Teacher Birthday Card SVG

From the class

Children love making a card for their teacher, and this front gives them something proper to hand over. A big round apple fills the top half of the card, with a notch at the top where the stem sits. Above it, a short stem and a single leaf are cut as their own windows. The apple is full and simple, so with berry red behind kraft it looks like a ripe red apple on a brown paper desk.

Teacher runs across the middle in a flowing, slanted script, with HAPPY BIRTHDAY in thin spaced capitals under it. At the bottom is a ruler: a long window with tick marks of alternating length standing up into it from the top edge, like the markings on a school ruler.

Pieces and weeding

The solid file is one piece with 19 cut-outs. The tick marks of the ruler are narrow fingers of paper inside the window, so cut slowly and lift the card off the mat carefully so they do not bend. Closed letter centers in the script are held by stencil bridges. It passes our cut checks from about 7.5 inches on its longest side. The front is portrait, so it needs to be at least 7.5 inches tall, about 5.4 wide, which suits a 6 by 8 card rather than a 5 by 7.

Color layers

• Base and lines in dark espresso brown: the full card base at the back
• Berry in deep crimson: the insert that fills the apple, stem, leaf, lettering and ruler
• Kraft in warm tan brown: the cut front

How to make it

Set the width to 5.5 inches for a 6 by 8 card and check the height. Cut the kraft front and the two plain panels. Stack base, insert, front, gluing the front along the edges and around the apple. Then glue the stack to a folded card base.

A grown-up should run the machine and lift the delicate ruler off the mat, but children can do the gluing, and it is satisfying to watch the red appear in the windows as the front goes on.

Sizes

Under 7.5 inches tall the ruler ticks become too thin to cut. For a 5 by 7 card or small thank-you tags, print the color file and cut the outline with Print Then Cut.

A card the whole class can sign

Choose a white or cream card base so the inside is easy to write on, and leave it plain. At 6 by 8 there is room for twenty or more small signatures. Older children can add a line each about something they enjoyed this year.

Insert colors

• Green insert for a green apple
• Gold insert for a golden apple and a shiny ruler
• Patterned paper with tiny letters or numbers for a playful school look

To try one first, see changing SVG colors.

Pairs well with

Pop a small gift into a bag with the Mini Birthday Tag Card, or make a second card for the classroom helper with the Make a Wish Card.