Handmade Valentines Rock!

It's hard to escape the fact that Valentine's is fast approaching.  The myriad of red, pink and white in nearly every window is a lovely reminder to get busy.  So, we did.  In my first afternoon "art studio" get together with my daughter and her friend, we are going to make handmade Valentines for friends and family.  Had to try it out first---and loved not only the making of them, but the result.

I began with a package of 8 over-sized white tags from Michaels for......$1.  They even have matching envelopes.  Love it!  Zipped to my computer, found the perfect quotes from quotegarden.com, and printed them onto one side of the tag. I did this by testing the position on a piece of regular copy paper, then taping the tag lightly over where the message printed and sending it through again. (I have one message for friends, one for Nikki, one for my son, husband, etc.)  Here is one of them.












So, then the fun began.  Scooting up to my studio,  I trolled through my flat files of paper to find just the right combination of colors for my friends.  Before adding hearts or circles, I used double sided permanent tape to cover the non-message side entirely with a fun paper, so that it would be the background for my little tag "canvas".  Using the same double sided tape (no mess, no fuss) , I added various hearts, circles, etc. that I cut out until I had the look I wanted.

Once done, I re-punched the hole at the top. (You could reinforce it with the little donuts, but I wasn't near anything but the edible kind.)  Next, I added my ribbon to allow the tag to hang or to double as a bookmark.  Selecting from my button bins, I also looked for a complimentary button.  With a quick shimmy to the sewing machine, I attached the button on top of the ribbon so that it would not come loose.

Voila------a Valentine as individual as the people who will get them. Though they don't come with fun-dip, a smarty or sweet tarts, or even chocolate, they will hopefully remind my Valentines of how much they mean to me each day of the year.

Art therapy rocks!!!!