Valentine Card Ideas

Now that Valentines Day is over for another year, you might think that the time for romantic paper crafts has past, at least for now. But think again! Now is the perfect time to scrap all those wonderful photos you took this Valentines Day – photos of you and your loved ones, photos of anywhere special you went or even just a nice photo of you and your special someone together.

This layout features a photo from a very special night out – dinner on the Nepean Belle (a floating restaurant) with my husband.

This layout was created using Three Bugs In A Rug papers (Delight Rhapsody paper, Frenzy Rhapsody paper, Rapture Rhapsody paper and Thrill Rhapsody paper), chocolate brown Bazzill cardstock for the background, purple cardstock, cream cardstock for the photo mat, brown ink, purple alphabet stickers, white alphabet stickers, a black pen, a silver pen, a purple ric rac sticker (you could use a piece of ric rac), Creative Imaginations Love Borders stickers (a pink ribbon would do) and Creative Imaginations Love stickers (for the butterfly).

Not all Valentines Day layouts have to be lovey dovey or done in red and white. As you can see, this layout is predominantly purple white a touch of brown, pink and green. And, it’s not covered in hearts and images of cupid. Instead, there is a subtle butterfly with heart-shaped wings. It’s a nice understated way of featuring a romantic theme without going overboard.

Of course, this is just one idea of how you might scrap a special night out. What you choose to do is completely up to you. Just have some fun and remember, the important thing is to preserve your memories and photos so when you look back on your layout in years to come, you’ll remember what a wonderful time you had!

February 14th is recognised by many people throughout the word, particularly Christians as Saint Valentines Day. But do you know anything about Valentines Day history? What are the origins of this special day? And how did this tradition become a part of our lives.

Traditionally, Valentines Day is the day when people send cards and gifts to the ones they love, especially their romantic partners (and even hoped-for partners) expressing their love and affection for that person.

More recently, Valentines Day has expanded, particularly in the US, to include not just lovers but also special friends. Cards for friends tend to express friendly affection and appreciation of the recipient’s friendship. This can be seen by the fact that many Valentines card these days are general greeting cards rather than declarations of love.

But why do we exchange cards and gifts at all? Let’s look at a little Valentines Day history.

Who was Saint Valentine? There were many Christian martyrs named Valentine but time has reduced their stories to one and embellished that with the tale that Saint Valentine himself sent the first “valentine.” According to this story, the night before he was executed her send a note to the jailer’s daughter whom he had healed of blindness. On this note he wrote, “From your Valentine.”

Another school of thought suggests a different Valentines Day history. It argues that Saint Valentines Day started as a Christian substitute for a pagan (i.e. pre-Christian) fertility celebration that occurred annually in mid-February.

So there we have it – like many legends, a mixture of fact and fiction that led by the Middle Ages to the establishment of Valentines Day and the sending of hand-written love notes.

Valentines Day had secured its place in history and by the nineteenth century, commercial Valentine cards began to appear. These typically featured images of love hearts, cupid and doves.

It has been estimated that at least one BILLION Valentine cards are sent each year, making this day second only to Christmas.

This, of course, makes Valentines Day very profitable for the major card-makers but with a little time and imaginations, you can make more unique and personal cards for the special people in your life and create a little Valentines Day history yourself!

Today I have another cute homemade Valentines card to share with you. Or should I say unforgettable! This ‘Unfrogettable Love’ card was made by Yvonne Harlum, another fellow card maker from Down Under.

Here is her cute homemade Valentines card:

To create this cute homemade Valentines, Yvonne has used rose red cardstock stamped with Hearts and Crosses from “A Happy Heart”, chocolate chip cardstock for the mat, pink cardstock for the scallop border, white cardstock, ribbon, Unfrogetteable stamps from Stampin’ Up, Whisper White Staz-On, markers and Crystal Effects.

This card is absolutely adorable! And I love the glisten Yvonne has created on the frogs by using Crystal Effects. And the background stamp is very effective.

Thanks Yvonne for letting me share your cute homemade Valentines card. To see more of Yvonne’s wonderful creations, please visit her blog, Yvonne Harlum Card Creations.

Happy Valentines Day! Today is the day – the most romantic day of the year. And I have another wonderful homemade Valentine idea to share with you. This card was created by Heidi Crans, an inspiring crafter from the Netherlands.

Here is her homemade Valentine idea:

To create this homemade Valentine, Heidi has used red cardstock, grey cardstock, silver cardstock, white cardstock, her Cuttlebug, Stampin’ Up stamps, Stampin’ Up punch, Stampin’ Up Heart Blister and ribbon.

