Show some love with our birthday card ideas! Find inspiration for unique designs and get tips for crafting personalized cards that make every birthday extra special!
Make someone’s day with a bespoke birthday card design that offers a far more personalized touch than an off-the-shelf birthday card. It’s surprisingly simple to create your own card designs in very little time.
If you’re in need of some birthday card ideas for friends, here’s everything you need to know to create your own birthday cards, including tips for sending them as digital designs or printing them at home for mailing and in-person giving. (Don’t know anyone celebrating a birthday soon? Some of the following tips can be applied to cards for other special occasions too!)
How to Make Your Own Birthday Cards
A birthday card is such a small, simple gesture, but it really does mean the world to the recipient. You can make their day extra special by creating your own birthday card design that is uniquely tailored to that person.
Fold-out birthday card by Jacques & Lise.
You can create a birthday card template by hand or with design software. The advantage of the latter is that you can adjust your birthday card design with ease, adapting the age or name of the person or switching up colors in a click.
For photographic designs and collages, it’s best to use design layout software such as Shutterstock Create or Adobe InDesign, or photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. Illustrative designs are best created using a vector design app, such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.
When you’ve finished working on your birthday card design, you can send the final card as a digital file (JPEG, PDF, or even as a GIF for animated birthday cards) or print the design.
Many at-home printers now produce very high-quality results—just make sure that your printer can process thicker paper or card stock before sending to print.
Alternatively, you can print your cards through a print-on-demand (POD) print service or use a specialist printer for creating letterpress birthday cards or metallic foiled designs.
Then all you need to do is hand your beautiful card to the lucky recipient!
Now that you know the general process for creating your own birthday card templates, it’s time to delve into some serious birthday card inspiration.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- How to Use Clip Art to Build a Birthday Card
- Letterpress Birthday Card Inspiration
- Collage Birthday Card Inspiration
- Zodiac Birthday Card Inspiration
- Fonts for Birthday Cards
- How to Use a Birthday Card Template
License this image via Kseniya Maruk.
1. How to Use Clip Art to Build a Birthday Card
Clip art is a fun and easy way to quickly build a unique birthday card design. Simply choose from a selection of vector illustrations or sticker clip art, and combine your chosen clip art to create a custom greetings card.
A clip art-based birthday card design is best created in vector software, such as Adobe Illustrator or layout software like Adobe InDesign.
Try to theme your clip art choices around a particular quirky idea or subject, such as kooky animal illustrations, floral clip art, or stylized birthday cake illustrations.
You can also edit color swatches in vector programs to unite the color palette on the card design. This will give your birthday card an overall cohesive look.
Clockwise from top-left, license these images via Nadia Grapes, Ardea-studio, Nadia Grapes, and happpy.designer.
License this image via GoodStudio.
2. Letterpress Birthday Card Inspiration
Letterpress birthday cards are actually very easy to create. The vector designs need to be very simplistic in order to be printed successfully, and they often only use one or two colors.
You can use your own letterpress machine or send your design to a specialist printer.
This style of birthday card is really special and hand-crafted, with beautiful texture and a 3D-quality to the printed card. A bespoke letterpress birthday card is likely to be a treasured item for months to come, so make it count with a simple yet striking design.
Clockwise from top-left: Happy Birthday Bubbles card by Meticulous Ink, Card Lit birthday card by The Rocket and Coral letterpress card by Archivist Gallery.
3. Collage Birthday Card Inspiration
Looking for funny birthday card ideas or unique birthday card ideas for Mom? Collage birthday cards can bring together all the things your loved one loves best into one kooky and memorable design.
Collage designs and doodlebomb illustrations are also super fun and easy to create.
Simply combine your own cut-out photos or illustrations or use a ready-made collage collection to build up a layered collage design, step by step. The more off-beat and quirky the result, the better!
Vintage photos make a great foundation for collage birthday cards, and you can build up even more whimsy with kooky circus fonts, newspaper cuttings, and polaroid frames.
If you’re using black and white imagery, keep the background palette light and pastel to keep your birthday card breezy and modern.
Clockwise from top-left, license these images via Master1305, Anton Vierietin, and Alena A.
Create your own unique collage designs by mixing and layering a variety of fun images together. Clockwise from top-left, license these images via Ruth Black, Guy’s Art, oatawa, and Ruth Black.
4. Zodiac Birthday Card Inspiration
If you’re on the hunt for birthday card ideas for a friend, horoscope birthday cards are a great way to recognize your friend’s star sign and bring mystical, magical flair to a card design.
Look to the stars for these homemade birthday card ideas. Incorporate zodiac signs, celestial backgrounds, and rich horoscope colors for maximum impact. Zodiac birthday cards are unique and make for keepsake treasures for your star-gazing friends.
Download this bundle of FREE astrology birthday cards here!
Clockwise from top-left, license these images via xnova, ButterSugar104, and Shyntartanya.
5. Fonts for Birthday Cards
Cute birthday card ideas actually often begin with a simple font choice. Fonts are the moodsetters for your birthday card designs. Clean sans serif fonts bring a sleek, minimalist feel to a card design, while decorative serif typefaces can bring a traditional or vintage edge to a greetings card.
Type-centric birthday cards can have a simple and striking appeal, and they’re the perfect choice when highlighting a special message or birthday quote. Set a clean minimal font in a contrasting color palette or metallic foiling for a luxurious touch, or arrange quirky lettering into a more ornate birthday card design.
Alternatively, opt for a hand-drawn script font that mimics the look and feel of handwriting for a personal touch.
Clockwise from top-left, license these images via cosmaa and Zakharchenko Anna. Image at bottom-left is a minimal birthday card design available on Etsy.
6. How to Use a Birthday Card Template
Still not sure where to begin with your homemade birthday card ideas? A birthday card template is a good place to start. You can use a ready-made template as a foundation for creating your own unique design. You can also just switch up the template’s colors, fonts, and graphics to make the design more distinctive.
You can find greeting cards templates on Shutterstock Create, which can be easily edited to bring in your own special message or even enlivened with some fun animation effects. Browse the library of card templates and download your finished birthday card.
Alternatively, check out some of the cute illustrated birthday card templates from the Shutterstock library below, which are ready to be sent to your loved ones right away!
Clockwise from top-left, license these birthday card templates via SashaMart, Nadia Grapes, and Molibdenis-Studio.
License these birthday card templates via Molibdenis-Studio.
Conclusion: Unique and Unforgettable Handmade Birthday Cards
In the internet age, we can sometimes forget the meaning behind the simple gesture of sharing a birthday card with a friend or loved one. Homemade birthday cards are even more special. They can be treasured for years by the recipient, so they’re well worth the effort!
Get started on your birthday card ideas with an easy-to-edit Shutterstock Create card template or a vector birthday card template. Once you’ve finished your handmade birthday card, gift your unique design to a friend or family member. They’ll be beyond thrilled!
License this cover image via Dmitry Lobanov.
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