Handmade Valentine Card – then & now

Remember the days of childhood when it was so much fun to make a handmade Valentine card? You’d drag out the construction paper, scissors, and paste, and create something really special straight from your heart, right? Well, that’s exactly what we were recalling as we assembled this card at last month’s card classes!


Handmade Valentine Card – Grown-up Version

For all the color, texture and layers going on with this card, it’s deceptively simple to make… although not necessarily quick to assemble. Actually, it might be the type of card you’d choose to put together while watching TV, so your mind could focus on something other than gluing hearts down in place. Again and again.

The colors featured on this card are Blushing Bride and Bermuda Bay – which together, make up one of my favorite color combos.

Oh! Wait! Um, let me try that again…

ANY color that coordinates and combines with Bermuda Bay represents “one of my favorite color combos“, lol! But yep, this is indeed one of my regular “go-to” combos.

And can you believe that everything, with the exception of the ribbon, was created with just one die set: the “Be Mine Stitched Framelits Dies“?!?

Be Mine Stitched Framelits Dies

So it’s all pretty simple, actually.

It starts with die-cutting all the pieces and then laying them out to dry-fit. (The two Blushing Bride lengths of hearts near the bottom are actually one piece put thru the Big Shot and then carefully trimmed into 2 sections with Paper Snips.) Once you’ve got that done and everything’s laid out to your satisfaction, it’s time to anchor everything down. My adhesive preference for this step is Multi-purpose Liquid Glue, applied in tiny amounts at a time, to the back of each die-cut element using a small piece of scrap-paper as an applicator.

“When it comes to applying glue, less is more.”


Reminder words repeated ad nauseam at most of my card classes.

But basically, that means that less glue not only dries faster, it also leaves fewer smears on your project, fewer sticky fingers, and overall less mess and frustration. And then a happier papercrafter.

Finally, you may want to add some Wink of Stella shimmer to the small solid hearts. It’s my philosophy that you can never have too much shimmer and shine.

Do you have a memory of making Valentine cards as a kid? If so, please share your recollections in the comments.