I recently downloaded a beautiful photo from http://www.canstockphoto.com, a stock photo site that offers downloads at very affordable rates. It was a photo of a small kitten peeking out of a box. The photo was taken by a photographer called Bedaloga (you can see his profile at http://www.canstockphoto.com/Bedolaga/). This photo inspired me to make a birthday card that is a bit different.
Approximate Time: 45 minutes
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Supplies:
a suitable photo
If you want to use the same, download it for a small fee at http://www.canstockphoto.com//Bedolaga/.
a photo editing program
I used PhotoScape version 3.5, which can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.photoscape.org/.
8.2" x 5.6" black-colored cardboard
8.27" × 11.69" light brown cardboard
one fragile sticker
I got one free of charge at our local post office.
26 inches of 1 inch wide red organza ribbon
one sheet of ordinary white printer paper
pencil
ruler
pair of standard scissors
quick-drying glue
a few drops of strong bonding glue
one light brown envelope
Instructions:
Open the downloaded photo on your computer, and suitably resize it with the PhotoScape program.
Click on the Object-button and choose "T", which allows you to insert a text box onto the photo. Write "Happy Birthday" as your message, choose Tahoma as text, red as the color, and 100 as the size. Then, use the on-screen arrows to correctly position the message over the photo.
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Now choose the Filter button and click on Region (Out of Focus). Choose the black Radial option, with the settings 90% for the Size and 35% for the Feather.
Print the photo on ordinary white printer paper.
Fold black cardboard in half to create a card 4.1" x 5.6" ~ use the ruler to make the fold neat and smooth.
From the light brown cardboard, cut the following four pieces of cardboard: Two pieces sized 2.6 x 5.4 inches and two pieces sized 3.4 x 4.05 inches. These four pieces of cardboard will become the flaps of a "packaging" box.
Take the two 2.6 x 5.4 inch pieces, and fold both of them as illustrated in sketch 1.
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Take the two 3.4 x 4.05 inch pieces, and fold both of them as illustrated in sketch 2.
Fold the four flaps into each other as you would expect to fold the flaps of a box when closing a packing box, and glue them together.
Stick the fragile sticker diagonally over the folded flaps.
Tie the ribbon around the "box" and make a bow.
Add a few drops of strong bonding glue to the knot of the bow, so that the bow won't come loose.
Glue the "box" to the front of the card, carefully ensuring that it is an equal distance from the edges.
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Cut out the printout from the photo and glue it to the inside of the card, carefully ensuring that it is an equal distance from the edges.
Note: If you download images from http://www.canstockphoto.com/, there will be no watermark on the images.
