I just LOVE Valentine’s Day; it’s one of my favorite holidays! (I think I say that at every holiday. And it’s true!) Whether you believe that it originated during Roman times with an imprisoned priest named Valentine giving a message of hope and love to a young girl, or you think it’s just a commercial gimmick to get you to buy lots of chocolate, celebrating Valentine’s Day can be a beautiful thing.

For me, it’s a day set aside to remind people that we love them. This is something we should remember to do every single day, but as humans, we often need reminders. I have always loved to make Valentine’s cards, and when I think of all the people I want to tell that I care … well, the number gets pretty high. That’s why I usually have a theme for my cards, then just do variations of them.

You don’t need any fancy or expensive supplies to make your own Valentines. Paper doilies are lovely and cheap; so is crepe paper. Scrapbook paper is available for $.50–$1 per sheet, and will make multiple cards, plus scraps for embellishments. Washi tape is a lot of fun, and comes in every color and pattern imaginable. You can find it at Hobby Lobby, but I like to look at the Dollar Tree in their stationary section. They also have stamps and stickers that might fit your theme.

One year I went crazy with beautiful vintage photos of women. You can find these on a wonderful site called The Graphics Fairy, where the lady uploads all types of vintage ephemera that you can use for crafts. And it’s free! I printed them on card stock, cut them out, then glued them to the paper I chose as a background. The one below is just the picture trimmed with pink crepe paper that I fanned with my fingers and hot-glued around the edge. It looks like antique trim yet it costs a dollar a roll!

This Valentine uses the crepe to make a flower, and the girl’s dress is decorated with a bit of glitter. That’s a strip of Washi tape at the bottom:

You have probably realized by now that my favorite supply for crafts is simply paper. It is cheap and easy to make into an amazing array of things. One year I simply photocopied old family photos, glued them to scrap-paper hearts, add extra snippets of torn paper and some stamping. It was fun, and afterward I looked at the table covered with forty cards all sporting some person from my family’s history!

Another year I went with a feather theme. I used scraps of paper and cut out feather shapes, then sewed a line down the center with my sewing machine to denote the quill. These I simply stapled to strips of card stock, onto which I had copied a Bible verse.

This year I am thinking of vintage bird prints as my theme. Below are a few designs I found on The Graphics Fairy and printed onto card stock. For one card, I cut out a picture and glued it onto a paper doily. A strip of Washi tape went at the bottom, along with a crepe paper flower made of two small crepe fans glued together. A very simple card, but surely it will make someone feel special.

While you’re at it, the kids are going to be itching to make some cards themselves. The doilies plus some stickers and a big flower catalog are the perfect thing. My boys used to love to cut out the brightly colored flowers and glue them just-so to make the perfect gift for a grandma or aunt.

What about for the men in your life? While I enjoy flowery, romantic cards, I adore the really corny ones. For the fisherman in your family, print off an antique lure and caption it, “You’ve got my heart – hook, line and sinker!” A picture of a sleek car fits perfectly with one that says, “You make my heart race, Valentine!”

But my favorite corny verse is handwritten on the back of a postcard that was passed down from an ancestor. It reads:

“The ocean’s wide
And I can’t step it.
I love you, and
I can’t hep it.”

If that’s not the true sentiment of Valentine’s Day, then I don’t know what is. So let your creative juices start flowing. For a couple of dollars you can get all the things you need to make cards to remind all those people you love how you really feel. And you can be just as corny as you like!