Family Valentine card

Materials

You should be able to find the materials for this card at any craft store. Check your junk drawer for paint chips. They're a great material for decorating cards.

• Blank green card with envelope
• Heart-shaped punch
• A variety of colored card stock, paint chips and other papers
• Brown felt-tip pen
• Glue stick
• Stamp of a tree
• Ink pad

Step 1: Draw a tree shape

With the felt-tip marker, draw a simple tree shape on the card. Make sure it has branches in a variety of directions. Don't worry too much about how it looks at this point. Use long strokes to color in the tree bark. Allow some of the green paper to show through the strokes.

Another way to do the tree trunk is to cut out a tree shape from sandpaper. This gives some texture and is a great look for this card. Glue the sandpaper trunk to the front of the card and continue according to the instructions.

Step 2: Cut out the hearts

Use the heart punch to cut out hearts from different colors of card stock. You can use as many different colors as you like.

Step 3: Attach the hearts to the tree

Using the glue stick, attach the hearts to the various branches.

For best results, make sure they're random, (e.g., they don't all go in the same direction). Some of the hearts should overlap others, but space them out so they look like leaves rather than a large clump of color.

You may find that white glue works better for you than the glue stick. It's easier to control where the glue goes and how much goes on the paper. Using a cotton swab to dab the white glue on the hearts will make it even easier.

Step 4: Add the words

Use a piece of light-colored card stock or heavy paper and write, "Glad we hang on the same tree!" If there's another quote or special saying you want to use, just make sure it fits on the cardstock.

You may want to use your word-processing program and a calligraphy font to create the wording. Just print it out and glue the cardstock to the inside of the card. If you have pretty handwriting, you can create the print by hand. Use a brown ink and a calligraphy pen or a calligraphy marker.

Use the tree stamp inside the card, and stamp the lower corner of the envelope to match.

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