Happy Fourth Birthday to Us! 7 April 2014  |  Nicola

Everybody loves a birthday; balloons, bunting and plenty of cake, what’s not to enjoy? Here at StickyTiger, we love a good celebration, and today we’re holding one of our own – because it’s our fourth birthday! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending the last four years immersed in all things crafty, and we’re marking the occasion with a nifty little post on making your own birthday cards – washi tape and buttons at the ready!

Button Birthday Card

Buttons are a great way to decorate homemade cards; simply arm yourself with some strong glue, and away you go. Add them to lengths of bakers twine to create a bright and colourful bunch of balloons, fasten them down in colour order to make a giant rainbow, or stick them down into the shape of a giant birthday cake – the only limit is your own imagination! We added ours to lengths of our Capsella 12-inch scrapbook paper to create two rows of cheerful flowers, and then finished it off with some washi tape.

Washi Tape Birthday Card

Not just for wrapping up birthday presents, washi tape is perfect for making birthday cards – either match the colours and patterns carefully, or clash them together for a card that really stands out from shop-bought alternatives. We made two versions; a child’s birthday card with tape stuck into the shape of a number, and another with lengths of tape turned into candles, complete with washi flames. Probably our favourite to make, the beauty of washi tape is that there’s no need for messy glues, and it can be repositioned as many times as necessary. Hurrah!

Bunting Birthday Card

Nothing says, ‘happy birthday’ like bunting and garlands, but if you can’t quite run to decorating someone’s walls, why not decorate their birthday card instead? You can use pretty much anything to make lengths of miniature bunting; doilies cut to size, washi tape cut into triangles or semi-circles or even small pieces of fabric. We used some of our Ipomea 12-inch scrapbook paper glued onto a length of bakers twine, and then stuck it down with extra-sticky glue before finishing off with a little hand-stamped message along the bottom.