Add some new homemade ideas to
this year's Valentines.

• Purchased templates in the shapes of hearts, ovals, and rectangles
• 8-1/2 x 11-inch pieces of card stock in pure white, soft white, shades of red, and lavender
• Patterned scrapbook papers
• Vellum in frosted white with swirls and frosted white with red hearts
• Precut white scalloped postcards
• Decorative-edge scissors
• Precut white bookmarks
• Precut white tags
• Paper punches in desired shapes
• Metallic gel pens in white, lavender, red, pink, blush, silver, and gold
• Sparkle gel pens in red, pink, and blush
• A variety of valentine stickers
• Alphabet stickers in white and red
• Buttons in white and shades of pink
• Thick white crafts glue
• Paper crimper
• Assorted ribbons
• Spacers, such as Pop Dots, in 1/8- and 1/16-inch thicknesses
• Scissors

1. Download the free patterns for this project (Downloading requires Adobe Arobat software).

Card patterns

Adobe Acrobat

2. Trace the desired template with a light pencil line on the wrong side of desired paper. Using regular scissors or decorative-edge scissors, cut out shape.

3. For bookmarks, postcards, and tags, use decorative-edge scissors to trim the edges if desired.

4. Decide on the paper punch design and placement. Punch holes first to make it easier to place the stickers and draw in decorative lines.

5. To apply stickers, peel off the back of each sticker and place on cutout, angling and overlapping as desired. Embellish stickers by outlining with color-coordinated metallic or sparkle gel pens.

6. Fill in blank areas with additional line drawings. Use one of the paper punches to add punched holes, and/or crafts glue to add buttons.

7. Weave ribbon through larger punched holes, either just at the top, to one side, or circling a design. Tie the ends in a bow and trim. Add a matching ribbon hanger if desired.

8. For the scalloped heart cutouts with vellum overlay, use a template to trace on the wrong side of card stock or patterned paper. Cut out shape. Repeat on the vellum paper and cut just inside of the traced line. Lay vellum heart on top of the card stock heart and carefully embellish with desired paper punch. Loop a ribbon hanger through punches on top center and tie a bow.

9. For the crimped designs, roll design through the crimper after punching holes, applying stickers, and drawing decorative lines. Add desired buttons and/or ribbon after crimping.

10. For 3-D designs, apply stickers of choice to small pieces of coordinating colors of card stock. Trim close all around the edges of the sticker with straight or decorative-edge scissors. Apply the spacers, following the package instructions. Attach spacers to card as desired.