Valentine's Day Craft Project: Making Cards for the One You Love...or Just Really Like A LOT!!

Valentine's Day can be a very festive time for "love birds", but I have developed an affinity for the day, because my husband and I share this day to celebrate our wedding anniversary (I think he chose this date so that he wouldn't forget it).  From our first Valentine's Day together as boyfriend and girlfriend, I have made an effort to make him a personal card every year.  I think home-made Valentine's Day cards give off an aura of young love and in the spirit of keeping things fresh and creative, this is one tradition I like to keep going.

Today, I found myself rummaging through some old boxes and came across the very first Valentine's Day card that I ever made.  The card looked like it had traveled through history, but it was still refreshing to reflect back on all our years together.





 

I believe that the inspiration for this card came from a Precious Moments coloring book that I owned years ago.  I used poster board for the actual card and construction paper to cut out the dolls and their body parts.

At one point in time, the center heart used to pop up.  I remember it taking weeks to put this card together.




I think I originally wanted the kissing "love birds" to be revealed behind the pop-up heart, but for some reason, that idea didn't really work out. 




 

As a struggling student, I had to rely on the resourses I owned to put this card together...apparently, red glitter was not available to me.
 

 

To give the characters dimension, many of their body parts were drawn on separate pieces of construction paper, before being cut out, and subsequently glued together.

 

The back of the card featured our initials.  I didn't have to change my initials once we were married.



For today's Valentine's Day card, I decided to go back to the heart shape design. This card turned out to be fairly easy to put together and didn't take very much time.



 

For this card, I used scrapbooking stickers that I puchased from Hobby Lobby, clear glue, scissors, construction paper, and  the concentric hearts were put together using Microsoft Word on my computer.

 

The colors that I chose for this card were the typical Valentine's colors.  I selected the red and pink construction paper for the front and back of the card, while the white paper would be placed inside the card for the message.
 



After selecting the colors I wanted to work with, I then folded the red paper in half to make the front and back of the card. 




The next step was to cut out the hearts in made on the computer, to use as stencils. 

Once the first stencil was cut-out, I place it onto the construction paper in the position that I wanted it.  The left side of the heart extended past the folded edge so that the card, once cut, would open like a book.
 






After tracing the stencil onto the card, I cut out the first and largest heart shape. 





I took the next largest heart and cut it out to use as a stencil for the first layered heart.  I wanted to layers to stand out, so I aternated the pink and red colors. 



After traced and cut out the second heart stencil, this time, on pink paper to begin alternating the colors for the hearts. 





Once the second heart was cut it, I placed it onto the card in my desired position.
 

It was time for heart number three...
 



The smallest heart was used for the center of the card.
 

 

 

After all of the hearts were cut out, they were placed into the desired position and then glued together.
 

A separate stencil was used to make the heart that was placed on the inside of the card.  This heart was use to capture to message.
 

 

 

To add a little flair to the message, scrapbooking stickers were used.
 

To decorate the front of the card, I only used cardstock stickers.

 

 …And voilà