Try Making These Handmade Gifts To Give Something A Bit More Unique This Year

Step 1: Gather Your DIY Birthday Card Supplies

Before embarking on your DIY birthday card adventure, gathering all the necessary supplies is essential. A well-prepared crafter is a confident crafter! So, let's make sure you have everything you need to bring your imaginative card ideas to life.

1. Start with colored cardstock or paper as the foundation of your cards. Choose a variety of vibrant hues to suit different themes and moods. Scissors are your trusty sidekick, enabling you to precisely cut out shapes, create borders, and trim your cardstock.
2. Grab glue or adhesive tape to hold everything together securely. Opt for a glue stick for a mess-free experience or double-sided tape for a clean and seamless finish.
3. Round up all the art supplies you have, from markers and colored pencils, or pens. These magical tools will be your gateway to adding personalized messages, whimsical doodles, and vibrant colors to your DIY creations.
4. Stock up on a dazzling array of embellishments for an added dose of flair and personality. Let your creativity soar as you explore the boundless possibilities of stickers, sequins, ribbons, twines, buttons, beads, and more. Watch your creations come alive with vibrant colors, textures, and eye-catching details. With these delightful elements at your fingertips, there's no limit to the magic your birthday cards can be infused with.

Step 2: Choose Your Card Design

The card design will function as the first impression that sets the tone for the entire experience. A well-designed card can evoke emotions ranging from joy and excitement to nostalgia and warmth, leaving friends and family in awe of the thoughtful gesture.

Handmade Watercolor Design:

Express your artistic side by creating a handmade watercolor masterpiece for a genuinely one-of-a-kind birthday card. Start with a blank cardstock or watercolor paper as the base, and let your creativity flow. Use watercolors to paint a vibrant and personalized design, such as flowers, balloons, or a recipient's favorite hobby or color palette. Add a heartfelt birthday message inside to complete the card.

Pop-Up Surprise:

Add an element of surprise and delight to your card with a pop-up feature. Cut out a simple pop-up mechanism using cardstock or colored paper and attach it to the inside of the card. Then, unleash your creativity by designing and cutting out fun shapes, such as cakes, candles, or balloons, and attach them to the pop-up mechanism. When the card is opened, the surprise element will make the birthday celebration of your loved one even more memorable.

Quilled Creations:

Quilling is a paper art technique that involves rolling and shaping thin paper strips to create intricate designs. Use quilling techniques to create beautiful and delicate patterns, flowers, or even personalized messages on your birthday cards. Experiment with different colors and shapes to bring your design to life and make it truly unique. The recipient will appreciate the time and effort put into crafting such an elegant and artistic card.

Hand-Stitched Greeting:

Consider incorporating those skills into your DIY card if you enjoy sewing or embroidery. Use a needle and thread to create hand-stitched designs or patterns on fabric or cardstock. You can stitch the recipient's name, a birthday message, or even cute motifs like balloons or cupcakes. The texture and charm of a hand-stitched card will make it a cherished keepsake.

Interactive Slider Card:

Create an interactive slider card to take your birthday card to the next level. Use cardstock to make a slider mechanism that reveals a hidden message or image as it is pulled. Write a heartfelt message or attach a memorable photo that slides out when the recipient pulls the tab. This interactive element adds a playful touch to your card and makes it truly engaging.

Step 3: Write A Clever Message

1. "Happy birthday, queen of the hashtags! May your day be as fabulous as your Instagram feed."
2. "You're the avocado to my toast, the squad to my goals. Happy birthday, superstar!"
3. "It's your birthday, so let's turn up the 'Lit' level and celebrate like it's 1999... or 2023!"
4. "Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake. Enjoy your special day!"
5. "May your birthday be filled with good vibes and a bottomless brunch. Cheers to another fabulous year!"
6. "Sending you birthday wishes with all the heart emojis. You deserve all the love and happiness today and always."
7. "Happy birthday to my favorite extremely online friend. May your Wi-Fi always be strong and your battery never die."
8. "Time to celebrate another trip around the sun. Let's make this year even more epic than the last!"
9. "You're not getting older, you're leveling up! Happy birthday, gamer!"
10. "Happy birthday, trendsetter! May your day be filled with selfie-worthy moments and viral-worthy adventures."

