Hi, Emm from @planwithemm here! You can find me on Instagram and YouTube. 

I feel like I haven’t celebrated Valentine’s Day since elementary school. I remember getting cards from everyone in our class and feeling an extra bit of love. Just acknowledging that you see and appreciate someone can brighten their day, so today we’re going to be crafting 4 easy, yet effective, Valentine’s Day cards. Don’t celebrate the holiday? No problem! You could repurpose these ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, or even just to show someone you care.

Let’s dive in!

SUPPLIES

• Notepad: I used an A5 size for each, but there are so many options.
• Calliographs
• Stickers 
• Pen
• Washi Tape
• Scissors
• A pencil for any sketching
• Corner Rounder (optional)

Make sure to use my affiliate code PLANWITHEMM10 to save 10% at Archer and Olive.

L-O-V-E

Nat King Cole had it right, because love is all that I can give to you. A whole LOT of it! This card is graphic and customizable to any color scheme, but also super easy to create. Each “leaf” is created by just pressing the larger calliograph tip to the paper, then repeating around the letter. I definitely recommend sketching out the word in advance so you can make sure that everything is centered to your liking and that the letters are approximately the same height and width.

For more variety, you could use the smaller tip for finer leaves or add some curling vines. You could use this card structure for any word, provided that it’s short enough to fit on the page. Spelling out a friend’s name or “thanks” would look super cute!

THE HISTORY OF US

Feeling nostalgic? This is the card for you! Reminisce on your friendships while you recount its timeline. On a spare sheet of paper, quickly write out the pivotal moments in your relationship - It could be things like when you met, fun experiences you’ve had together, or any trying times that they helped you through.

What I love about this card is that it’s so simple, yet effective. I took this borrowing card paper from the A&O Vintage Library subscription box, but am including a printable version here! This makes it easy to match any color scheme and use in your journal as well, not just for a card.

From here, fill in your borrowers card. I included milestones with my husband like moving in together, getting our cat Ciri, and marriage on mine. Once your borrowers card is to your liking, it’s time to decorate the rest of the card - aka the fun part!. I used washi to fasten it to the card and then added a sticker for a bit of extra flair. This would also look gorgeous with a leafy background (a la Card #1) and the borrower’s card adhered in the middle. 

A PREHISTORIC KIND OF LOVE

I would be remiss not to include a dinosaur card in this collection - they’re so fun to doodle and really cute! It includes an opportunity for you to flex your hand lettering skills with the RAWR, this could be with wavy or bold letters to really get the point across. 

I’m by no means an expert at doodling dinosaurs, so I found some cute ones for inspiration by Shiho Oribata. Plus a stegosaurus is basically a taco with legs, which really helped me visualize it. You could do any dinosaur, or even a flock of them! If anyone does a pterodactyl, be sure to send me a pic because I need that energy in my life. I used the small nib of the calliograph to doodle it, then went back over it with the larger nib. If you want a bit of shading, just go over those areas a second time to darken the color. 

Once your dino is colored, we can add our message. I wrote “RAWR means I love you in dinosaur”, but creativity is encouraged. Dinosaur puns would be adorable here. You could also add footprints, fossils, or even little dinosaur eggs around the card. 

HEARTCEPTION

We’re kickin’ it old school now with a play on the classic heart card. You know the one where you’d fold your paper, cut out half of a heart, and unfold it to have a gorgeous symmetrical heart? We’re going to take it up a notch by having 2 nested hearts, with just enough room for a heartfelt message in the middle. 

There are 2 key steps to creating your nested heart card. Once you fold your paper in half, sketch out your hearts. Start with in the center with the smallest heart half and work your way out. This way, you’ll end up with 3 heart halves drawn on your card. We’ll then cut out the outermost heart half. This part will feel just like when you did it in elementary school. 

The key with the next step is to mark a small straight line between the tops of the smallest and medium sized heart halves near your fold. If we went right ahead and cut out the middle sized heart half next, we’d just end up with a single (though albeit still cool-looking) heart. This line allows our smallest heart half to stay in place. You can also draw another line along between the bottoms of the heart halves for a bit more stability. Once your lines are drawn, you can cut again and you’ll have a pretty nested heart. After this, it’s time to add our message. I wrote “Love you. Mean it.” on mine and plan to give it to the staff at one of my favorite restaurants where this is their motto. Another great idea would be to doodle or letter your message on the outer heart and let the inner heart be for your to/from section. 

And voila! We have 4 creative cards to hand out this Valentine’s Day (or any other day if I’m being honest, because love isn’t limited to just February 14th). If you recreate any of these cards, I would love to see them! Be sure to check out the video below to see the creation of these cards and check out this blog for other cardmaking ideas.