This is one of the exciting things we’ve been working on over at A&C! Buzzfeed asked us to create a really fun Valentine for their 40 Unconventional Valentines roundup. The post is full of incredibly creative ideas for homemade Valentine’s cards but the images for our DIY Valentine were a little hard to follow along with the tutorial. If you loved the concept, check out our step by step instructions.
Supplies:
- 1 piece of construction paper, cut into a 4×4 inch square (color doesn’t matter, it’s just for a template. We used green.)
- 1 long strip of red paper, 30 inches long by 4 inches tall (wrapping paper or a roll of craft paper work perfectly)
- 1 piece of grey construction paper or cardstock
- Letter stamps and a stamp pad or letter stickers. Or if you have amazing handwriting, just find a high-quality pen or marker
- Pens, markers, stickers, shape punches, stamps, etc., for the pictures
- Glue (a glue stick, rubber cement or white glue would all work)
- Scissors
Steps:
1. Create a heart template with the 4 x 4 inch piece of paper. Fold it in half, like a book. Draw half of a heart onto the paper, with the fold in the center of the heart. Cut out the shape and open it up into a full heart. Trim the edges until you like the resulting heart shape.
2. Keeping the good side of the paper on the inside, fold the long 4 x 30 inch piece of paper in half three times. The end result will be about 4 x 3.75 inches.
3. Use the heart you created in step 1 to trace the heart shape onto the paper. You want the left and right edges of the template to hang over the edges of the paper, so the hearts will have a connecting point on either side.
4. Cut the heart out and unfold to reveal the heart chain.
5. Modify the template heart by cutting a half inch around the edge, creating a slightly smaller version of the same heart.
6. Trace this smaller heart onto the thicker piece of paper 8 times. Cut out each heart.
7. Use the letter stamps or stickers to write “I love you more than…” on one cut out heart. Glue it to the first heart in the chain. Write “Happy Valentine’s Day” on another cut out heart and glue it onto the last heart in the chain.
8. Choose 3 things that you want to list to illustrate just how much you love your Valentine. Make it personal! We picked bacon, snow days and red wine. Use stickers, cut out shapes, or draw images that correspond to each of your items on 3 of the cut out hearts. Use the letter stamps or stickers to write each item that you chose on the remaining 3 cut out hearts.
9. Glue each of the cut out hearts onto the middle hearts in the chain. When the glue is dry, fold the hearts up accordion-style into a little Valentine’s booklet.
