So it finally happened. My baby girl, A, turned 1 last week! Of course since the moment I announced I was pregnant, I’ve heard “it goes by so fast” at least 457 million times. Turns out, this is totally true. And I also can’t even write this without tearing up! Lucky for both of us, that’s not what I’m writing to you about today.
We had a beautiful party for our sweet little one a couple weeks before her actual party because the week of her actual birthday we started the long and painful process of moving across the country. And let me tell you, we are so blessed with amazing family and friends who have helped us so so much! As much as I love entertaining and any opportunity to make pretty things, I just literally could not get it together to throw a birthday party by myself in the midst of coordinating movers, finding a new place to live sight unseen, leaving my job, oh, and raising my daughter as a solo parent while my husband was away for work for 3 months. My sister, who is arguably better at both entertaining and crafting than I am, offered to take the reins and host a spectacular mermaid themed party for our sweetie.
She made the most adorable invitations and jelly fish decorations, strung together pictures on mermaid tales, and so much more. God also provided for us in a big way. A couple weeks before the party, while I was stressing about the cake (because, if you didn’t know, planning a first birthday party is almost as involved as planning a wedding…. I wish I was kidding), my aunt called and told me that she won a free two tiered cake from Buttercream Bakeshop in a raffle and wondered if we would like to use it for A’s party! We took her up on this generous offer and the cake turned out beautifully (and tasted AH-mazing!).
The party was in our hometown (we’ve been living 4 hours north of where my husband and I grew up these past 4 years) and it also served as a going away party. Everything turned out perfectly and A looooved her first bites of cake! At one point she actually tried to pick the whole thing up with both hands and bring it to her mouth to take a bite!
A also had a great time tearing into her giftwrapped packages and now not only has a crop of shiny new cool toys, but also the most on point wardrobe of any baby I’ve ever seen! (Arguably one of the most fun parts of having a baby girl so far!)
After such a successful party and generous gifts from family and friends, thank you cards were definitely in order. As the crafty hoarder I am, I had stack of old thank you cards ready to upcycle. I decided to bring A to my grandma’s lake house which isn’t too far from our house for a crafting/grandma day. Both my grandma and my mom were there and are always happy for extra baby snuggle time! So I loaded up the supplies into my car and headed their way.
While I was unloading the car, I realized that I left the stack of thank yous at home! What was I going to do?! I had plain paper with me and some stickers, but certainly not enough supplies to make a large group of thank you cards. Or so I thought.
As it happens, my mom is also super crafty and perhaps the most resourceful crafter I know. She saves each little scrap of paper during every craft session and repurposes seriously everything. After a quick appraisal of my supplies, she and I realized that I did have the entire stack of birthday cards with me (since the gifts were written on the back of each card, this is what I was going to use to write out the thank yous). PERFECT! And with that, we got to work.
We cut scraps of different cards and combined them together in all different ways to make a pile of fun, unique thank you cards! Had we been in either one of our craft rooms, we could have used a rubber stamp to put “thank you” on each card, but with the limited supplies we had, I opted to write it out with my (totally amateur) hand lettering.
Overall, I think they turned out great! And it was super fun. And easy. And you can make them too! Here is the thing- even though we consider ourselves to be crafty, you actually don’t have to be crafty at all to make these. We literally cut pieces of other cards and taped them onto blank pieces of cardstock paper. And added some stickers. And wrote words by hand. Easy Peasy.
Don’t think you can do it? Oh ye of little faith! All you need are some basic supplies and your creative juices will start flowing!
Here’s what you need to get started: (This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. This means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will earn a small commission at NO extra cost to you! Please read my full disclosure policy here.)
- Cardstock paper, any color. I use 8.5 x 11 in sheets and cut them down to 5.5 in by 8.5 in then fold them in half
- Adhesive. I use a tape gun with “booger” tape for the majority of my crafting projects, but glue dots work well too
- Scissors or a paper cutter. I typically use a paper cutter for precise cutting because I can’t cut a straight line to save my life!
- A stack of old cards, any kind (don’t have a stack of old cards? No problem! Check out my previous post on card making HERE.
- Pens or markers. My favorites are these, but I didn’t have any with me that day!
- Stickers (optional). These are my favorites!
- Washi tape (optional)
- Rubber stamps and ink (optional)
Directions: Whatever you want! Haha but seriously- mix and match, try out different combos until you like how it looks. Then tape down your materials, write out the card, and send! (But take pictures before you send them and post them here so I can see your creations!)
Happy crafting!
