How to Make an Ink-sprayed Birthday Card

In the good old days when there were no computers, most of the day-to-day tasks were accomplished manually. We also used to make Greeting Cards by hand according to the occasion - whether it was Christmas or New Year or somebodies Birthday.

In this instructable, I will demonstrate how we used to make very attractive Birthday Cards with whatever resources available with us.

Step 1: What You Need

A card of required size. You can recover a good card from packages when you buy new clothing
Fountain pen inks of different colors. Here I have used Red, Green and Blue colored inks
An old comb and an old tooth brush
Some designs to cover the card. You can use leaves, flower petals, coins and many more things to design your card
A "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" printout using a large sized fonts like Imprint. In earlier days, we used to draw the letters by hand.
A Cutting Mat
A Crafting Knife

Step 2: Cut and Remove Letters

Place the printout with the letters "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" on the cutting mat
Using the craft knife cut and remove every letter separately from the printout.

You can see the cut letters in the last picture here.

Step 3: Arrange the Design

Place the card on an old news paper to prevent ink from spoiling the surrounding areas
Arrange the flower petal, leaves, coins or whatever you wish over the card in any design you like
Arrange the cutout letters also on the card along with other material
Open the ink bottles and take small amount of ink in their respective lid

Step 4: Start Spraying

Dip the old tooth brush lightly in red ink. Do not take more ink as the excess ink will splatter over the card
Hold the comb close to the card and lightly brush the comb with the inked tooth brush
You will find the ink sprayed in very small dots over the card. Spray it all over the card lightly

Step 5: Spray With Other Colors

Now take blue ink and then green ink in the tooth brush and spray over the card using the comb
Please dip the tooth brush very lightly in the ink.
See the last picture above. I did a mistake here and dipped the brush deep into the ink which splattered and made a large spot on the card

Step 6: Allow the Card to Dry

Once you are satisfied with spraying, keep the card without disturbance for the ink to dry
You can pour the remaining inks in their respective bottles and close the lid.
Do not keep the card under a fan or in area with air flow. Otherwise the designs placed on the card may be lifted up before drying and spoil the card
Once the ink dries up, just tilt the card and the letters, coins and designs will slide out from the card

Step 7: Here Is the Finished Birthday Card

You can see the finished Birthday Card in the picture above. If you wish, you can add the name of person and date also in the greeting card.
The last picture shows the close up of the card where the ink sprays have formed a mosaic like pattern on the card.

Make your own Greeting Cards by hand and have fun...