Step 4: Add The Perfect Finishing Touch

As a bonus, consider creating a DIY envelope to complete the package. Choose decorative paper or repurpose materials like magazine pages or fabric scraps to craft a unique envelope that adds creativity and thoughtfulness to your handmade card. Personalize it by adding hand-drawn designs, stamps, or calligraphy for an extra special touch.

So, there you have it! DIY birthday cards offer endless possibilities for fun, creativity, and the chance to unleash your imagination. With just a few simple steps, you can create customized and sincere cards that will bring joy to your loved ones on their special day. Remember, the beauty of DIY is that there are no limits or rules. Let your creativity run wild, experiment with different techniques, colors, and textures, and, most importantly, have fun. Happy crafting!

An Easy + Clean Egg Dye Hack

First, make some DIY slow cooker dividers with cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil.

Once your slow cooker is divided into four sections, line each section with saran wrap, plastic bags, or slow cooker liners. This will let you use more than one color, but still gives you enough space to dye multiple eggs at once!

Next, fill each section with water. Make sure that, while you want to fill them enough for multiple eggs to be submerged, you don't fill them too high. You don't want the water to overflow — that's definitely not mess-free!

Add your Easter egg dye to each section. Pink, purple, and blue are classic shades!

Gather your hard boiled or blown eggs to add to the water. You can use strips of tape or string to make all kinds of striped and dotted designs. Then all you have to do is just drop them in the water and wait! This is the perfect opportunity to make a colorful Easter cocktail ;).

The longer the eggs sit in the dye, the darker the color will turn out. So if you prefer pastel eggs, only leave them in for a few minutes.

When you remove your eggs from the dye, let them dry on a cookie rack before you remove the tape and the string. Display them on a pretty plate along with your Easter desserts, or as a centerpiece!

Voilà! A rainbow of colorful eggs, all boasting different designs. And the best part is, all you have to do to clean up is throw away the liners and the cardboard, then put your slow cooker back in your cabinet. We'll definitely be doing this from here on out.

How To Dye Easter Eggs: More Colored Egg Dye Ideas For Display

Marbled Nail Polish Eggs

If you're not too keen on buying food coloring that you'll only use every once in awhile, just use your nail polish! Instead of adding dye to the sections, pour in your polish. You can use a toothpick to swirl everything around and achieve that marbled look. Have some nail polish remover nearby because your fingers will get messy.

Mosaic Easter Eggs

This hack is a great option for using up hard boiled eggs because you have to peel one to make it! (AKA, you'll have a snack to accompany your DIY). After you peel an egg that you've already dyed, use a hot glue gun to attach the broken shell pieces to a second, plain egg. Easy-peasy.

Sharpie Tie Dye Eggs

This Easter egg design only takes ten minutes, which makes it perfect for busy evenings or for kids who can't sit still for too long. Fill your slow cooker sections with nail polish remover instead of water, then color your eggs with as many Sharpie colors as you want. Dunk them into the nail polish remover (or smear with a wet Q-tip) to give them that tie-dye look.

Housefront Easter Eggs

Paint your favorite TV characters' apartment building or your childhood home onto eggs for a fun and nostalgic DIY. Once you've drawn your design, you'll want to tape up the rest of the egg to make sure the dye stays where you want it. Paint the house with the egg dye, or submerge the whole egg in a slow cooker section. Set to dry.

Is Blake Lively in any of Ryan Reynolds' movies?

Yes, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have been in the same movies! After meeting during the production of Green Lantern, Blake Lively has a role as an imaginary friend in Ryan Reynolds' new movie IF. In the film, Blake plays a kitten, and it looks like the child who dreamed her up also loves the ocean! This spring movie follows Ryan Reynolds' character and his neighbor Bea, who set out to save all the imaginary friends. It looks like such a fun watch and I can't wait to see the role Blake plays!

The movie also stars director John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell.

How do Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively prioritize their kids?

Blake Lively recently joined an episode of her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' costar Amber Tamblyn's Further Adoand revealed the one unbreakable rule she made with Ryan Reynolds.

“When Ryan and I got together, we made a rule not to work at the same time,” she says. “So that we could always prioritize our personal life...That takes working really hard when we're not. Just like financial planning and sustaining that; it takes balance.”

