Oktoberfest and birthday cards

October is always special for my family because my niece, my brother-in-law, my dad and my brother all have birthdays one after another in this month. That usually calls for an abundance of birthday cards and presents to make in October and I'm always in search for fresh ideas. I always believe that presents don't have to be expensive, shiney and flashy to be meaningful; something made personally and marked with imperfections are worth more than anything to me because they come from the heart. Browsing through craft blogs is a great way to get your creative juices going, but this year I found my inspiration in the very people for whom I'm making these cards. Here are the two birthday cards:

Since my niece Dina is only three, I wanted to make something that she could identify and relate to easily. According to my sister, one of Dina's favourite movies at the moment is Up. I came across a card with a picture of the famous flying house from "Up". It had a pretty close representation of the house, with intricate architectural details of the windows, doors, verandah, etc. I don't have the tools or the skills neccessary to replicate such details, but I figured a tilted house with balloons coming out of its chimney is close enough.

Since this a really small collage, most of my materials came from remnant cardstock. The bonus part is the balloons - I didn't have cardstock in the colours I need, so I punched them out of colourful magazine pages. Pretty nifty, right?

My brother-in-law, on the other hand, sports a mustache and a pair of geeky glasses, so this is what I made for him:

I Googled images of glasses and mustaches (most of which came with a nose) and scaled them to size in a Word doc. Then I printed them on plain paper, pasted them onto cardstock and cut out the shapes. To get the faux-3D effect, I simply layered foam double-sided tape for extra height.

For the letterings, I simply typed them up in a Word doc and estimated their location on the card. It would be a good idea to test-print them on paper to make sure you're happy with the location before printing on your cardstock.

So there you go - two simple greeting cards inspired by the people I'm giving them to. Who needs Hallmark, right?