Papercraft - Chief's Birthday Cards 2009

Now with all our preparations, rehearsals and such going on, we didn't have much time left to make the Chief's birthday cards for the Basil party! Come the night before the party we finally got our stuff out and got cracking. It was admittedly slightly difficult as it's been quite a while since we've done our scrapbooking.

Last year we found out that we didn't leave much space for everyone to sign on the card. So this time we decided that we should prepare two cards for the party with the bloggers, especially since there were quite a number of people!

So we got everything set up downstairs on the coffee table. It was a bit of a small space indeed, and there was the fear of getting glue on the table or nicking it with the blade or scissors, but we had indeed initially wanted to watch Poirot while crafting the card.

As we have not managed to choose the cards, we didn't get extra cards or coloured paper to use as backing for the letter stickers or for people to sign on. Thankfully a bit of rummaging about our shelves and we manage to find alternatives.

The thing we find about scrapbooking is that there's never much waste! Even as we cut up a piece of paper, we never did throw small bits away as it could be reused later for some other projects. In this case we've brought back leftovers from what we used to make sis' present.

Then we decided to test our hand at calligraphy writing. After all we'd already gotten some easy calligraphy marker pens from Zig during our Sporeland trip early this year. Tried different styles and in different shades on a rough paper, and then it hit us...

...We could design our own fancy paper! One of the pens was in a shade of blue that blended quite well with the blue page divider, and it would serve very well as a space for people to sign the card.

With the calligraphy's purpose decided on, we went back to using whatever we had for the rest of the card. Starting with the main 'Happy Birthday' wellwishing, we found some stickers we've yet to use.

With the basics all prepared, we just had to finalize the layout, and then glue everything on. We've gotten some all-purpose craft glue, which was rather good as and smudges or smears could be rubbed off without staining or leaving a mark. Only, we thought not to follow their instructions of 'apply over entire surface' when it came to paper, or we'd have finished the entire bottle (not cheap!) making a couple of cards!

With the background layout all set, all that was needed was to stick on letter stickers of the Chief's name on the blue bar after the 'Happy Birthday', a portrait photo of the Chief on the left box, and for everyone to sign the card.

Now scrapbooking isn't a cheap hobby. Seriously that's one reason why we save every little bit of paper we use from previous projects (asides from the variety it provides). So, when we find stuff on offer we pick them up, but we think we'll have to rethink bargain stickers like this. Luckily the card would be in a plastic sleeve most of the time, so the letters shouldn't drop off.

For the second card, we decided on a simpler layout, with a bigger area for people to sign on and a space for a landscape group photo.

Like we said. Nothing's wasted. Even the tab on the page divider could be made into a title bar.

And the calligraphy paper, into a photo outlining frame.

And finally, both cards in a plastic sleeve, to be left at Basil earlier in the day for the guests to sign while we led the Chief around Bangsar Village till everyone arrives. We'd put in a pen for everyone to use (which as since gone missing), and will need to develop photos taken during the party to add to the card to finally complete it!

Then of course on Sunday itself we had to rush to get another birthday card done. In fact lad was confident that we would be making one, haha.

So we'd bought a cardstock from Papier that had some thematic tie to the animal theme...

...and also after much hunting about the shop, some stickers of animal safety pins...

...and decided to use the black ink calligraphy pen to make the header instead of stickers...

...using another batch of letter stickers that had better adhesiveness (and the colour blended better with the card too) for a much more fun layout...

...stick a bit of mosaic pattern paper, and we were done!

Soon enough we'll need to get the Chief a scrapbook album to store all the cards we've already made...