Birthday Cards For Friends: Ideas and Inspirations for New Designs

Stuck on birthday card ideas for a friend? Don't worry, I've got you covered!

Friend birthday cards are a fantastic way to show your friends you still care, even if your lives are too busy to catch up as much as you would like. I love coming up with DIY birthday card ideas for friends as I will often buy a small gift such as a scratch ticket or gift voucher, and it's great to be able to tuck this into the birthday card as a surprise.

I also enjoy how birthday card ideas for friends can be both generic or personalized. This means I can make a few generic birthday cards up and keep them in my card stash for when the time is right. Although for my very best friend, I do love to really personalize the card if I have the time.

So without further ado, here are eight birthday cards that are suitable for friends.

This card is for a friend that's your ''one in a million'', that special best friend that lights up your life and deserves their very own star with gems inside it.

The card is actually easier to make than it looks. Starting with the background, I laid down some scrap pieces of paper in plain and patterned colors. A star shape was cut out of the front of the card with a craft knife and a slightly larger star shape was cut out of clear plastic and set aside for later.

Now, to create the special feature of the gems inside the clear star window, I ran some double-sided foam tape on the inside front of the card, all around the outside of the star. This ensures there is some space between the clear window and the back of the star for the pretty gems to move around when you shake the card.

The trick is to leave no gaps with your double-sided foam tape, otherwise, all the gems will fall straight out when you hold the card upright. Now, I didn't have any double-sided foam tape on a roll left and had to make do with double-sided foam squares. Although it ends up being hidden, it looks really messy to use these. If you have a roll of foam tape, it will be a lot quicker, but if you only have the squares, don't worry ... it will still work!

Once my foam tape was on, I grabbed a sheet of paper cut to the same size as the inside of my card and adhered it to the foam tape and also the back of the card. This gave my star a ''back'' and also covered the messy foam squares.

Next, I grabbed a handful of pretty gems and went ahead and tossed it inside the star, gluing down the clear plastic star on top to keep it all in place.

Of course, I then needed to hide the edges of the plastic star which I did with washi tape, although you could also do this by making a star-shaped frame with cardstock.

My very special sparkly star card is finished and ready to give to a friend!

This card is a great generic card that you can make earlier, and keep in your card stash for when the time is right. However, if you do want to personalize it, it's easy to do by writing a special message and using a color scheme you know your friend will love.

The theme of this birthday card idea is a ''cut out'' card, in that a shape is cut out of the top layer, revealing a pretty pattern layer underneath. I like making cut-out cards for the opportunity to use up my mini-card stacks, which are just perfectly sized for card making and come in amazing colors and themes.

I have actually used a pre-bought blank card for this project and I often use these for cards that fit the ''standard'' size and shape. My pretty patterned layer is stuck down first.

Next, I grabbed some white card and lightly drew the balloons on with a pencil, cutting out the two outer balloons carefully with a craft knife. This white layer is now stuck down to the bottom layer, revealing the patterned paper underneath through the two balloons.

The third balloon is cut from a piece of patterned cardstock and adhered to using double-sided foam squares to give it a little pop. Next, I used some scrap twine for the balloon strings. These are glued down with the ends coming to a point in the bottom left-hand side of the card. Don't worry, the ends of the twine will be hidden by the words!

A simple DIY banner printable was created for the wording and this was mounted on some pretty paper and also stuck down with double-sided foam adhesive. This both hides the balloon string ends and gives it a little pop.

This cute little birdy card is another generic card that would work just as well personalized. Make it special for your friend by writing a heartfelt message and changing the cute animal that sits in the tree to one your friend will love.

It's created using nothing but cardstock scraps to piece together the cute scene. The majority of the shapes are lightly drawn onto the cardstock with a pencil and then cut out with a craft knife, but I also used a craft punch whenever I could such as the balloon shapes. If you have a Cricut machine to help out with the shapes ... even easier!

