Valentine’s day is nearly upon us and it is a time to show the one we love exactly how much they mean to us. Many of us, as part of this, will be handing out cards to our partners, but what could be more special and romantic than a homemade, personalised card? Shop bought cards are nice, don’t get us wrong, but the thought, imagination and time that you will put into a handmade card is something your significant other, will treasure forever. The question is, how do you even start to make a card and what should you put in it? Read on and we will give you some great hints and tips to help you make your extremely personalised Valentine’s Day card.
What you’ll need
Luckily the basic ingredients of a card are very few and very easy to come by. You’ll need:
- Thick card
- Paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Decorations
- Coloured paper (optional)
The decorations part really depends on you and what you want to do with the card so we’ll cover that in a little more detail when we go through some ideas.
Making the Card
The structure of the card is a very easy to make. Take a rectangular piece of card and fold it neatly in half. Take your time and create a really sharp edge to the fold. If you get this stage wrong then the card will look a bit wonky. If you’re not feeling particularly adventurous, this can be it as far as the base of the card is concerned. For something a little more extra, glue a piece of folded paper inside. Cut the paper to a size slightly smaller than the inside of the card, fold it neatly in half and get a sharp crease. Apply some glue onto the crease of the card and apply the crease of the paper firmly onto the glue and keep pressure applied until the glue dries. You now have your card base, how easy was that?
Card Decorations
The world really is your oyster here, but reds are very traditional when it comes to expressing love and things like hearts are always popular.
One great idea is to use red glitter to create a sparkling pattern on the front. We love the idea of tracing a really fancy heart shape on the card, applying some glue over the trace and then sprinkling red glitter all over it. We don’t mean just an outline of the heart shape but something quite ornate. This relatively simple design from Activity Village is simple yet very effective. There are many more heart designs that are free for you to download on sites like Pixababy. Simply print them out, trace them on the card, apply the glue carefully and sprinkle the glitter. We’re sure you will agree that these are very simple, romantic and rather effective.
Another way to get a heart effect is to use red paper inside the card and to cut out a heart shape on the outside of the card, make sure you use white card for this. The heart shape is then formed by the red of the paper showing through the shape you have cut out in the card. Now, this allows you a lot of extra freedom. Why not, using the same card as you have used for the base, print out a message such as “I love you” or “be my valentine”. Cut this message out of the card in a rectangle and then glue it over the shape you cut out? Don’t make it too big to mask the heart shape. This will add a simple 3d effect to the card and also give that instant impact. Let’s take that one step further. Why not then, also cut out some other shapes from the card, whatever shape you like, and glue them on to the side of the card next to the message and the cut-out heart? We found some great design ideas for handmade cards on the papermilldirect.co.uk website. Try experimenting with materials, we adore the library book themed card “I’ve been checking you out” and the cute “key to my heart card” made us melt, but you can’t beat the “You and me… just perfect” card, have a look through and see if they help get your creative juices flowing.
Thoughtful Words
Once you have made your card it is time for the message inside. Now this will be very personal to you and you can write a poem, a love letter or even just keep it really simple. It is entirely up to you, but if you are struggling to say it with words then take a look at this helpful love quote page from Interflora which will hopefully give you some inspiration.
We think that the thought and effort that goes into making your own Valentine’s Day card is about as romantic as you can get and will make the special person in your life, feel like a million dollars. Happy Valentine’s Day from us all at Newton Fallowell!
