Got 20 Minutes and 20 bucks? Make A Birthday Card!

Here's an artsy-crafty project you can do if a friend's birthday is coming up and you have no idea what to get him. Just follow these simple steps to learn just how I did it so you, too, can look like a hero come the day of the party.

Step One: Get a friend who likes robots and buys stuff from the Apple App Store. This is key.

Step Two: Draw two terrible robots and trace them haphazardly in Adobe Illustrator.

Step Three: Print out your drawing. Now, try to carefully cut around the robots' arms but do a fairly lousy job because your X-acto knife is dull and you're too lazy to change the blade for something your friend is probably going to throw out anyway.

Important: Remember the twenty dollars in your list of craft supplies? Take that to the store and buy a couple of iTunes gift cards. Just go do it. The gift is worthless without those.

Step Four: Slip the gift cards into the notches you cut in the robots and voila -- don't say wallah -- you have your robot birthday card. You could try mailing it but someone at the post office will likely open your envelope and take the cards. So just hand it to your friend next time you see him.

And it's that simple! You can follow these basic steps to make cards of your own. I suppose you don't have to use robots. I guess it would work with dinosaurs too. -v

By the way, if you like retro-robots, there's some fun stuff here.