Handmade Valentine Greetings

I have the worst time trying to pick out cards for my husband.  I think part of the problem is that my only two main choices are humorous (as in, making fun of him) or sappy romantic.  The sappy romantic ones just never get all the details right, so I usually pick the plainest card I can find, and write my own message.  It’s kind of a waste of $3, frankly.

This year, I spotted a glass bottle when I was shopping at Michael’s, and thought to myself that it would be a cool bottle to toss into the ocean with a message.  I know I’ll never actually do that, but still, the idea of putting a message in a bottle was really appealing to me.

So, it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, which seems like the perfect opportunity. :)

I wrote a nice note.  I didn’t hand-write it, though I probably should have.  But instead I found a fun handwritten font (if you’re a font-collector, it’s Jane Austen) and said what I had to say.

I know it doesn’t look like much.  I’m really not terribly romantic, though I am trying!

Anyway, I trimmed it down and rolled it up, and tied it off with some twine.  Make sure before you put it into your bottle that your note can be retrieved out!  Mine has a really narrow neck, which means he’ll need to use tweezers, but I was able to fish it back out without too much trouble.

Then, I just popped it into the bottle.  I had paper punched some hearts, so I tossed one of those in for good measure.

Now, I just have to decide where to leave it for him.  I’m thinking his jacket pocket, so he won’t find it until he heads to work. :)

In other Valentine greeting news, I’m putting the finishing touches on a few things for my Valentines for the Valentine Exchange.  I had one participant who hadn’t heard back from her partner, which was the perfect excuse for me to adopt a second partner!  So since we’re making handmade packages, I thought I’d carry that into the cards I’m including as well.  (Carlee and Elaine, you should maybe stop reading right now, though there are no actual gift spoilers here, don’t worry!)

I don’t have the eye for paper crafts like some people do, but I knew if I kept it simple, I’d probably be able to pull off a decently cute card.  This is the first time I’ve tried stitching on paper, and I really like the look it creates!

All I did was print up my front-of-card greetings on a sheet of cardstock, and trimmed it in half for my two separate cards.  Then I folded them.  Pretty basic. :)

I tried one horizontal and one vertical.  I can’t decide which one I like better!  Anyway, then I played with my heart punches and some scraps and finally settled on some embellishments.

I adhered the hearts with a tiny bit of glue – just enough to make sure they didn’t scoot around while I stitched.

Then I ran a line of stitching to resemble a heart garland on this one to make it seem sort of whimsical:

And I did a simple vertical addition to the other one for a clean, geometric sort of look.  What do you think?

I even had envelopes they would fit in leftover from our Christmas cards.  And I’m quite pleased with my handmade greetings this year!  And the best part is, I had everything but the bottle in my stash already, for a grand total of 99 cents invested.  Are you DIY-mamas making your own Valentine greetings this year?  Or perhaps a few dozen for the kiddos to give away? :)

I link up to these great parties!
~ Adrianne