Valentine’s Day Card India

Valentine’s Day Card Workshop 4 – Wanna Hide You in My Heart

As promised, here’s #4 in Love in India special series of DIY Valentine’s Day Cards, each of which take less than 10 minutes to make.

Things you’ll need:

1. Plain paper

2. Scissors.

3. A pencil.

4. Glue

5. Coloured pens (Optional, for decoration)

Valentine’s Day card 4 step 1: Take two identical square pieces of paper.

Valentine’s Day card 4 step 2: Keep one aside. Fold the other one into half, like this:

Valentine’s Day card 4 step 3: Fold it twice such that eventually there are three creases across its length and breadth, intersecting at a common point at the centre.

Valentine’s Day card 4 step 4: Join the mid-points of the four sides to draw a square, touching each side of the paper at the mid-point.

Valentines Day Card 4 step 5: Fold it along the diagonal, and draw half a heart on one of the sides, using the inner square as a reference.

Valentines Day Card 4 step 6: We are going to draw many “parallel” hearts inside this outer heart. Let us start by marking the starting and ending points of each heart on the spine of the outermost heart. Make the equidistant from each other, leaving out space for the innermost heart in the centre.

Valentines Day Card 4 step 7: Draw the hearts, one inside the other, as identical as possible.

Valentines Day Card 4 step 8: Now the trickiest part. Each heart has to be cut out from the head and left joined with the others at the tail, or vice versa. Each heart has to be cut in alternate directions – one from head to tail, the next from tail to head. Like this.

For your convenience, I have marked out the alternate directions of cutting on the first two hearts (don’t repeat this unless you want to leave out awkward red arrows on your special valentine’s day card!). Note that each red line as an ending point marked with a prominent red dot.

Each heart is to be cut only till its respective ending point, to leave it joined with the rest of the paper. This will create the layered effect you can see in the final version.

Like the layers? :)

Valentines Day Card 4 step 9: Now stick the square piece of paper with the layers at the centre on to the other identical square you’d kept aside.

…Such that your message can’t be read without opening the layers…

Experiment with the graphics. :)

Valentine’s Day Card Workshop 3 – The Maze of My Love

Here are we with the 3rd in the series of Valentine’s Day Card Workshops. Today’s folds of love are called The Maze of My Love and here’s what they look like.

Read on if you want to convey your love to your sweetheart through this sweet maze of your feelings.

Things you’ll need:

1. Plain paper

2. Scissors.

3. A pencil.

4. Coloured pens (Optional, for decoration)

Valentine’s Day card 3 step 1: Cut a strip of plain white paper and crease it in a series of folds, like this.

Valentine’s Day card 3 step 2: Fold it up and draw a heart shape on one of the top faces, which you’re going to cut out.

Valentine’s Day card 3 step 3: Cut out the whole strip in the shape of a heart. Make sure the edges (where each plane of paper is joined with others in the strip) are intact.

Valentines Day Card 2 step 4: Smooth out the oblong edges to give the hearts a full, rounded look.

Now you have the base for the maze of your love.

Valentines Day Card 3 step 5: Colour it as you like. I’ve simply chosen two colours for the two sides. You can also choose a different colour for each heart-shaped petal.

Valentines Day Card 3 step 6: Choose your favourite quotes. Or just make them up. Write a different quote/message in each petal.

Fold it up neatly. And you have the “Maze of your love” ready for surprising someone!

Do let me know what you think of this one by leaving a comment. :)

Top 15 Unique Valentine’s Day Ideas

I’m giving Saucy Saturday a miss this Saturday because you seem to be more in need of romance than sauce this season.

Some time back I’d written about some unique and creative anniversary ideas. While some of them are quite specific to anniversary celebrations, many of them can be used in any special occasion for a couple. Here are some unique Valentine’s Day ideas for celebrating this special day with your special someone.

Teach her the “Love Alphabet” through a letter. For each letter of the alphabet, pin down an item which is associated to the two of you and your relationship/marriage. For example, A for Azure – the restaurant we visit most frequently, B for Boston – where we first met, C for Calvin – our dog, etc.
With a little bit of effort you can convert your Alphabet of Love into a photo book – with a different page for each letter and an image representing the associated object.
Get more creative. Convert each photo+item page into a flashcard. Put them in a nice box, decorate with roses and your favourite Valentine’s Day card.
Valentine’s Day is about flowers and Valentine’s Day is about chocolates. How about combining the two in the form of a carefully crafted chocolate bouquet, like this one?
Photo by josanne70

… If you’re running short on time, try a simpler one instead:

Photo by litree

Redo your first date. Visit the same places, eat the same stuff and do the same things. Ours involved a dinner and hopping from sea face to sea face all around the city till 3 in the morning! Isn’t it superbly exciting to relive those crazy moments?
You get custom couple key chains which you can order in pairs. Go nuts with the design – you can choose everything from your names to your thumb impressions as the key chain dangler.
Make a scrapbook/photobook/love letter out of all of those tiny romantic thoughts you had about each other at the crush stage, but couldn’t tell each other. Like, “I suddenly started tweeting Lady Gaga lyrics all over just to get your attention, ’cause I knew you liked it.”
Do you know paper napkins can be folded into cute little envelopes? Make some of these, glue them onto a large piece of art paper, and put the notes you made in the previous steps into these. He/she will just love the cute crafty bit of romance.

Photo by glitterandgrunge.com

Put your notes in the little envelopes but don’t stick them on to a piece of paper. Create a “Goody basket” with chocolates, framed photos, flowers and those little envelopes with your love inside them. If you have any special gift for her you can hide it in here too.
Write “I love you” in different languages and fonts and present to her in the form of a love letter. You can also choose from steps #7 – #9 & repeat with these “I love you” messages.
Write a “50 unique things about you which make me fall in love everyday” letter to her. You can also choose from steps #7 – #9 & repeat with these “unique things about you” messages/notes.
Do you know “cafuné” in Brazilian Portuguese means “The act of tenderly running your fingers through someone’s hair”? There are many such awesomely romantic words and phrases in other languages which have no English equivalent. Use these creatively in a love letter describing your special feelings for her, or use these as messages/notes in #7 – #9.
Give her a calendar/photo book with her name written in custom themes in all pages.
I discovered a great website for creating your custom love poem. You can customize it with her name and favourite gifts and then download it in the shape of a heart like I did. All of this for free!

If you liked these you can check out the complete list of 50 Original & Unique Anniversary Ideas for Sweeping Your Spouse Completely Off Their Feet, most of which, while meant for wedding anniversary surprises, can be perfect for Valentine’s Day celebrations too.