Birthday Card Make & Exchange

I find that not only are Birthday Card Make & Exchanges a great way to accumulate a variety of amazing Birthday cards but it’s also a nice non-intimidating way to bring newer people into your creative circle .

There is one trick though. Newer people (self proclaimed creatives or not) tend to look like deer caught in headlights if you just give them free range over the craft supplies without any clear direction. If you are looking to put together a Birthday Card Make & Exchange, I  recommend you do what I did and create a few card designs for the newer people to follow. For instance before my crafternoon started I designed 2 very different cards and gave my newbies a rundown of what I used to create them. I like to use different tools and embellishments for each, so people can play around and get comfortable.

The Birthday Banner Card uses a print out I created and some fun embellishments.

Something natural with some Cropodile action to spice it up!

Once everyone got settled in and feeling crafty the cards and embellishments started flying around the room. Drew (Newbie) who was first intimidated by perfecting the Birthday Banner card ended up making some amazing variations for the exchange.

Pens, sequins, paper strips and little flag cut outs!

Nancy (newish) shied away from following one of my designs but took inspiration from my heavy use of buttons and created a really cute card using ribbons, stamps, buttons, a paper punch and even a rhinestone! All of that wrapped up into this cute simplistic design.

Perfect for a boy or girl!

Joslin (a seasoned crafternoon attendee) arrived 85% done with this fun card. I love how she stepped outside of her normally pastel pallet and took a bold leap into bright blue and yellow. Perfect for my Nephew’s upcoming birthday!

Bright blue, yellow, red and a little blue rhinestone brad!

What a great variety, right? I recommend a Birthday Card Make & Exchange to anyone looking to bring together a fun group of people no matter their crafting skill level. It’s a great way to really get to know new people and catch up with others while creating some nifty cards that you’ll be thanking you have when you find yourself in a Birthday card bind ;)

Craft on.