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I’ve always loved making greeting cards for my friends and family (ask my mom—she’s been the recipient of quite a few), because I love the personal touch a handmade card can have. But not all of us are impeccable handletterers or incredible illustrators, and sometimes making a card seems unnecessarily difficult. So this week, I’m going to show you three different greeting cards you can make yourself, without the need for any extravagant skills. I’ve left the cards relatively simple so you can add your own spin on things and give it even more of a personal touch.

Today’s card is a dimensional banner birthday card, inspired by the bunting and banners that seem to rule over Pinterest these days.

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You will need:

  • Cardstock
  • String
  • Pens and/or Markers
  • An X-acto knife and ruler (scissors would probably work just as well)
  • A bone folder (not necessary, but nice to have)
  • Some kind of adhesive–I used both a glue stick and double sided tape for this card
  • Colored construction paper

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The first thing you’ll want to do is trim your cardstock to the size you want your card to be, and use the bone folder to make sure the crease is nice and crisp.

Open the card, and approximately measure two pieces of string to the length it will stretch when the card is opened—be sure to leave enough slack for the banner to hang without being stretched straight across. Your two strings might be slightly different sizes, depending on the word length.

Cut a piece of construction paper the same length as the string and as wide as you want the banners to hang down. Mark with a pencil the width of each pennant, measuring to make sure you have room for all of the letters to fit across, then go back and measure the halfway point between each one. Do the same on the other side.

Using your X-acto and ruler, make diagonal cuts back and forth between the lines to cut triangular shaped pennants from the construction paper.

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Repeat the steps for cutting the pennants with a different color, making them slightly larger than the ones you just cut. Cut twice as many triangles as you need for the letters.

Go ahead and just use a gluestick to attach the two sets together and write out Happy Birthday on the pennants (or whatever your greeting might be).

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Flip over the lettered pennants, and use a small piece of double sided tape on the back. Try and keep it as close to the top as you can.

Use the other half of your pennants to lay out what the banner will look like, and stretch the string across them. This will be the back of your banner.

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Attach the letter pennants to their matching backs, using the double sided tape to trap the string in between the layers of construction paper. Adding a back layer makes the banner more sturdy and ensures the string won’t fall.

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Tape the strings to the inside of your card.

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You can hide the tape holding the strings by adding additional decorative elements. I cut out some petal shapes and used them as balloons for my birthday card, using the same construction paper I used for the banners.

Use your pens to add additional designs, like strings for the balloons.

I left the front of this card blank so the options are endless, whether you want to write the recipient’s name really large, hint at the banner within, use some extra construction paper to just put a few balloons in the corner, or anything else you like. Don’t forget to add a personal note on the inside!