Thursday, January 29, 2015

One hundred valentines

Last year our local Meals on Wheels organization collected valentines that they delivered to clients with their meals. I made a small batch of valentines last year, and I wanted to participate in the project again this year. When I e-mailed the organization's volunteer coordinator I found out that the deadline to submit cards was Feb. 2, which only gave me about a week to work. I decided to make that my weekend project, and I set a lofty, but achievable, goal of making one hundred valentines.

I started working on Friday, and everything was going pretty smoothly. I thought I was on track to finish the cards on Sunday night or Monday afternoon. Then a wrench was thrown into my plans. On early Sunday afternoon I went out to salt the icy sidewalk, and on my second step out the door I slipped and fell on the stairs. Hard. I didn't have any outward bumps or bruises, but my back was extremely unhappy. I ended up hobbling around and spending a lot of time lying on the couch with a heating pad.

Needless to say, my card-making was hampered since I couldn't sit for very long and needed to take frequent breaks. But I kept plugging away, and I finished all one hundred cards by late Tuesday afternoon. I made mostly 4" x 4" cards because I was able to get four card bases from one piece of 12" x 12" card stock, and I used the leftover 4" x 4" square from each piece for punching out shapes or making layers.

Here are all the finished cards:

One hundred assorted Valentine's Day cards to be donated to Metro Meals on Wheels.

As you can see, some of the cards were stamped, and some of them were made with just punches and paper. I kept them all fairly simple without too much embellishment. Below are close-up pictures of most of the cards (I few of the designs I've already shared), but I didn't keep track of the supplies I used for each card. If you have questions about a particular design, leave a comment below and I'll respond as soon as I can.

Two valentines: one gray and yellow color scheme with tulips and the sentiment "The essence of love is kindness" and the other with red and black colors, a typewriter and the sentiment "you're just my type."
I stamped "Happy Valentines Day" inside both of these card designs. I also wrote a brief note and signed all one hundred of the cards.

Two pink and gray valentines: one with teacups and the saying "You suit me to a tea" and the other with a cat wearing a crown and the sentiment (inside card) "You're the cat's meow."
Inside the teacups card I stamped "Happy Valentine's Day."  The inside of the cat card says "You're the cats meow."

Two valentines: one with a tree and a bird in a nest and the other with three hot air balloons.
I stamped "You're treemendous" inside the tree card and "Up in the air over you" inside the card with hot air balloons.

Two valentines: one with an elephant and the saying "Wild about you" and the other with a jar filled with stamped hearts.
Inside these cards I stamped "Happy heart day."

Two valentines: one with a hedgeho giving a flower to a mouse and the other with a whale floating on the ocean.
Inside the hedgehog card I stamped "Happy Valentine's Day" and wrote a note about sending "hedgehugs." In the whale card I stamped "Happy heart day" and wrote "Whale you be my valentine?"

Two valentines with a background of polka-dot paper and a punched heart as the focal point.
The rest of the cards are made with patterned paper, punches and a few embellishments. Inside the cards I stamped either "Happy Valentine's Day" or "Happy heart day."

Two valentines featuring paper with a cupcake print and a button embellishment.
You can't really tell in this photo, but the cupcakes on this paper are covered with a glittery gloss, and they sparkle in the light. I've been saving this piece of paper for years because it's so pretty, but I decided this was the perfect way to use it.

Valentine with polka dot embossed base, polka dot printed paper and a cupcake image punched out with a circle punch for the focal point.
Inside these cupcake cards I wrote a note wishing the recipient a sweet day.

Two simple valentines each made with four punched hearts arranged in a square on a solid card stock base.
These are some of the simplest card designs, but I actually really like them. I think they're perfect for Valentine's Day. And they remind me of the old Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others ..."

Three valentines: two with layers of heart-patterned paper and one with four hearts punched from coordinating papers and arranged in a flower shape.
I used four punched hearts again for the card in the front of this photo. But instead of arranging them in a square, I glued them down with the point of each heart in the center of the card base, so they make a flower or clover shape.

A variety of valentines made with strips of patterned paper and punched hearts.
This was the last bunch of valentines I made, and I was starting to lose a little steam. So I used strips of coordinating patterned paper, ribbon and punched hearts to make these sixteen cards.

I love being able to share my cards, and I hope they bring a little sunshine to the recipients.




Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

Lisa Petrella said...

Way to go, Andrea!!! One hundred adorable and sweet Valentines! You are so kind and generous to do this project!!! Hope your back is feeling better and better with each new day!