The quote reads: For you see, each day I love you, more today, more than yesterday and less than tomorrow. It’s a beautiful quote and perfect for any homemade Valentine ideas. I believe it is originally attributed to Rosemonde Gerard.

My favourite element on this card is the heart Blister from Stampin’ Up. It’s an ingenious way to feature candies (or any other three-dimensional items) on the front of your card.

I also love the three-dimensional dots on the silver cardstock. So sweet!

Thank you so much Heidi for allowing me to share your homemade Valentine idea. If you would like to see more of Heidi’s creations, please visit her blog, Heidi’s Art And Crafts. Please also visit Inkerbell Stamps, her own line of stamps.

Today I wanted to share with you a creative homemade Valentine card by another talented crafter, Danielle Flanders from Upstate NY.

And here it is:

Danielle made this creative homemade Valentine using Websters Sweet As Cherry Pie-Little Nibbles paper and Postcards From Paris – La Boutique De Jardin paper, Tattered Angels embossed chipboard, Candy Apple Red spray, stamps from the Tattered Angels Timeless Romance stamp set and ribbon.

I can’t say enough about this homemade Valentine card. I just love it! The gorgeous colours are what attracted me to it at first but there’s more to it than that. The use of chipboard gives the card dimension, the ribbons give it texture and the tag shape makes it truly unique.

I also think it’s very clever how Danielle has curved the ‘Be My Valentine’ stamp around her circle. Very effective!

Thanks Danielle for allowing me to share your creative homemade Valentine card. It’s truly inspiring. If you would like to see more of Danielle’s designs, please visit her blog, Homespun With Heart.

Homemade Valentine cards are the perfect way to show someone special how much you care about them. But coming up with ideas on what to make isn’t always easy so I thought I would share one of my favourites with you.

Traditionally, Valentines cards are red and white. In more recent times, red and black, red and pink and pink and brown have also become popular. But personally, when making homemade Valentine cards, I like to stretch my imagination a little and try more original colour combinations.

For example, for this homemade Valentine card, I have used primarily browns, oranges and greens for my design. But you can use whatever colours you like!

If you would like to see more card making ideas, I recommend grabbing your free copy of the ‘Inspired Card Making Report.’

You can download it right now at:
http://CardMakingClassroom.com/inspired

This homemade Valentine card was made using brown Bazzill cardstock, Chatterbox Greenhouse Paisley cardstock, dark brown Bazzill cardstock, light brown cardstock, a brown pen, brown ink, a heart stamp (brand unknown) and letters cut out from Rusty Pickle paper.

To recreate this homemade Valentine card:

1. Cut a piece of brown Bazzill cardstock measuring 5 7/8 inches by 8 1/8 inches (15cm by 20.6cm). Fold in half to create a card. Place in front of you so the fold is down the left side.

2. Cut a piece from the underside of Chatterbox Greenhouse Paisley cardstock (that’s the checkered design you can see in the card above) measuring 3 3/4 inches by 2 inches (9.5cm by 5.2cm). Ink around the edges with brown ink. When dry, use a brown pen to draw a dashed border around the edges. Glue to your card approximately 1/2 inch (1.5cm) from the top edge.

3. Cut a piece of Chatterbox Greenhouse Paisley cardstock measuring 3 3/4 inches by 3 1/8 inches (9.5cm by 8cm). Ink around the edges with brown ink. When dry, use a brown pen to draw a dashed border around the edges. Glue to your card approximately 1/4 inch (0.8cm) from the bottom edge.

4. Cut a piece of dark brown Bazzill cardstock measuring 3 3/4 inches by 5/8 inches (9.5cm by 1.6cm). Glue to your card across the join between your two Chatterbox pieces, as shown above.

5. Using brown ink and a heart shaped stamp, stamp a heart image on light brown cardstock. Cut out the heart shape and ink the edges with brown ink. When dry, glue at an angle on the right side of your card, as shown above.

6. Finally, place the word ‘Love’ across the bottom of your card. To create mine, I have cut the letters out of Rusty Pickle paper and inked the edges with brown ink, but you can use whatever letters you wish.

And voila! You have just created your first Valentine card. And, the design is so easy, you can make as many homemade Valentine cards as you wish. You can make them exactly the same or make them completely unique by changing your colours, patterned papers, letters and heart images. Play around and have some fun!

And for more card making ideas, please get your free copy of the Inspired Card Making Report now at:

http://CardMakingClassroom.com/inspired