I’m a sucker for any DIY project. And DIY Valentines? Forgeddaboutit. I’m making three different styles this year! Apparently I’ve decided to do this because I want to pull all-nighters. For Valentines.
I fell in love with the arrow stamp at Paper Source and the coral/gold combo is lovely, and a far cry from the usual red/pink onslaught.
Materials:
- Flat cards and envelopes, Paper Source (I’m using 4-bar flat cards in superfine white and 4-bar envelopes in coral)
- Arrow rubber stamp, Paper Source
- Tiny heart rubber stamp, Impress Cards and Crafts
- Happy Valentine’s Day rubber stamp, Impress Cards and Crafts
- Colorbox Goldrush Ink Pad, Paper Source
- Colorbox Coral Ink Pad, Paper Source
- Meri Meri Party gold lip stickers, Paper Source
- Corner punch, here
Note: You’ll notice I have a LOT of Paper Source links. There’s no affiliate program associated here, I just sorta love what they sell. Oh, and I worked there for three years and spent 90% of my paycheck on paper and craft stuff. So, yeah.
Basic Idea:
- I always spend a few days figuring out a design for my cards. It’s really important to mess around and try all kinds of different things. Make ugly things. Figure out what works best. Experiment with different stamps, different color ways, different layouts, etc.
- Stamp your images on the card in your decided design. The Colorbox ink pads take time to dry so be care not to smudge the design and let dry thoroughly.
- I used my “Happy Valentine’s Day” stamp on the back of the card. Again, make sure you allow the design on the front to dry thoroughly before turning them over.
- After I stamped my images onto the card, I thought they needed a little something extra, so I grabbed my ticket corner punch and went to work.
- Envelopes: I really love embellishing envelopes in some way, whether it’s lining them with a pretty paper, stamping the front/back, using wash tape or stickers, or hand lettering the addresses. Any extra detail you use goes a long way and makes them awesome! I take major pride in my envelopes. But apparently not enough to buy cute postage stamps. They always suck.
- For these, I stamped an arrow and heart on the front and then used the adorable gold lip stickers to seal them.
That’s it! Super simple. No embossing, no crazy stamp masking, no envelope liners. I’ve saved those for my next DIY Valentine project. Cuz that’s how I roll. Check out the DIY Paper page for more DIY Valentines projects.
