Calligraphy birthday card

Using a white card blank (pictured above, scanned in on a brown background), I first speckled red card with yellow and white gouache, and gold ink. Then I cut the card into strips. I wrote birthday messages in a quick capitals hand on Fabriano paper, and cut these messages out with a deckle-edge scissors, colouring edges in with gold. I stuck the messages on to the card strips, and then stuck the completed strips on to the greetings card. Finally, I wove thin red coloured strips (you could use ribbon!) in between the message strips, to form a “weave” effect. Very simple, but effective, and it requires a little extra work to read the (now partially obscured!) birthday messages.