Make a Birthday Card Stash

Do you find yourself rushing around right before your child attends a birthday party looking for a card, gift wrap, etc? Oh and then go out a buy and expensive card at the store. That was me until last year. For the first time we made a batch for the year. Last year we did pop-up cards from a kit and their group of friends started to look forward to them, that was kind of fun.

When I saw this really fun tutorial to make these lizards on Skip to My Lou, I knew it would be this year's craft. It's by Larissa, from mmmcrafts.  

The boys decided that not all their little girl friends and cousins would like a lizard, so we did some butterflies too.  To make things easier (since my boys hate cutting and would rather writhe on the floor in agony about it than do it - hey I pick my battles).  I cut out all the shapes from Larissa's templates for the lizard and made my own for the butterfly (If you want it shoot me an email I have no idea how to link it here).

All the boys had to do was paint and glue on tongues. (She does have cool eyes and dots to punch from paper with her tutorial.) Fun and a bit stress reliving after school activity.

The butterflies we did a press and paint - where you paint one side (add quite a bit of paint), fold it over on itself and then open the butterfly for a symmetrical pattern.

This year I also scored a giant shoebox full of maps at a garage sale, so that's our wrapping paper.  E has been known to doodle on the map too, adding cars, restaurants, tents, houses etc, which makes it extra fun and more personal.  Oh!  Let your paint dry overnight before folding as she suggests - the 3-D detail makes it super cool! (You can fold the butterfly up the middle, then horizontal between the top and bottom wings and diagonal through the wings).

Happy Birthday Party-ing!