I love that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are serious about their family life, and that they have identified what works for them and are sticking with it.

Is Taylor Swift friends with Blake Lively's kids?

Yes, Taylor Swift loves Blake Lively's kids! At the Philadelphia show of the Eras Tour, in which Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively attended, Taylor said hello from the stage.

One funny detail about Ryan Reynolds' kids that I love is when he mentioned the girls finally realized Taylor Swift was a popstar. "I think what's most exciting for them is that for the longest time they just thought Taylor's just like an aunt, like a friend of Mommy and Daddy that's very, very close, almost family," he tellsThe Jess Cagle Show. "And then they went to a concert one day and were like, 'Ohhhhh, this isn't a hobby.'"

For Super Bowl Sunday, Blake Lively joined Taylor Swift to support beau (and KC Chiefs tight end) Travis Kelce. "Last week I left my kids for the first time ever," she says on Instagram. "I took pictures upside down and had no clue. I treated a friendship bracelet like a Flat Stanley for my husband like I didn’t realize it wasn’t ‘07. I borrowed more jewelry than the skeleton in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. And I went clubbing. Now I know what my episode of TheTwilight Zone would look like."

How has motherhood affected Blake Lively?

Blake Lively recently opened up about how Ryan Reynolds and she monitor screen safety for their kids, which is definitely something top-of-mind in 2024. “This is not an ad. I get nothing out of this. I just love @tappityapp,” she said of the STEM-focused educational app. “It’s engaging, informative, fun and they care about safety."

She also jokes that she's learning new things right along with her daughters! But, no matter how educational or fun an app is, Blake Lively also emphasizes the importance of engaging with her kids' devices: "I’m always triple checking any kids app constantly for safety because that’s my responsibly not an app’s, but I do LOVE this one.”

Despite its fun and funny moments, the actress has admitted being a mom is hard, but she did it with her signature dry sense of humor. “BettyBooze at your service," she wrote in an Instagram Story announcing the new brand. "These are recipes I’ve been making for loved ones for years. But I have 4 kids now. And I’m tired. So here they are. In a can."

However, Lively absolutely loves motherhood, and says in a 2022 interview with Forbes that having children has made her feel more comfortable in her own skin. "Once I had children, that just became even more profound because my time was even more precious, but also I think having children for me made me feel so much more in my skin," she says. "I never felt more myself or at ease in my own body or more confident — not to say that there aren't a bevy of insecurities coming at me a million times a day, but I just feel incredibly settled."

Speaking with People in 2021, Lively also explains how important it is that her children see her accomplish things outside the home. "I want to be as present of a mother as humanly possible and I want them to feel my presence, but I also think the best way to be the best mother is to show them that you can have a life and have a passion and have an identity outside of just being a mother," Lively says.

While she acknowledges that motherhood is all-encompassing, and it looks different for everyone, she knows that having your own identity is very important. "Teaching them that they can maintain themselves and that everything is possible [is crucial]," she adds.

How many children do Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have?

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's children are four girls. They welcomed their third daughter in 2019, making this new addition to the family their fourth kid.

When did Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have their daughters?

Blake Lively's children were all born in the last 10 years. Blake Lively's kids' names are James, Inez, Betty, and a fourth baby whose name they haven't announced yet. She gave birth to James in 2014, while Inez was born in 2016. Lively gave birth to Betty in 2019 and their fourth baby in February of 2023. I'm hoping that we might find out Ryan Reynolds' new baby's name in honor of her first birthday!

Why did Blake Lively name her daughter James?

The couple decided to name their daughter James after Reynolds' late father. While the name connects both James and Reynolds to his father, it also gives Lively the chance to bond with her daughter over having historically male names. "I liked having a boy's name," Lively said on Good Morning Americain 2015. "I thought I'd pass it on."

Their third daughter Betty's name is a tribute to Lively's late father. We didn't know the name of the couple's third baby until Taylor Swift used all three names in her 2020 album folklore. Swift also used James' voice at the beginning of her 2017 track "Gorgeous"! Does that mean we'll hear one of Ryan Reynolds' children in Reputation (Taylor's Version)? I hope so!

What has Ryan Reynolds said about raising their kids?

