Tuesday, February 8

Easy custom Valentine's cards


When I was a little girl, Valentine's Day was the highlight of winter for me. Mid-February can be such a cold, gloomy time . . . but right in the midst of the winter gloom comes a holiday dedicated to love. And fun. And candy!

I still like to send and give Valentine's cards, but adult-sized Valentine's cards are a lot more expensive than the little greetings exchanged by schoolchildren. I wanted several cards to send to family and friends, but at $1 to $5 each, store-bought cards were out of the question.

Then I remembered that I had several photo cards left over from Christmas:


and in my stationery box I had some blank cards.


So I cut off the Christmas part of the photo cards


and printed a Valentine's greeting on my blank cards. (I have zero graphic design skills. I simply played around with fonts and spacing using my word processing software. My cards are the size of one-half of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet, so I fiddled with the spacing until the sentiment appeared to be centered in the upper right quadrant of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. I did all my trial printing on regular printer paper so as not to waste any of my cards.)

When the cards were printed with the sentiment, I simply used double-sided tape to attach my photos, and

Voila!


Custom Valentine's Day cards!

Hopefully the intended recipients of these cards aren't reading this post; otherwise, their Valentine's cards won't be much of a surprise. There are a couple of our neighbors who weren't around at Christmastime, so I think I'll bake some treats and deliver one of these cards with a plate of goodies. Don't you think that'll be fun?

What do you do to celebrate Valentine's Day?

13 comments:

  1. What a great idea Richella, I love it. I could do something similar with my Christmas cards too :) I better get busy it takes at least 5 days to mail them to England!

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  2. Great idea!! I still have a bunch of those Christmas cards left too. Your neighbors will be so pleasantly surprised. Vday is on Monday, which means T will be at work from 9 to 9...which means we won't do anything.

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  3. What a great idea! I never think to send cards at Valentine's Day to people other than my immediate family. How thoughtful of you!
    ~Crystal

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  4. You are so smart!!!! What a great idea! They turned out beautiful. Your neighbors will LOVE you for sure!

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  5. Great idea, Richella! Those turned out so cute.
    Luv u!

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  6. Great idea Richella! I'm going to be showing some cards tomorrow that my friend made and are unique like yours! :-)
    Vanessa

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  7. I have pics left - This is SUCH a great way to use them, bless somebody and DECLUTTER a bit!
    Blessings sweet friend!
    LIB

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  8. What a fantastic idea! Love it!! I always have extra Christmas cards left over with our pictures on them! Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance!

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  9. Great idea! You are killing two birds with one stone: new cards for V-Day and using up leftover ones. I'm sure that the recipients will love them.

    We are going to grill steaks for V-Day. I have no desire to fight the crowds to eat dinner out!

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  10. What a lovely idea...they turned out great, Richella! Everyone will love them!

    XO,
    Jane

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  11. I've thought of making some type of card with leftover Christmas cards because it's such a shame to waste them. I've just never got around to doing anything.

    Now I know what I'll use those extras for next year ;) That's a GREAT idea for Valentine's Day!

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  12. I think I just found one area of our lives in which we are different. I do NOT have the crafty gene. I'm pathetic. But I sure do love your ideas!

    I hope you'll still love me.

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  13. That's such a smart idea! I have a bunch of Christmas cards left too, but the photo is a little too Christmas-y.
    Yours look great!

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