Want to sing Happy Birthday to someone far away? Or send your baby’s first words to Grandma? Do it by adding a QR code to your custom homemade cards! It is easy! I will show you how with this singing slanted gatefold birthday card for a boy or a girl as an example.
Let me first say, I can’t sing. Not even a little. Rather than torture you with my singing voice, I downloaded a Happy Birthday sound file. You are welcome. That said, you can record any sound and add it to your cards.
The card when finished fits into an A2 envelope for mailing.
You will need:
- Heavy cardstock
- Various scraps of cardstock
- Pen
- Glue
- sound file
- printer
- Download File
Paper Selection
The base card must be two sided. I did the card in solid colors and I recommend that for the base card. Patterned paper can be used but it must be a light and/or small pattern. You don’t see much of it anyway. I did mine in shades of blue and pink, but any color will work. Embossing the triangles would add a nice touch, if you had one you liked.
Creating the Sound File and Saving It
Once it is made, save it to your google drive. If you don’t have a Google account you can create a free one. Just go to Google.com and make it.
Making the QR Code
Next go to the QR Code Generator here. Across the top click URL. Copy the URL from your clipboard to the green line. Then click GENERATE in the column on the left. Your custom QR code is generated on the right. You can now check it with your phone, if you want.
Click SAVE and you will be asked to name the file and what format you want it in. DO NOT SELECT SVG! I have tried it several times and SVG doesn’t work with Cricut. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t. Select PNG. and finally click SAVE.
Adding the QR Code to Cricut
Upload the QR code to Design Space as a simple image. You don’t have to remove the white background, just save it as a print then cut image. Insert it into your card design and size it to fit. When you print it the white box will be cut out but not the little black squares individually. The birthday card has another print then cut image also.
Cutting the Card
Cut the card and the cricut will do the writing. I used a black pen but any color would do as long as it shows up on the overlay paper. This card uses my font CMV Polka Dot. Find out about my custom Cricut fonts here.
I included the birthday boy and birthday girl phrase in the card. Just hide the one you don’t want by hitting the eyeball in the corner on the layers menu.
The QR code and the birthday cake are print then cut images. If you made your own QR code make sure that you replace mine with yours before printing and cutting. Once it is printed, check it with your phone.
The cricut divides the triangles in a weird way, but they can be combined together to save paper. Simply turn the triangles and fit them together better. If you need to learn how to move things around the mat, see my video.
Assembling the Slanted Gatefold Birthday Card
First, re crease all the folds. Then assemble the embellishments on the overlays. Liquid glue works best for this. I use Art Glitter glue. Once you have all the embellishments assembled, then put the overlays on the card. Look at the pictures to see where everything goes.
Depending on who you send your card to, you may want to include instructions or a link to instructions on how to use a QR code. There are good one here.
You’re done adding your own QR code and your Slanted Gatefold Birthday Card is done! It fits in an A2 envelope.
QR codes can be used for sound files, pictures or any file you want to share. All you need to do it put the file on your Google drive and make it shareable.