How to Make a Really Cool Birthday Card
A special birthday card is something that will be treasured forever by the lucky recipient. Give the people you care about a unique card, handcrafted for them. One cool way to capture their childhood and celebrate their birth is with a personalized, vintage-style card. The look is classic and timeless, and it's easier to create than you might think.
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Things You'll Need
- Black-and-white baby picture of recipient
- Stiff 1-inch paint brush
- Brown shoe polish
- Paper towel
- Old newspaper print
- Antique style off-white scrapbooking paper
- Black card stock
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Antique style photo corners
- Vintage buttons or pressed rosebuds
Instructions
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1
Get a copy of a black-and-white baby picture of the recipient. You can convert any photo to black and white with photo-editing software, or by asking at your local photo-printing and -processing business. If necessary, resize the photo so that it will fit on the front of the card.
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Place your photo onto some scrap paper to protect your work surface. Using a stiff 1-inch paintbrush, apply a very light coating of brown shoe polish. Don't overload your paintbrush; you want the brush to be practically dry. You can brush some sections up and down or tap the shoe polish onto some sections with the brush bristles, a technique known as stippling.
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3
Buff the polish with a folded-up paper towel to remove the excess. This will make the photo look antique, as if it's been lying in a drawer for years.
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Scan a copy of an old newspaper from around the time your friend was born onto your computer. Such newspapers can often be purchased at novelty printing shops. Look for newspapers featuring headlines of major events occurring at the time. If you can, find a newspaper from the recipient's hometown on the date of his birth. You may find this on microfiche at a local library and can print a copy. Scan it and print the image on a piece of antique-style scrapbooking paper, which will make it look aged.
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Tear the edges of the printed antique paper to make them jagged and rustic. You want the newspaper printed paper to be slightly smaller than the cover of the card.
Cut and fold a piece of black card stock to the size card you desire. Affix the antique newspaper-printed paper on the front with a glue stick.
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Cut a piece of antique-style scrapbooking paper to about a ½ inch higher and wider than the photo. Affix the photo to it with a glue stick. Affix old-fashioned style black decorative photo corners to the corners of the mounted photo.
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Arrange the mounted image on top of the cover of the card so that you can still see some of the more important dates and headlines of the newspaper behind it. When you are satisfied with its placement, glue it in place.
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Affix vintage buttons or pressed rosebuds, if desired, as an additional embellishment to the corners of the page.
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Write your message on a piece of antique-style paper and cut it to fit inside of the card. Affix the message to the inside of the card with photo corners.
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