Tiny Letters

I love Valentine's day. I have always been pretty sweet on the Valentine's day festivities but what really sold me on the holiday was the mailboxes we used to make in elementary school for all of those candy-filled card. Now I loved the candy but what I loved even more was all the possibility in that box full of tiny envelopes. So I thought this year I would make a card about all of those little envelopes.

To make this card start by rounding up some supplies. I used:

- the Marvy Jumbo Heart punch (the green guy)
- the Marvy Clever Lever mini envelope punch
- a Quickie Glue Pen
- the Dear Lizzy Christmas Letter rub-ons (mini marks by American Crafts work just as well)
- 1 sheet of Stardream 105lb cover in gold (antique gold is a nice option for a little less glitz)
- 1 sheet of Gmund Savanna's beautiful wood grain bubinga paper
- one sheet of the Speckletone oatmeal paper (I used text weight but card stock works just as well)
- some red, pink, and white scraps. The white scraps (you'll need three of them) should be 1.25" squares.

1) Cut the wood grain paper to 7x10" and scoring it down the middle to make my 5x7 card.


2.) Cut a 4x6 rectangle from the gold paper and glue it into the inside of your card as a liner.


3). Punch a mini-envelope from the left over gold paper. While you have the envelope punch in your hand go ahead and punch out 3 more from the oatmeal paper.

4.) Glue the envelopes together (this is where the tiny glue pen comes in handy), be sure you leave one end open for the messages.

5.) Once the envelopes are glued together and look like envelopes arrange them on the front of your card. I put the oatmeal envelopes in a small arc toward the top and then the gold one nestled underneath them.

6.) Take your 1.25" square pieces of paper and transfer "I love you" breaking them up over the three pieces. Place these 'tiny letters' in your oatmeal envelopes gluing the bottom back edge so that they stay.

7.) Punch out as many hearts as you would like. I find that 12 or 13 does nicely to create a cascading effect on the front of your card. Using the glue pen trace the edges of the hearts and starting at the bottom arrange 3 in a pile at the bottom edge of your card. From there I put one peeking out of the gold envelope. Then just connect the pile to the envelope with a cascade of hearts.

For a fun finishing touch I put one extra heart on the corner of the gold lining.
And there you have it; a grown up Valentine that reminds me of all those little envelopes in my mailbox as a kid. --Allie, Bellingham PZ