Valentines: handmade with love

Hearts are the symbols of Valentine's Day. One shape, so many possibilities...

Sometimes, keeping it simple has more impact. It's really easy to make your own Valentine card. 

All you need to do is cut out a heart shape (template below) from whatever you want – fabric, wrapping paper, coloured card, corrugated cardboard, a picture in a magazine, an online print-out, your own photo/s – stick it to a blank card (decorating with a button, ribbon, petals, sequins).

Or stick on several smaller hearts of the same size, or layer smaller and smaller hearts on top of one another...

A good way to come up with your finished design is to cut some hearts from scrap paper and play around with layouts and sizes until you're satisfied. Then cut out the heart shapes you'll use on your card.

Add a heartfelt, handwritten message... what could be more meaningful for the one you love? (My own Valentine this year features a picture cut from a magazine, plus a paper heart; no previews here though.)

You can also cut heart shapes and string them horizontally, like these map hearts, or vertically.

And if you want to give a present too, how about a fabric heart? Filled with lavender, they can be moth-repellers, drawer scenters, keyrings, hanging decorations, and you can, of course, attach them to a card. Cut two hearts from fabric. Stitch them right sides together, leaving a gap for filling, and enclosing the ends of a ribbon (or string, or yarn) loop, then turn inside out. Fill with lavender, rose petals, cotton wool, cut-up old tights or soft toy filling, and stitch the opening closed. See the heart template below; enlarge to your chosen size.

Here's an example of instructions that I wrote for Hearst Magazines' Allaboutyou.com: a spotted heart card with gingham ribbon bow.

















And here's a variation on the fabric heart: sheer fabric machined together without being turned inside out, and filled with rose petals, and trimmed with a tiny heart and mother-of-pearl button.

Make, do and send

It can be hard to find Christmas cards that you actually like, for a price you're prepared to pay - that is, if you send any at all.

I'm a fan; they jolly up the room and it's pleasant to receive evidence that someone's thinking of you, but I do wonder what the point is of sending a card if that's your only contact in the course of a year. Or several years...

But enough of the analysis; I've just made my first batch of cards, to hand out in person to quite a few of my extended family.

I went for a super-simple option: printed photos stuck on blank cards. 

To make your own, pull together appropriate images; mine included a snowcat, charity runners dressed as Santa, snowy scenes from Lapland (and the local park) and a Kellogg's cornflakes packet. You could also use family shots, or stage a seasonal tableau.

Use your computer's photo software to print a page full, sized appropriately, or insert into a Word doc or similar, then print out.

Trim around the edges with a craft knife or scalpel and a metal rule, leaving a white border for a retro look. Stick on to the blank card (mine are very similar to these from Hobbycraft) with glue stick, sticky dots or doubled-over sticky tape. Stamp or write a seasonal slogan, write your message, then post.

Last posting dates for Christmas

If you're sending any cards, handmade or not, you need these.
Tuesday December 20: second class, 55p
Wednesday December 21: first class, 64p
Find the full list of dates, including international and parcels, here
This year's Christmas stamps celebrate 50 years of their production by Royal Mail. They feature paper cut-outs by Helen Musselwhite.

Licking and sticking

Stamps are little scraps of social history, and they're miniature works of art, too. I recently visited Stanley Gibbons HQ in the Strand, ahead of Stampex, the annual stamp-collecting show, in its 60th year.
I used to collect stamps as a child, and this event was a real memory-jogger, surfacing recollections of stamp hinges, and soaking squares of envelope in little bowls of water to get the stamps off.
On display was the original artwork for some Royal Mail stamps including the butterflies collection from 2013.

But stamps aren't just for sticking on letters or collecting in albums. Suzanne, of Art Stamped, is a craft artist who creates contemporary artworks using postage stamps. She was on hand to help me create a card design with stamps. She'd brought along a selection of stamps, themed by colours and subjects, such as hearts and animals. And she'll be showing a jungle-themed piece at Stampex.

With an anniversary coming up, I went for a green colour theme with the occasional love stamp. Suzanne took a shot of me as I planned and pondered my design.

And here's the finished card: not too shabby considering I spent about five minutes on it...

The history of Valentine's Day

Yes, we know, February 14 means hearts, red roses and chocolates. But how did the celebration originate?
If you're lucky enough to hear the plop of a Valentine hitting the doormat, it may surprise you to know that our celebration on February 14 has more to do with a wolf than a saint. Although St Valentine is now known as the patron saint of lovers, this Roman priest was imprisoned and then martyred in 269 AD for helping persecuted Christians. (His ashes are in a church in Glasgow, and at least some of his bones are in a church in Madrid - neither of them called St Valentine's.)

The present-day practice of anonymously asking a member of the opposite sex to be your lover has its roots in a popular pagan ritual, where boys selected girls to be their partners by drawing their names out of an urn.

This Roman festival, called Lupercalia, celebrated the day when the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, founders of the city of Rome. The festival was borrowed by the early Christian church and moved back one day to coincide with an existing saint's day.

Another theory behind the custom of choosing a lover on this day, also originating from the animal kingdom, is the old belief that this was when birds chose their mates for the following year.

The earliest known Valentine's Day message was sent in the form of a letter from Margery Brews to John Paston, 'my right belovyd Valuntyn', in 1477, following a dispute about the size of her dowry.

Valentine's cards as we know and love them today, weren't introduced until around 1834, when Jonathan King of London perfected a method of manufacturing paper lace on a commercial scale. His wife had the bright idea of scattering feathers and pieces of coloured paper over the cards.

Also popular at this time and throughout the Victorian era were 'vinegar Valentines' or 'penny dreadfuls'. These were sent on Valentine's Day to unpopular people. To add insult to injury, in those days you had to pay to receive one, as postal costs were paid by the recipient, not the sender!

For those who left everything to the last minute, a special Valentine' Day telegram was issued in 1936. Fifty thousand were sent, including one with the message: 'And now I've asked you to be nine/By gosh! It's cost me eight and nine!' Bet that boosted the romance in that relationship.

And why hearts? They're perceived as the seat of our emotions. And red roses? In the language of flowers, these symbolise true love.

I love Valentine's Day, usually celebrating at home with my partner cooking. We don't spend much, just a card and a little something. I love to write about how to make Valentine cards and presents too.

I wrote the instructions for this quilled paper Valentine card above, for Prima.co.uk; the pic is from a photo library.
Spotty heart Valentine card, instructions written for Allaboutyou.com
Sheer rose-petal-filled heart, instructions written for Allaboutyou.com

Next year's Christmas card designs

Merry Christmas - I know it's nearly New Year, but I'm planning ahead - this is next year's Christmas card! A coastal Christmas tree made of seaweed with whitish stones for lights/baubles and an odd fronded sponge-like plant/animal for a star on the top. Made in minutes on Deal beach on Christmas Day.

My OH was v keen to make our own cards this year but a last-minute trip shortly before Christmas knocked that on the head (along with a generously decorated Christmas tree and a wreath for the door - I got as far as buying the foam ring...)