An Elegant Sufficiency

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Making Valentine cards

The blogs and websites I read are full of ideas for Valentines Day.  Though we don’t mark the occasion with anything like as much enthusiasm as some seem to do, a card or two is normally sent, especially to friends of the smaller variety.  I don’t think my idea is new or original in any way, but in the spirit of sharing, this is what I’ve done this year.

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I found a bag of tiny cards and envelopes in the stash.  Dated 2001, I have no idea if such things are still available, though actually, they’d be a cinch to replicate.

To give an idea of size, I’m working on a cutting mat with a one inch grid.

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They’re just over a square inch when folded.

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I’ve used patterned origami paper which is plain on the other side.

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Folded in half.

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Opened, turned over and folded in half again, along the diagonal.

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Opened and repeated the fold along the other diagonal.

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Then I made that origami fold which creates a triangle, with sides folded in.

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I drew and cut a heart shape using the centre as the bottom point of the heart.

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I tried to get smooth curves by opening the scissors wide and cutting in one smooth cut rather than snip-snip-snip.

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I used a square of my favourite double sided tape on each side of the folded shape to adhere it inside the card.  Stuck one side first

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Then opened up, removed the tape backing and folded the card closed.

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It fitted snugly within the card – perfect.

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Time to write in the greeting.

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There.  But the front looked a little empty and needed something.

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I have only a large rubber stamp but thought those small motifs would fit well.

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I inked just one motif using a small “catseye” ink pad

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I carefully cleaned excess ink from the adjacent shapes

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Then broke all stamping rules by applying the card to the stamp rather than vice versa.  That made sure I got the motif in the right place.

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Which looked pretty good, I thought.

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Finally, I couldn’t send these little cards in a plain envelope, so tied a ribbon around and glued a small pressed rosebud on the join.

All done – and still a week to go.  That must be a record!