Sunday 2 February 2014

celebrating Valentines Day for my single friends!

Valentines Day is coming up soon.  Traditionally I hate Valentines Day, partly because I think that it is very commercialized and a marketing ploy and I feel that romance should come from the heart and not have to cost money; but also more so because I am 41 years old and I have never once received anything for Valentines Day.  I have spent most of my life as a single woman and there is nothing quite like Valentines Day to make one feel so unloved and so lonely.

Anyway, the other day I started toying with the idea of making some mini books, and thinking about different shaped books.  I thought a heart shape book would be pretty cool ... then I thought how wonderful it would be to make some heart shaped mini books and send them anonymously to my single friends, so that they would feel loved and know that someone was thinking of them!

you will need:  card (I used a combination of red card and pink card with gerberas printed on it)
brads
selection of papers
selection of stamps and ink
glue
scissors 

So I got to work making a stencil, cutting out my base shapes out of pink and red card, and rummaging through my stash of pretty papers for suitable papers to decorate with.  To create a heart shaped stencil, it is best to fold the card in half and draw half a heart shape on it, that way it is even on both sides.  I used 4 heart shapes per book, so that it opens out into a flower shape.  (3 works fine too).

Once you have your hearts cut out, start decorating them!

You might like to use stamps and quotes as well.  I created poems using words and phrases that I had cut out of an old children's book that I picked up for 50c. I got some of my pictures out of children's books too.

 I like cutting up paper doilies and adding bits of lace to give an old fashioned feel to them.
Decorate the fronts and backs of each heart.

I put a little pocket / envelope on a few hearts, so that I could put in a little note to that person telling them how special they were.


Once you have decorated your hearts, put 4 of them together and line them up.  Make a hole in the bottom of them and put the brad through to attach them together.

Voila!  Gorgeous heart shaped mini books to surprise your single and special friends with! 
I hope my friends like them! (I can't post pics on Facebook in case they see and then they will know it is from me, but I don't think they follow my blog so it is safe to post pics here).