Birthdays keep coming up; sometimes it’s a friend, a cousin, your mum or sometimes your classmate. There are also times when you don’t have a gift to present to them and that’s fine. What people usually remember is the effort.
A simple card, especially if it’s handmade, means more than anything expensive. Because it shows you made an effort just for them. So let’s make one today.
Things you need
Cardboard (colour of your choice)
An A-4-sized paper (colour of your choice)
A piece of sketch paper
Glue stick
Ruler
Pencil
Colour markers
Scissors
Directions
On a piece of sketch paper, draw a doodle of a cat holding a cake (you can choose any character you like). The cat should be about two inches tall and one inch wide. See picture 2.
Colour the cat, outline it neatly and add some highlights as shown in picture 3.
On the cardboard, mark the size of the card you want to make. I made mine five inches long and five inches wide, so I adjusted the cat’s size to match the card; picture 4.
After cutting out the card, measure two inches from the folded side and draw an arched door shape; picture 5.
Cut out only the door shape on one side, making sure the folded edge stays intact. Then paste the coloured A4-sized paper on the front side of the card; picture 6.
Cut a strip of paper one centimetre wide and three inches long; picture 7.
Paste one end of the strip to the inside edge of the open door as shown in picture 8.
Open the card and, leaving about one inch from the pasted side, stick the cat onto the strip; see picture 9.
(The idea is that when you open the door, the strip pulls forward and the cat holding the birthday cake pops out.)
Close the door and write “OPEN” on it; picture 10.
Write “Happy Birthday” either directly on the card or on a separate piece of paper. You can draw flowers or small doodles, and paste them on the front of the card; see pictures 11, 12 and 13.
The writer can be contacted at ithecraftman@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, Young World, February 14th, 2026
