Valentine's Day Craftiness

So, I got a bug in my backside the week before Valentine's.  I'm looking at my huge Scrapbox filled with crafting supplies and I said to myself, "Self, you could make a whole Valentine'sy thing without spending a dime".  I had seen a similar design while trolling through the internet.  I didn't even put a pin in it (I've tried Pinterest, have you?) or bookmark the page, so I can't give credit where it is due.

Neither which way, I first went shopping in my Scrapbox, coming out with a pile of red and pink cardstock and three matching patterned papers.  First I made rectangular boxes using the instructions I've found here.  I ended up, after a few tries, making my box out of a piece of paper that is approximately 5 x 7.  You can play with the sizes of the score lines and make your box size unique to you.  The folded back edge around my box is approximately 1/4 in.  The surrounding "box" is just a 3 1/2 in. x 9 in strip of paper.  I scored the paper at the correct intervals to give my treat box room to slide easily.  The far side overlaps approximately 1/2 down and was adhered with Glue Lines.

 

The Happy Valentine's Day is a free clip art piece that I printed on white cardstock and cut using my paper trimmer.













The flag detail was cut using Accent Essentials on my Cricut.  I nudged together two rectangles that I resized as indicated in the picture to the left.   I selected Weld to make the two rectangles cut as one piece, thus creating my flag.  The Flag was stamped using some flourishes from a Recollections set and my Coffee Archival Ink.  The white, glitter brad comes from a Queen and Co. set so old it really needs to be used up.
 

Finally, the hearts were cut using my Cricut and the Lovestruck cart.  I cut all kinds of hearts out of the patterned paper and the solid cardstock scraps at 3/4, 1, and 1 1/4 inches.  I then simply sewed them together to make these lovely 3D effect pieces for the top of my mailbox.

I created nine of these bad boys for my co-workers, filled them with chocolate and left them as a holiday message on their desks.  I truly meant to get these up to the blog sooner, but said job is consuming and time is valuable.  I'm currently designing my Easter cards (I'm going to give it a try this year) and am finding my creative juices flowing a little slowly.  I've my idea, but translating that to a piece of paper is taking some trial and error- read: Time.  Hopefully, I'll have something else crafty to share with you before then.

Andie