This year I made folk art style painted Valentine cards for my friends and family. I started out by making a Victorian “puzzle purse”, and then made some other styles, so each one was unique.
The puzzle purse was hard to figure out how to fold, but once you finally “pop” it into place it makes sense! And there is so much space to fill with fun illustrations and messages, since it’s double sided.
This pop open heart was a fun one to make.
This one spins to say “eye- heart- u- so- much”. I wanted to illustrate a sheep so it would be “eye- heart- ewe” but figured I wouldn’t have space to paint a sheep, haha.
This one, below, would make a cute envelope to hold a little gift…
I accidentally painted this heart envelope one upside down, I should have had the point facing up, so when it opens the heart is upright.
Did you make or receive any Valentines this year? How are you planning to celebrate today?
Happy Valentines Day dear Reader! I’ve come down with a cold, so just a quick post today.
Lately I’ve been…
(Re)reading:Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions, which has a lovely chapter about Valentines Day, and turning it into a celebration of family, not just romantic love. I, of course, love that sentiment, as Valentines Day has always been one of my favourite holidays.
Loving: I don’t do a lot to celebrate Valentines Day, but each year I send out cards, hang my heart garland and try to make some sort of themed dessert. This year it was raspberry chocolate truffles!
Making: My mom and I have been sorting through years worth of family photos, and I’ve started scrapbooking again! I started scrapbooking 20 years ago, but I took a long break from it. I was originally planning to put my photos into regular albums, but then decided to scrapbook them. I won’t necessarily make them as fancy as the pages I used to do, but I like that the 12×12 format will give me a place to put all the documents and keepsakes I’ve gathered over the years alongside the photos.
Finding: New artists to love on Redbubble. I had a voucher to use, and while browsing came across this lovely Jane Eyre painting by Zuzana Čupová. I love Jane Eyre, and fell in love with this painting the moment I saw it. It fits perfectly into my gallery wall. I also really love the artwork of Oh Jess Marie and purchased some of her adorable tea and book themed greeting cards and stickers. (Ps. the print quality on everything I got from Redbubble was great!)
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I love writing letters and using pretty stationery.One way to elevate your stationery is with custom envelopes, whether that’s lining existing envelopes with patterned paper, or making your own! My recent favourite is fabric envelopes. I am definitely not the first person to think up this idea, but I thought I’d share a mini-tutorial with you today because it’s so simple to do, it looks amazing and also because Valentines is coming up soon. This would be a lovely way to dress up a simple DIY or store bought card for your loved one! So without further ado, here is how to make fabric envelopes.
First, choose some fabric; I picked several cotton scraps, and some lace cut off of a curtain. Make sure to iron your fabric, to eliminate any wrinkles.
I first tried using a cornstarch laundry starch, but it wasn’t stiff enough, so I switched to using this fabric stiffener I bought years ago. It’s basically glue, at least that’s what it smells like. You could easily DIY your own stiff corn starch for this project; I just used what I had on hand.
Lay down a piece of tin foil, or plastic wrap. I’ve used both, but I found the tin foil a little bit easier to smooth out. Place your fabric on top of the foil and pour some starch onto the fabric. I tried to pour mine across the fabric, but it whooshed out quickly into a big puddle, oops!
I used this old, stiff bristle paintbrush to spread the starch around, thoroughly soaking the fabric since the foam brush didn’t work as well. If that’s all you have, it will work, though. I also used my hands, flipping the fabric to make sure it was evenly coated. If you have a lot of starch, you could also submerge the fabric.
Once your fabric is fully saturated, smooth all the wrinkles out, place another piece of foil on top and then place a book or box on the top to weight it for a couple of hours or so. I did this so the fabric wouldn’t pucker and the edges wouldn’t curl up as it dried. You can see in the white envelope what happens when you take it out too soon!
After the fabric is mostly dried, peel the top layer of foil off, and let the fabric dry further. When it’s almost completely dry, and the danger of bubbles and curling edges is past, you can remove the other piece of foil and hang the fabric to fully dry from both sides.
Take an envelope of your desired size, and trace it onto card stock (I used a manila folder). You could use the envelope itself as a template, but I find it much easier to trace with thicker paper.
Using this template, trace with a pencil onto the back of your fabric. Cut out the envelope along the lines.
