Leap-o-Meter Greeting Card for Leap Year

Feb. 29 is next week. Know what that means? It’s time to celebrate Leap Year! Do you have anything planned for the day? If your birthday is on Feb. 29, did you know that you’re called a Leapling? An extra day in the year should be celebrated with something fun – like this Leap-o-Meter card. Using some paper card engineering skills and the help of some funny frog stickers, you can create this card just in time for the special day. Why a frog? Who else is better at leaping?

Materials

• 1 index card
• 2 pieces of card stock (regular construction paper is a bit flimsy) – one for the card, one for the sticker embellishment
• 1 brad
• Alphabet stickers (check your pack to make sure you have enough to spell “Happy Leap Year!”)
• Half-circle template (print out PDF template at right)
• Frog stickers
• Markers
• Double-stick tape
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Craft knife (make sure there’s a grown-up for this part)
• Hole puncher
• Scissors
• Screw punch, optional (a screw punch, like this one from Martha Stewart, is a great craft tool to have to punch holes anywhere – on a piece of paper, fabric, etc. – but scissors will work just fine, too)

Instructions

1. Start out by folding your piece of card stock in half. Crease the fold so it’s smooth.

2. Next, cut out your circle template. Place the template in the center of your card and trace around the curve with your pencil. You’ll see a circle at the bottom of the template – mark this on your card, too. This is where your brad will eventually go.

3. After that, open up the card and place it on a safe cutting surface. With an adult’s help (or supervision), make a continuous slit all the way around the half circle you just traced on the front of the card. If you can still see your pencil markings when you’re done cutting, erase what’s left.

4. Set your card aside. With your index card, cut a 1/4″ by 6″ strip. This is what your frog will move on.

5. From the frog stickers you picked out, stick one to your other piece of card stock. Cut a square around the frog and tape to your index card strip.

6. Once your frog is ready, place the strip into the slit you made so that the frog is at the top of the curve. Using scissors (or a screw punch, if you have one), make a small hole where you marked the bottom of the curve, making sure you punch both the card and the index card strip. Add your brad to the hole and fasten. On the inside of your card, fold up the index card excess so that it doesn’t show at the bottom. This will also give you a small handle to move the strip back and forth.

7. With the construction of the card done, now it’s time to decorate. Since this a Leap-o-Meter, I added some gauge numbers to the curve so that it looks like a speedometer in a car. Go from 1 to 29 in just one leap of your frog! Add your alphabet stickers to the top and bottom of the card so that it reads, “Happy Leap Year!”