthday cards !!!!! I think not, so I went through them all, kept really special ones from the family and put the rest of them aside so that I could have think about what to do with them.

I do make my own cards occasionally as I do not like paying between $5 – $12 for a good card knowing that it will probably end up in the bin after a couple of weeks. There are other cards available at about $2 at discount shops but they are not very good. There are lots of accessories you can purchase to make your own cards with, but these can be pricey too and may end up costing more than a bought card in the first place. The popular cards at the moment are the 3D cards, but these too cost a bit of money. I then thought of a good way to re-use those old cards that I was going to throw away.

When I make my cards I do use good quality card which I buy on eBay. This is heaps cheaper than the shops and you can usually get a good choice of colours . I buy my card from ebay from the “papercouple” (their eBay user name). They have an online ebay shop and you can also get matching envelopes if you want to buy these too. You can usually purchase a pack of metallic card for about $13.20 for 20 sheets and matching envelopes for $12.80 for 20. Total costs including postage is $31.30, which may sound slightly high, but when you consider that this will make 20 cards 0r 40, if you make smaller ones. Then you are beginning to save money, 20 expensive cards from a card shop would be approximately $120 and that’s an average price of $6 each. Usually they are a lot more expensive than that.

Here is how I go about making my own. Sort through all your cards to find appropriate pictures for whoever you are making the cards for. I chose the following two:

Look at the card and decide what parts of the card you want to use, patterns, writing etc and cut out with a good pair of sharp scissors. It can be a bit fiddly so try to choose easy designs to start with. Place all the bits together and recycle the rest. Arrange the pieces on the card and decide where you would like them to be glued.

My son had a container of 3D foam stickers which he doesn’t use anymore. They cost a few dollars from a discount shop and they make great mounting stickers, so just cut into little squares and shapes. Turn all your pieces over and cut out different shapes to place on the back of the pieces you have cut out and make sure that the foam stickers are placed evenly over the surface. Make sure that all of the cut out pictures are supported because if there are fiddly bits, it will make them stronger. Also take care that the stickers are not overhanging the edges so that they cannot be seen from the front side. Here is an example below.

These stickers are only adhesive on one side so you will have to use a glue stick to attach them to the card.Rub the glue over the foam pieces and then stick them to the card, then place some heavy books or magazines on top so that the glue dries evenly. If you choose, you can place a contrasting piece of paper as an insert to write on but this is optional. Here are the final cards completed.

Hope you have fun making your own and that the instructions make sense. If you get stuck please ask for advice via a comment.