Place the template inside the envelope and then fold along the lines. Use your thumbnail or a bone folder to crease the edges well.
Assemble the envelope with narrow piece of double sided tape or glue. Be careful not to use too much glue, or it will soak through the fabric and glue your envelope shut! For the lace envelope, I actually used a thread to stitch it in place, because the tape and glue would have shown.
And then you’re done- now you can make a Valentine, or any other card, and then give it to someone special!
To send your envelope in the mail, write the address on a label and tape it to the front of the envelope. Place the fabric envelope inside a clear cellophane sleeve, and affix your postage stamp to the outside of the plastic, and you should be good to go! Of course, you could always place the envelope inside a regular paper one, if you don’t mind if the envelope is hidden.
Well, there is a quick and easy way to make fabric envelopes. Now that I know how easy it is to do, I’m going to start making one every time I have a large enough scrap of fabric!
Have you ever tried to make fabric envelopes before? Do you like to send letters and cards?
Valentines Day is one of my favourite holidays in the year! It’s just so lovely to send people cards and notes to tell them how much you love them, don’t you think?
This year, I decided to try something a little different and make some folded heart cards. Years ago my sister made me a card like this (out of neon yellow paper!). I thought it was so cute, so I thought I’d replicate them this year to give to people…but not in neon yellow! If you need a last minute card, this is a nice and simple one that only takes a few minutes. It is similar to origami, but since you cut the paper, I don’t think it truly counts as origami. Nevertheless, it is a cute design and only requires a rectangle of paper and a ribbon if you’d like to tie it shut…keep reading for how to!
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How to Make a Folded Heart Valentine Card
Step 1: All you’ll need for this card is a piece of paper that is twice as wide as it is tall- example 3” x 6”, 4” x 8” etc. You can make it as small or as large as you’d like! If you’re sending it in the mail, make sure you don’t make your card too big to fit in an envelope!
Step 2. Mark the centre of the paper. You don’t have to make a line all the way down like I have in the photo- a small tick at the top will be fine, since this will be the inside of the card!
Step 3. Fold one edge of the paper into the centre and crease
Step 4. Repeat with the other edge of the paper.
Step 5. Fold the bottom edge diagonally into the centre to form the bottom of the heart.
Step 6: Repeat on the other side, to finish forming the bottom of the heart.
Step 7: Take your ruler and mark where the middle of each side is. For example, this card is 3” wide, so I am marking at 3/4” and 2 1/4” .
Step 8: Fold the top edge diagonally where you have marked, to start creating the top of the heart.
Step 9: Repeat with the other side.
Step 10: Now fold down the flaps diagonally. You won’t be able to fold the back of the card yet, but we’ll do that in the next step! We will now cut where the dashed line is in the photo.
Step 11: Now that the back of the card has had a small cut, it will be able to fold diagonally to finish forming the top of the heart.
Step 12: Repeat on the other side.
Step 13: I had a hard time photographing this step, but open the card slightly and “pop” the folded parts inside out, so they are now folded inside the card.
Step 14: Now you are finished folding! Go along all the edges and crease them again, so you’ve got a nice crisp edge.
Step 15: If you’d like. You can tie a ribbon around the card to hold it shut. You could also seal it with a sticker (or a wax seal if you’ve got one!).
There you go: a quick, easy Valentine card to show someone you care!
Another special touch, is a matching envelope. I made these envelopes out of coordinating papers- they’ll add such a cheerful pop of colour in my friends’ mailboxes!
Do you like Valentines Day? What are your plans this year? Did you send cards or plan on giving cards to your friends?
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, it will be no surprise to you that I love Valentine’s Day. Every year, on Valentines I send cards, bake a heart shaped cake, wear pink, and spend time with my family eating the aforementioned cake. This year was no different! I was originally planning on posting yesterday, sharing the cards that I made this year, but then I decided to include a picture of the card my sister got me, because it was too cute to not share!
These are the cards I made this year.
And this is the card my sister got me! So adorable- it’s definitely getting framed and hung on my wall! The artist is Jane Carkill of Lamb Little Illustration– she has the sweetest illustrations!
Can’t have a proper Valentine’s Day without chocolate and hearts!
And lastly- I bought myself some flowers on Wednesday, because it’s February and winter seems like it has no end, it was Valentine’s Day, and why not? They do cheer up the place and I smile every time I look at them.
