Handmade Valentines Made from Recycled Paper

I have always loved making handmade cards from found bits of paper, old cards, decoupage, and whatever random bits of things I have stashed in my craft bin. In particular, I love making handmade Valentines, as you saw in my post for make envelopes the other day. I'm currently traveling for work in lovely Roseville, CA, and during a quick Wal-Mart trip the other night, I found these adorable little letter stamps for 97 cents that reminded me of the ones I saw in this post for a hand stamped onesie.

For some reason I always end up making some sort of craft project (probably out of sheer business traveler boredom) out of whatever I have at hand and stuffed in my laptop bag. This time, I just couldn't wait to try out my little stampies, so I decided to make another Valentine! Here was what I had at hand:

-Stamps and ink
-Random pieces of paper
-Sewing kit
-A newspaper
-Mini pointy scissors (kept in my bag for crocheting, or in case I need to stab a terrorist in the jugular)

I found an ad that had a lot of white space in the newspaper and stamped around in a heart shape three times to spell out the word love. Cut those out, and paged through the Valentines day ads in the paper for some other things to cut out- I found a sparkly heart, a bottle of wine, and something that said "My Valentine." I didn't have a glue stick, so I just used my little sewing kit to stitch my pieces to the paper and then to make a cute edging. Then, ta-da! I had my little card. Now I just need to my an envelope. =)

Make a Handmade Envelope!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I wanted to share what I did so I could package up some handmade cards to send in the mail! I did some searching online, and did find one tutorial that looked pretty easy, however you were supposed to take apart an envelope that you already had, and I had none that could encompass my non-traditional sized cards- like this circus Valentine with the puppy head that poked over the side of the card:

So instead, I decided to chart my own course and make a simple on the spot envelope with a cute lining on the inside.

What you need:


An awesome card
Glue stick or double stick tape
Paper that will fit your card when it's folded over to create flaps for the envelope
Nice scrap-book paper for the lining
Cute stickers, if you want to use them to close your envelope instead of gluing it shut

To start, I took a piece of computer paper (you could use something fancier from the scrapbook section of a craft store so long as it is pretty big and not too patterned if you want to send in the mail) and placed my card like the above so I had enough room to fold over a nice flap on the top and the bottom if they overlap.

Then, draw rectangles with a pencil so you know where to cut to start your bottom flap, like the below:

Cut out the flaps, then fold up your bottom and sides around your card, like the below. Then flip your bottom flap over the side flaps- that is the position you will eventually glue them in.

Next, fold the top flap over so it covers the card nicely, and then mark that spot with a pencil like you did for the bottom.

Cut, starting at your mark, and then use the guides of the folded paper to cut the top flap, so it is even with the  card.

Put your card in the envelope, and fold over the top flap so you have a little extra room above the card for your lining to show. As an FYI, if you find your flap doesn't quite cover the card like you want, you can cut a square and glue it so it lines up with the top of the side flaps and the top of the bottom flap.

Take out your card and cut a piece of scrapbook paper so it is the same size as the inner envelope, and then glue it in with your glue stick.

Take your glue stick and put just enough glue on the side flaps so they stick to the inner flap. Here is the finished back and the front, where you can also see the lining. Make sure you have a sweet message written inside the card, and if you are going to mail the card, seal it up with your glue stick. If it's just going with a present or something, you can just use a sticker to close it.

Hope this all makes sense to you, and maybe gives a little inspiration to whip up a few cards for the day of love!