A little bit of color was added to the cute bird with Copic markers as well as some white ''shiny bits'' on the balloons, which were drawn on with a white paint pen.

You could either stick the elements down with glue tape flat like I have or use double-sided foam squares to give it a bit of a 3D feel.

This card embraces the concept of white space with a minimalistic feel to it. A patterned card has been used as the base with a piece of white card adhered on top. The white card is cut slightly smaller than the base card, allowing the pattern to show through around the edges thus creating a nice border.

Only the bottom section of the card has any decoration, with the words ''Happy Birthday'' and many little star shapes that were created with a mini craft paper punch.

Of course, you don't have to use star shapes. A loving heart or butterfly craft punch would look just as great or even a stamp using specialty ink. The main theme of the card is not the shape of the embellishments, but rather the uncluttered feel to the card.

I have a confession to make ... I'm addicted to washi tape. It could be worse I suppose, but it means that every now and then I try to sneak in a design that is made 95% from washi tapes because I love using it so much.

This design is super simple and yes, you guessed it, it's made nearly entirely from washi tape! The ''cake'' was cut out from a scrap piece of cardstock and I laid down the washi tape horizontally on top of it, allowing the edges to overhang at this stage.

I tried to select colors that looked good together but also gave the impression of different color layers on a cake. I must admit, I spent way too long selecting the colors.

Once I was happy with the layering of the washi tape on my cake, I cut the overhanging edges to give it a neat shape and adhered it to the card using a glue roller.

The candles were also made with washi tape however I adhered them directly to the card base on top of the cake. A bright yellow highlighter was used to add the candle flame and when that dried, a black fine liner was used to draw the wick inside the flame.

I quickly created a DIY printable for the banner and words, adhered it to a piece of cardstock, and stuck it down with double-sided foam adhesive to make it stand out a little more.

This card is just a nice, simple design that could be personalized in so many different ways by writing a personal note on the label on the front or changing the color scheme around. I used a pre-purchased blank card for this design and I wanted it to have a monochromatic feel in that I would only use one dominant color. Although I did end up breaking this rule by adding the gold embellishment as an afterthought.

My pre-made card was already a solid green color that I was happy to work with, so I just added a second green patterned layer as a strip running horizontally along with the bottom one-third of the card.

A piece of ribbon was glued over the joint to neaten it up but I think a piece of lace would look really lovely and feminine as well.
As an afterthought as I was rummaging through my sewing stash of bits and pieces, I added this vintage gold embellishment.

The label is just a simple design, with the words printed directly onto white cardstock, which was then cut out and adhered to a slightly larger piece of cardstock. This was again stuck down to another piece of cardstock in a dark green color . The white dots were added with a white paint pen.

This card is another versatile card that could either be generic or personalized, depending on the color scheme and graphic. I created the card base myself from plain cardstock as I wanted a custom-sized card to accommodate all of the birthday elements.

Six squares were cut from my paper mini-stacks and were adhered as a second layer on the card, leaving a uniform gap between each square for a grid-like pattern.

The word embellishment was a simple DIY printable that I created, printed, and cut out. It was mounted onto cardstock and adhered to the card using double-sided foam squares to give it some depth.

Next, I used a stamp to create the image, stamping directly onto a scrap piece of white cardstock. I then cut around the image and mounted it onto another contrasting piece of cardstock. Finally, the whole embellishment was also adhered to the card using double-sided foam tape to finish it off.

This card is simple with no words or sentiment on the front. An opened present box was created using cardstock square and rectangle shapes. I adhered this to the card using a glue roller. The ribbon and bow are also created with cardstock, but I would have preferred to use real ribbon so that I could tie a bow. I just didn't have any in the right color!

Flying out of the box are a number of different-sized butterflies. These are all created using a newly purchased clear stamp butterfly set that I was just dying to find a project for.

It's really a simple card that could be done in a number of different ways, depending on what stamps and stickers you may already have. Love hearts, birds, dandelions ... anything could fly out of the box really!