create this and that: How to send a lot of love without spending a lot of money!

Hey everyone!

So this post, I wanted to give you an idea that I thought was pretty cool. So next week is my big brother's birthday. He and I are pretty tight and I wanted to send him something fun for his birthday (he lives in another state). However, I'm trying to be good with money, and so I wanted something that showed him I cared, but without spending a ton. All together I probably spent $3.00. (Sorry bro, now you know how cheap I am!) But I think he loved it!

Anyways... on to the good stuff... why you are here!

I saw on pinterest once, the idea of sending a puzzle message to a loved one and having them put the puzzle together when it came in the mail. I don't know where I saw it, so whoever posted the idea, I thank you! So I decided to do the same thing. Send a lot of love with a little bit of money. I got this poster board at Wal-Mart for 0.98 cents I think. Brought it home, and drew the happy birthday message. I didn't come up with the font. To be honest, I googled "Happy birthday lettering." I like to think my ideas are good... and then I write them out and realize my idea is a little bit of everyone else's. haha. Again, I don't know who came up with this font layout, but I say thanks!

Before cutting up the poster, I decided to jazz it up with some balloons. (This was 100% my idea! lol) Since I can't send them blown up, I gave my brother some instructions.

Then, I cut up the board, taped the balloons on with washi tape (Oh how I love washi tape!) and voila! My brother is a very smart guy, but just to be safe I added some more instructions for him.

While I was cutting up the poster, I thought it would be fun to add some confetti to the package! I'm sure it made a mess... but it was at least a colorful mess! All I did here was take some colored paper, and my three hole punch and punched a bunch of holes. Super easy!

And check it out.. My brother got the package in the mail today and sent me this: