49+ Card Making Ideas for Kids
Looking for Card Making Ideas? Look no further. The kids and I love Card Making. As I have a rather pragmatic streak, I find that making cards for relatives and friends is a great way to have a creative session with the children AND to have a good “use” for the resulting craft.
We do keep a lot of artwork, but we can’t keep everything. So this is a great way to make someone smile, as well as getting crafty! We usually have to make at least one extra card to keep for us! And Red Ted usually insists on posting it to himself too! Luckily he gets a lot of “regular” mail from Granny too! (If you are specifically looking for some Valentines Day Cards for Kids, we have a whole page dedicated to those! Do browse them too!)!
So.. the benefits of having a card making session:
- a chance to get crafty,
- a chance to practice our writing,
- a trip to the postbox (you can talk about the value of stamps too) AND
- we make someone happy
Such a great activity, especially during the long holidays, when the kids miss their friends!
Basic supplies needed for these fabulous card making ideas
So what to I need to make a handamde card? The answer is simple – not very much! The majority of these cards, really only need some basic supplies focusing on paper crafts:
- card stock
- paper or construction paper
- scissors
- glue/ adhesive
- pencils, markers or paints or ink
Once you have the basics… have a good rummage in your craft room or arts and crafts box and add any embellishments and leftover materials you like, such as:
- glitter
- gems
- stickers
- ribbons or yarn
- pom poms
- or googly eyes
But really.. don’t rush to hobby lobby or the craft store make unnecessary purchases (no need for crazy glue dots, a glue stick will do).. stick to the basics and you can still make amazing things!
Here is an eclectic mix of card making ideas and tutorials for you!
So how to make a unique cards? It is simple.. make it handmade!!! Hopefully, we have a fabulously eclectic mix of design ideas here for you today. Giving you lots of opportunities to personalise your cards and make your card unique.
This list of card making ideas has grown VERY MUCH over time. It started off as a collection of crafts that I made with my kids when they were very little – so suitable for toddlers, kindergartners and preschoolers.. and then over the years, we have added SO many fantastic designs for older kids too. The cards for younger kids is a great card for beginners section too, as the designs are simple but still fun.
The list is extensive (I probably have well over 100 card making crafts for you), so often, I have picked out favourites for a particular section. And then added links for further resources. The main topics are:
- Spring Cards for Preschoolers
- Spring Cards for older Kids
- Birthday Cards for Preschoolers
- Birthday Cards for older kids
- Valentines Day Cards Preschool
- Valentines Day Cards for Kids
- Mother’s Day Cards for Kids of all ages
- Father’s Day Cards for Kids of all ages
- Christmas Cards for Preschool
- Chrismast cards for Kids
- Other Occasion Cards for kids of all ages
- Origami Based Cards
As you can see that is quite a list! I do hope the categories are helpful! I hope that you find all these categories useful for making greeting cards at hom eor in the classroom!
Spring and Easter Cards for Preschoolers to Make
Lets begin our card ideas with some cute spring or Easter cards that younger kids can have a go at! Grab your pencil, y our glitter and lets get making!
Cutest little Cotton Wool Bunny Cards for Toddlers, this is a lovely card exploring different textures!
Another fun card for little ones to make are these super simple Fingerprint Chicks. Kids love print making and it is even more fun,w hen you can turn yoru prints into adorable chicks.
A very basic introduction that all pop up card makers will love, have a go at these super simple pop up Pop Up Card.The basic of basic pop up card techniques!
Bottle Top Ladybird Cards – we do love to recycle!
As the kids get older, they can try the next level up and have a go at this adorable Chick & Egg Woven Cards (with free printable)
Similarly we also have the cutest little BUNNY in Woven Basket Card Version
For older kids we also have these Spring Cards:
Adorable Pop Up Chick cards – these are possibly one of my favourite pop up cards ever… well.. until you see the next craft! Ha
A lovely pop up flower carden. Using one of the most “classic” pop up card techniques. I love this card as it is so simple, you can use all sorts of colored paper scraps for this or even use stickers etc. Super simple, yet lots of fun.
Another free printable – this time a daffodil flower basked card. So sweet!
You can now browse our FULL Easter Card collection here!
Birthday Cards for Preschoolers to Make
We do love to wish people a Happy Birthday with a homemade card.
To be honest, when making birthday cards with preschoolers and younger kiddos, anything goes really. Even a little “scribble” is lovely and appreciated. And very young children draw the cutest “egg people” and drawings. They will all be precious keepsakes.
Similarly, print making with younger kids is great. Whether using handprints, finger prints or cookie cutter prints.. again, you can turn them all into Birthday cards!
There is also a HUGE overlap between Birthday cards, Mother’s Day Cards and Valentine’s Day Cards – especially when working with preschoolers – the topics can all be interchanged really!
Having said that, here are some ideas you could still give a go, if you wanted something “crafty” or more “focussed”!
If you have pet lovers in the family.. then some cute and easy googly eyed cat cards would make for a fun set of birhday cards too! Use your own favourite pet photo or make use of our free printable.
Robot Cards – these little robot cards where so fun to make! We just cut out some rectangles and squares and go sticking. Then some fine motor skills for addin the sequin buttons. Too cute!
Monster Shape Cards – another fun little card exploring SHAPES!
Monster Pop Up Cards – if you are cutting shapes for your preschoolers… maybe have a go at this pop up monster card? So fun! It comes with some templates too if you wish to use them.
