Making Valentines

Every year I make hand-made Valentines for some of our customers. I can't make them for everyone-although I'd like to!- but we create a mostly random list* of customers who get a card. The cards are different each year, and we send out 200+. Some years the cards contain candy, some years a gift certificate or coupon. I'm not saying what will be in them this year...

Each year I have to think really hard about what they'll look like. I do some Pinterest searching...and try out an idea or two before settling on a design that I enjoy making and that looks interesting. This year, I was inspired by my ever-growing selection of spray paint and some really cool spray-painted wrapping paper I saw at Edge of Urge this last holiday season. My oldest daughter ('Mom, I LOVE spray paint!!!!') helped me get the process down. We started out just setting the heart templates down on the cards, but the spray paint blew them off. We didn't want to tape or glue the hearts down because I envisioned painting the layers quickly, moving the hearts around as the paint was applied. After a bit of  experimenting, we created these finely crafted (ha!)  heart sticks. We did this by taping hearts to the ends of wooden chopsticks. The sticks make is possible to safely hold the hearts down and spray paint around the edges. No paint on fingers, or not much paint on fingers! 

We'll keep working on Valentines this whole week...and hopefully start mailing them out next week. After we make the cards, I sit down and address envelopes and write messages inside.

Do you want to make sure we have your name and address? Just call the store at 919-834-6260 and ask them to check if your info is updated in our system. We are pretty old-school, so just because you get an email from me, or are subscribed to the blog, I can't promise we have your updated address. Calling the store will make sure we have all your info. 

*How random is the list? Pretty random. Our system will generate a listing of names and addresses for us. If the address looks faulty, or the person got a Valentine in the past and it was returned to us because of a bad address, we remove the name and replace it. Staff and instructors also add in customers that need a bit of extra love this year. We aren't above bribery, baking us treats gets you on the list!