Keep My Words

Earlier this week, I made a Valentine’s Day card for someone.

I am confident that if you still need to get something for your valentine, with a quick trip to the dollar store and an hour or two for assembly, by following my instructions below you can have a card ready before this Valentine’s Day ends.

Supplies:

scissors
glue stick
construction paper
an old magazine (to cut up)
crayons
wax paper
pencil sharpener
iron & ironing board
Valentine’s Day-themed stickers (optional)

Instructions:

1. Tear off two pieces of wax paper approximately 12 inches in length.  They do not need to be identical as the edges will later be trimmed.
2. Lay one piece of wax paper on the ironing board.  Sharpen red and/or pink colored crayons and collect the shavings onto the wax paper.  (I used red, pink, and red-violet.)  Arrange the shavings into a heart-shape approximately five inches high and three inches wide.
3. Place the other piece of wax paper on top of the crayon shavings, so that the shavings are completely covered between the pieces of wax paper.
4. With the iron on a low setting, lightly press it over the wax paper so that the crayon shavings melt and become a sort of abstract-heart.  Place it aside to let it cool.
5. Choose a piece of construction paper (I used black) and fold it in half to create the base of the card.  Cut a heart approximately 3.5 inches high by 2.5 inches wide out of the front center.  (I used a heart template that I printed from the internet simply by googling “heart template”.)
6. The wax-paper heart should be cooled off enough.  Trim the edges so the the heart is framed by a wax-paper rectangle approximately one inch smaller on the sides and three inches smaller on the top and bottom than a half of the construction paper.  Using the glue stick, glue the wax paper-heart onto the inside left-flap of the card so that it shows through the smaller cut-out heart.  Put aside to dry.
7. Look through the magazine for large letters (like in headlines or advertisements).  Cut out the letters of your valentine’s name from various pages so that each letter is a unique font and/or color.
8. Arrange the magazine letters on the front of the card above the cut-out heart.  Once you know how they will best fit, use the glue stick to glue them into place.
9. If you found any Valentine’s Day-themed stickers, creatively place some of them onto the front of the card below the cut-out heart.  (The stickers I used were cartoon monsters all doing something different with cartoon hearts – one monster was blowing hearts out of his nose, one had a bouquet of heart flowers, and one was even holding a heart that he had taken a big bite out of!)  In the event that no appropriate stickers could be found, you can cut out cute images from the magazine or cut hearts out of old fabric to use in their place.
10. Open the card.  Using a different color construction paper (I used red), cut a frame to glue around the wax paper-heart so that the edges of the wax paper are not exposed.  (I could not find a ruler nor am I good at cutting straight lines, so this was challenging for me.  Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect.  Your valentine is sure to love it no matter what.)  This might take multiple attempts and/or trimming, but once you are happy with your frame, use the glue stick to glue it on the inside flap around the wax paper-heart.
11. Choose a light-colored piece of construction paper (I used pink).  Fold it in half and cut it down the middle.  Then cut approximately one inch off of all four sides.  Using alternating-colored crayons for each word or letter, write a message to your valentine onto the rectangle.  If you mess up, you can always cut another piece and try again.  Once you are happy with your message, use the glue stick to glue it inside of the card opposite the wax paper-framed heart.  If you have any stickers left, place them around the inside of the card.

I never got around to writing anything in mine.  For reasons I would rather not discuss right now, my card will not be delivered to its intended recipient.

Still it’s so hard to just throw it away.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.