Amidst the parties and birthday cakes, it’s not unusual for people to extend their well-wishes through a birthday card. That’s because cards help you stay connected with those you don’t get to see or speak to very often. It’s a wholesome activity that never fails to make a difference in a person’s life.

42+ Sample Birthday Cards

What Is a Birthday Card?

Birthday cards are a popular type of greeting card that we send to a person to celebrate the day they were born. It’s a tradition practiced across the globe among individuals of different age groups and cultures. The card generally consists of decorative elements, such as colors and graphics, as well as a brief message from the sender. Given how birthdays mark an important milestone in someone’s life, giving some sort of recognition is sure to make a celebrant feel extra special. You can use the card to let a person know that you are thinking of them at that particular moment.

Although store-bought cards are always an option, many believe that handmade cards provide more room for personalization to make your greeting even more memorable. Consider it as an opportunity for you to get creative with your ideas, while still keeping it simple. You can wish someone a happy birthday by incorporating all their favorites into one customized card.

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Reasons to Send a Birthday Card

In today’s world, you won’t find a lot of people who know what it’s like to receive and send birthday cards every year. What many people seem to forget is the value that these cards bring in terms of cementing personal and professional relationships between parties. Although cards may not be as popular as they were once were, the Greeting Card Association claims that Americans continue to purchase about 6.5 billion greeting cards per year, with birthdays being the top card-sending occasion. Like letters, cards allow us to add a personal touch to our greeting through a handwritten message. Customized greetings even offer a sense of joy and belongingness, especially during one of the most important days of one’s life.

While birthday cards may sound too personal for a business relationship, not many people realize how great of an opportunity this is to connect with employees and clients on a non-work basis. For many businesses, creating real connections with others can yield successful outcomes down the line. It’s a stellar way of showing recipients how much you appreciate them, while still keeping things subtle.

If you still feel a bit hesitant about the idea, you might want to take the following into account:

To Distinguish Yourself in the Digital World: Is there still a future for birthday cards in this age of digital greetings and social media? The truth is, it’s easy for our e-messages to get lost in the digital scuffle. Greetings done on Facebook or Twitter fail to elicit the same emotional response compared to something as direct and personal as a birthday card. It’s even worse when people think that GIFs and stickers could ever replace private messages. You can easily communicate your well-wishes through email, text, or chat, but it’s not every day that we get to receive a card from someone within our circle. Sending a birthday card to a friend, customer, or employee during their special day is one way to stand out and be worth remembering.To Increase Customer Retention: The fact that you’re taking the time to make a birthday card for one of your many clients is already a reason for them to continue doing business with you. It’s about refining a client’s perception of your business to generate a return on investment. If you think about it, birthdays give you the chance to reconnect with people you haven’t spoken to or transacted with in a while. Knowing that your customers are already drowning in a sea of digital birthday greetings, you should know better than to put yourself in a position that would reduce your chances of being remembered. But by sending your best customer greeting card to the celebrant, you’re reminding them of your goods or services at a time when they might appreciate it.To Boost Employee Morale: Your employees are your greatest asset. But like the rest of us, they have good days and bad days, and how you treat them can significantly affect how they feel about their work. So when an employee’s birthday comes around, you might want to think about sending a card to let them know that you value what they do and remember them as individuals. Doing so can leave a massive impact on their performance, as it encourages them to work harder and to stay committed to the company’s culture. Making your employees feel welcomed and valuable as essential members of the workforce is a driving factor in employee retention, which, in turn, can enhance your image in the eyes of others.To Express Our Sentiments to Loved Ones: There are some things that we’re better off declaring on paper than saying out loud. People who have difficulty in sharing their emotions verbally may benefit from birthday cards the most. These cards offer a certain degree of personalization without your message losing its warmth and sincerity. It’s one of the few reasons why people are able to rekindle their relationships with others after a fallout. These cards allow us to connect with those who mean the world to us, as we celebrate another year of their existence here on earth. Whether it’s to a friend, a family member, or a colleague, a personalized greeting card can do wonders in expressing our thoughts in as few words as possible.To Establish Branding: While this might be the last thing on your mind when sending a birthday card, it’s still an opportunity you wouldn’t want to ignore. Anything you send out offers you the chance to put your brand in front of potential and recurring customers. Apart from having your logo on the front page, the way you deliver your message can say a lot about who you are and what you stand for as a brand. It gives your audience a better feel of your company without sounding too forced. It’s safe to say that sending birthdays cards can sometimes be more a more crafty form of advertising than regular email marketing.