Per People, Ryan Reynolds has made it clear he and Blake are wholly invested in the kids' daily lives. The doting husband and father enjoys the moments of "walking them to school and walking them back" as it deepens their bond. More than anything, Ryan and Blake's main goal is to make sure they teach their kids how to be introspective with Ryan saying, "...that's the thing we sort of hang our hat on the most is self-awareness with our kids."

However, that doesn't mean Blake and Ryan don't absolutely love being parents. "We're very excited [and] we wouldn't do this four times if we didn't love it," he says in an interview with CNBC's Power Lunch. "Everybody's doing great. Everybody's actually doing fantastic. I think if we hadn't figured it out by now, I think we'd be in deep, deep trouble."

"It's a zoo over here," he jokes. "This is my office here, this is where I'll probably — to be honest, I'll probably spend the rest of my life in here."

We love how much energy Ryan and Blake are pouring into their kids. It's always beautiful when parents are able to be present with their kids and teach them how to be present with themselves. Ryan Reynolds has also mentioned how having daughters "has been such a ride." Since he comes from a family of all boys, having daughters is something that was beyond his wildest dreams! “I love being a girl dad,” Ryan tells Access. “I have three daughters, which I never in a million years would imagine.”

He mentioned his newest daughter in June of 2023, when he announced his new series Bedtime Stories. "The idea for a show made to help everyone fall asleep was born the same day as my fourth child," he says on Instagram.

Did Blake Lively have a 4th baby?

Blake Lively posted a pic on Super Bowl Sunday showing what appears to be a post-baby body with the caption "Been busy."

Lively confirmed her fourth pregnancy in September 2022 when she arrived at her Forbes event in NYC cradling a baby bump and by posting her own personal photos on Instagramhoping that "the 11 guys waiting outside [her] home for a 🦄 sighting will leave [her] alone."

What gender is Ryan and Blakes 4th child?

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's newest baby, who was born in February of 2023, is a girl! Reynolds explained on the Today Show that they "never find out" until the baby is born, and whether they decide to reveal it is totally up to them. So, does Ryan Reynolds have a son? So far, not yet, but I'm a firm believer in never say never ;).

What is the name of Blake Lively's 4th baby?

Since Taylor Swift used the Blake Lively's kids names in folklore, Swifties think they've guessed Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' new baby's name.

"Calling it now Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds baby is going to be named Daisy Mae," Kaitlyn Kersten tweeted after the release of Taylor Swift's Midnights in October 2022 (the name is mentioned in "You're On Your Own Kid").

One thing is for sure: Ryan Reynolds doesn't plan on spilling the details of their fourth baby's name anytime soon. He appeared on the Today show earlier today and made a cheeky joke about it after the hosts urged him to spill the beans. He said, "We always wait for Taylor to tell us what the child's name will be. We'll say this: we're still waiting."

While we still don't have official word on what Ryan Reynolds' new baby name is, we do think that James, Inez, Betty, and Daisy sound great together!

Do Blake and Ryan have nannies?

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' children don't have a nanny. "I feel like I could sometimes have a bit of a short fuse, but there's just been this weirdly endless supply of patience," Ryan told GQ in 2015. "I have no problem waking up five times in the middle of the night and changing diapers, and as exhausted as you get, I have this stupid grin on my face all the time."

How long have Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively been married?

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have been married for 11 years. The couple got married in 2012 at a former slave plantation in South Carolina, a location that the couple is "unreservedly sorry for," Reynolds told Fast Company in 2020.

How did Blake and Ryan meet?

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds met on the set of their film Green Lantern in 2010. After they filmed the movie, they ended up going out with other people, until a train ride changed everything! “Next thing you know, she was going to Boston, and I was going to Boston,” Ryan says on an episode of the SmartLess podcast. “So we got on a train and rode together and then, you know, I was just begging her to sleep with me.” Their relationship quickly evolved to the one we know and love today!

Was Blake Lively married before Ryan Reynolds?

Ryan Reynolds is Blake Lively's first husband, but before they got married, the actress dated her Gossip Girl costar Penn Padgley and also reportedly dated Leonardo DiCaprio. Ryan Reynolds was married to MCU star Scarlett Johansson from 2008 to 2010.

Who is Blake Lively's half sister?

Blake Lively's half-sister is Robyn Lively. Robyn also works in Hollywood, just like Blake's brother Eric Lively and brother-in-law Bart Johnson.