Valentine’s Day Cards

It’s time again for that polarizing holiday.

As I’ve mentioned before I fall right in the middle on this. The days leading up to Valentine’s Day are full of crafting with scissors flying and glitter being tossed around, while overly indulgent sweets bake in the background. The stuff this blog was built on. What is there not to love about that?! Just when the lull of holiday crafting starts to set in mid- January, February peaks around the corner to say, ‘Hey girl, snack on these dark chocolate hearts while you glue dollie lace to red construction paper.’ To which I happily say, yes please!

However, if I’m being perfectly honest never have I ever gone out to a romantic dinner on this day and have always expressly told all boyfriends I do not want any store bought gifts (a crafter can never say no to homemade). I’m just really not into the expectation that this is the day that your significant other should go all out with grand gestures of love and romance. The romantic aspect of Valentine ’s Day weirds me out and feels contrived. I understand why people want to stick their finger down their throat and make gagging noises about Vday. At the same time, it just seems like too much energy to dislike anything as silly as a love holiday.  So there I am, half cheering for Valentine’s Day, while the other part of me shakes my head. What do you think, is Valentine’s Day a commercial holiday to be forgotten or a nice reminder to tell people we love them?

One thing that has stayed tried and true over the last couple of years is digging around my house to find some objects to glue into heart shapes for Valentine’s Day cards. I’ve used magazine paper to make hearts like these cards, leftover yarn, and 2012 was of course the year of chalkboard paint. This year was even more of a challenge as I have very little craft supplies with me out here in Baltimore. Lucky for me I’m completely disorganized and only recently took down my 2012 calendar. It was so dang cute and I just did not want to throw it in the recycling. It may be too late for you to re-use your old calendar, but keep it in mind for future use. It’s fun to see the images you have enjoyed all year find another home. I made a mix of over the top cards with tons of hearts (for the friend who teases me for being cheesy), a few simple with some doodles, a couple with puns to be extra silly and even a dirty one for good measure.