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How to Make a Birthday Card

We all want the people we care about to feel amazing on their birthday. But this doesn’t always have to involve expensive gifts and extravagant celebrations. Birthday cards might sound corny and cheesy from the surface, but you’d be surprised by how a simple greeting card can make someone’s day even more special than it already is.

However, some people think twice about creating a birthday card because of the negative thoughts that surround the idea of not knowing what to do or write. The good news is: there are no right or wrong ways to craft a birthday card. What matters most is your ability to create something that not only remains sincere and heartfelt but also does the job in making your intentions known.

To help you leave a lasting impression with your birthday card, here are some tips to keep in mind.

1. Start Early

You don’t really need a lot of time to create a birthday card, as it’s one of the few birthday gifts that you can give without spending a fortune or exerting too much effort. But leaving things to the last minute isn’t exactly the best idea when you’re aiming for a card that would stand out. That is why it’s essential to begin creating your birthday card design at the earliest time possible. Doing this will give you enough time to contemplate on creative ideas, incorporate these thoughts into the card, and have it mailed just in time for your recipient’s birthday.

2. Know Who You Are Designing For

Before you begin designing the birthday card, you need to note who your recipient will be. It’s an essential step in creating any greeting card, as the focus turns to the person receiving the card, and not to you as the sender. And since you’ll be addressing the card to somebody else, gearing your message toward their personality and interests is one way to speak to the celebrant on a more personal level.

If you want your birthday greeting to resonate well with your recipient, consider what the person may want to find in the card without being too predictable. You can include elements that you know the celebrant would like, such as quotes, puns, and jokes, as well as other creatives that remind you of them. Designing for your audience (and not for yourself) can help make it a card worth keeping.

3. Use Eye-Catching Design Elements

From bold color palettes to striking fonts, there’s no denying how design elements contribute to the visual appeal of your birthday card. You can find many card templates with designs that are hard to miss, giving you all the more reason to apply it generously to your greeting card. And if starting from scratch seems intimidating, you can use a template as an alternative approach. Most greeting card templates contain pre-designed elements that you can easily edit to meet your preferences and goals.

Also, you can never go wrong with color.

The strategic use of color is not something you want to take for granted, as colors do have the power to control the tone and emotion of a visual piece. Be sure to explore different color combinations to see what works best in conveying your message. You can also play around with other graphical details to give your card that extra boost of charisma!

4. Include Personal Images

You’ll want to make a birthday card that can catch a person’s attention. And since visuals play a crucial role in viewer perception, including photos that reflect the tone and mood of your message will surely make all the difference. You can look for high-quality images that depict the relationship you share with the recipient, whether it’s from a memory you had together or an illustration of something that you can both relate to. It doesn’t matter how cute-, humorous-, or professional-looking the image is, as long as it sends the right emotions when viewed.

5. Apply a “Less Is More” Mindset

As tempting as it is to go all out with your creativity, you need to remember how minimalism can change the game completely. Adding too much to the card is not the best move to follow-through, as this often creates a noise that may disrupt a person’s attention from the main message. Birthday cards need to be simple enough to communicate your message without causing an eyesore. After all, loading your card with texts and graphics that play no relevance to your purpose will only make it more forgettable to your audience.

So if you have a hard time deciding which colors to use or images to choose, you may want to get a second opinion from someone you know before finalizing your card. Seeking feedback ensures that you don’t go overboard and end up regretting the whole experience from the get-go.

6. Keep Your Message Short but Sweet

Writing a heartwarming message is one of the essential parts of the process. The only problem is finding the right words to say in a birthday card can be pretty tricky for most people. It’s a step that most senders set aside to do last, as it’s common for one to feel unsure about what to write in a birthday card. And because the last thing you want to do is to pressure yourself to compose a sweet message, you need to learn the importance of writing with a sound mind. Taking a few minutes of your day just to sit and think about what you want to write will prevent you from producing a half-baked output. The secret is to stray away from generic lines commonly used in Hallmark cards and Google-searched materials, as these messages don’t carry the same weight as a personalized message.

We all love getting something for our birthday, and a birthday greeting card is no exception. It’s a long-standing tradition that people continue to keep alive by using the card to get in touch with friends, family, colleagues, and clients. Living in the era of electronic mail and instant messaging, sending a birthday card will undoubtedly bring a smile to one’s face on their special day. So the next time you debate whether to send a quick email greeting or an actual birthday card, you may want to ask yourself which one would make a more positive influence on the message you want to convey.