no-cost handmade birthday card tutorial

ok maybe this is cheating. i say no-cost but its really just no cost to me because i got lucky. i work at a craft store where they do custom picture framing. a customer had a work framed and they trimmed off the extra paper and gave it to me. so i got high quality water color paper for free. try this with other papers; it could work!

well the first step is to cut your hard to size. again, i eyeballed this project. then tape it down to your work surface. my dear friend kristin is turning 18, so i lightly drew a big 18 on the front. but you can do any picture or design or word or name of number you want. the idea here is just to diy rather than to buy from the store.

i made sure to get every part of the paper wet except for the 18.

i just plopped color blobs on like tie-dye. i wanted it to look springy.

 then i went back with micron pens and added details.

and i have terrible handwriting, so i printed out a little saying for the inside in a cute font and traced it with tracing paper, then went over it with micron pen.

turned out pretty cute, right? :D