Birthday Cards for Kids to Make
I think almost ALL our cards here on Red Ted Art can be used as Birthday Cards – it really just depends on the time of year the birthday falls on… we also have a great set of Pop Up Birthday Cards/ Pop Up Animals.. but without a dought the most popular birthday card for kids to make is:
Birthday Cake Pop Up Card – this is once again, a super simple technique that looks great! And can easily be customises.
A close second favourite, that my kids like to make for birthday cards, is the pop up heart cards! They are easy to make (the bear and the cat use basic shapes – ie circles to make) and pop up heart is so easy too! A lovely way to “send love” for sure. Templates available too.
Making an adorable pop up animal card – especially a “favourite” animal or an animal with personalised features, is a great way for making DIY Birthday Cards. Here we have a pop up dog card my daughter made for her friend… but we have many more cute animal pops – up from cats to dogs, to bears and more…
We also have a simple “printable” occasions card you can make (free birthday printable!) and it has all the major birthday milestones for you to choose from. Print, color, cut and stick!
See the rest of our Birthday Pop Up Cards here!!!
Valentine’s Day Cards Preschoolers
Valentine card ideas are also fun for kids of all ages. See our complete collection of preschool Valentine’s day Cards here! I have picked some out for you today, for easy browsing!
Q-tip painting for toddlers – a great trick for working with littles – get them having fun with messy painting and then cut out their drawings into heart shapes for them to stick!
Torn Paper Heart Cards for Toddlers – the paper tearing is a great activity for fine motor skills and finger strengthening!
Valentines Card – super simple lacing cards using heart shapes! A great homemade valentine cards DIY for toddlers getting those fine motor skills going.
As mentioned, these form part of our more extensive list of Preschool Valentines Cards!
Valentine’s Day Cards Kids
The homemade card ideas fun continues with more great designs for Valentine’s Day! So many designs and ideas made over the years.. but picking out a handful for you today:
A collection of not 5 but 6 (yes there is a bonus card) of super simple Valentines Day Card designs. These are great for making in bulk (e.g. in a classroom setting – when crafting for class mates) but can also be made as part of the preschooler section, as the patterns and shapes are simple and easy to copy!
A valentine’s Day Card collection, wouldn’t be complete without at least one 3d Pop Up Heart card. Well luckily for you, we have THREE different types of heart card pop ups:
Check out the rest of our Valentine’s Day Card Collection here:
Mothers Day Cards For Kids of all ages
As mentioned before.. no “one card” fits “one section”. I do think almost ALL of the Valentine’s Day Cards would be super lovely on Mother’s Day too! Which mum doesn’t love a homemade heart card? But if you are looking for something less pink and red, try these.
Circle Flower cards using polymer clay. This a particularly cute little card to make with young kids. Super easy and so colourful.
We also adore this super cute POP UP Dress Card! Just darling! I know I have an origami section below.. but felt this worthy of a mention here!
You can now browse our full Mother’s Day Card collection here:
Father’s Day Cards for KIds of all ages
Yes! We have of course ALSO got a section for Father’s Day Cards.. again, I can’t stress enough, how all these cards can be made for lots of different people, genders and occasions, they are simply one way of helping me group them!
Turtley Awesome Handprint Card
Nuts and Bolts Father’s Day Card
This Trophy card is easy to cut and decorate and I know Dad will love it!
We love to help you along, with some templates and printables. Give our super dad and best dad printables a go!
And yes, another origami card to make!
Christmas Cards for Preschoolers to Make
Many of the Christmas Cards for Preschoolers would also make great Thank You Cards for kids to make in the New Year!
Thank You Cards (from Wrapping Paper)
Super Simple Cookie Cutter Cards
Christmas Cards for Older Kids to Make
Most (but not all) of our Christmas Cards for Kids makes are pop up cards or 3d cards! There are number of different techniques to try out and have fun with, I think you will enjoy them all!
These W fold technique cards are so so easy and so so fun. We made a Reindeer Pop Up and Snowman Pop Up – templates available too!
Another fun technique to try is the paper chain technique used with these jolly Gingerbread Men. Templates for classrom use available too!
Pop Up Snowman Cards – these are similar to the flower garden in that it uses a simple pop up technique
(More advanced) Quilled Merry Christmas Cardsx
Card Making Ideas for all occassions
Finally.. the odds and ends of cards we have that we feel are worth a highlight here today!
Pop Up Emoji Cards – these get well soon cards have always made me smile.
Paper Quilled Emojis – paper quilling is a cool technique to try out for card making!
Adorable little Pop Up Cards for Halloween (complete with printable joke list)
Origami Card Ideas
You can also have lots of fun with origami! Many of simple origami projects ARE suitable for preschoolers AND older kids! You just need to take your time with the younger ones. But there are a tons of fantastic educational benefits of doing origami with young kids too!
Cutest little Origami Penguins – these double up nicely as Greeting Cards or Thank You notes
and finally… How To Make a Simple Paper Envelope (no gluing or cutting!)
A fun way to combine your new found origami skills with some cute puns and card making – Origami Whale Valentines/ Mother’s Day
Batty About You! These three origami projects also come with worksheets perfect for classroom card making!
Have fun.
Make someone smile.
Send your Homemade Greeting Card!!
We also have an AMAZING set of Valentine’s Day Greeting Cards for Kids to make – these can be made for Valentine’s or someone special’s Birthday!
If you are looking JUST for Christmas Cards for Kids to Make, check these out:
Enjoy!!
