Get Carded: Valentines For Vets 2014

Hello! As I've done for several years now, I crafted 24 handmade valentines for the Valentines for Vets program. The valentines were mailed off to a regional VA medical center earlier today.

My cardmaking began with a fresh batch of serendipity paper. I'd recently seen a project in which pieces of paper bags were decorated with rubber stamps. I liked the look, so headed to my paper bag stash to see what I could find. 

I first learned to make serendipity paper on atlas pages, so wanted to find a paper bag with an interesting design printed on it. I was in luck with a paper bag from Cost Plus World Market. 

I painted and stamped to my heart's content (no pun intended), and here are some close-ups of the three papers I made:

White acrylic paint was dry-brushed on, then red acrylic paint was rolled on with a Koosh brush, a thrift store find (this is a paint brush with plastic bristles. I'm sure it was meant for kids to use, but that has never stopped me from buying something that I can use to get interesting effects on paper). Blobs of fuschia acrylic paint were added last. 

I added rubber stamps next. The starburst stamped shape was from a thrift store purchase, a set of shape stamps (probably vintage). Though not visible in the close-up, I also used a small rubber stamp to stamp the word "LOVE" in red ink. Lastly, I placed a red marker dot in the middle of each starburst. 

Round two:

Similar techniques, only I added the red acrylic paint with a dry brush instead of with the Koosh brush, used an X-shaped stamp, and a stamp that has mini heart shapes to make one larger heart image(thrift store purchase).

The last one:

Again, similar in technique, but here a circle from the shapes stamps set and a rubber stamp that spells out "love love love" (thrift store purchase) were used. 

I was pleased with how my new batch of serendipity paper turned out, but the proof is in the pudding - how did the Valentines for Vets look? 

Here's the answer - close-ups of three of the valentines I made: 

From Paper #1:

Paper #2:

And paper #3:

To make each valentine, all I did was cut a heart shape out of the serendipity paper, glued it to white card stock, then stamped "love love love" in red ink underneath the heart. 

The fun thing about serendipity paper is that you never know how it's going to look in a project until you start cutting it up. And since the design is random, my hearts looked different from each other even when cut from the same piece of serendipity paper. 

It's not all about card design, of course - I wrote a brief message inside each valentine, wishing the veteran a Happy Valentine's Day and giving my thanks for their service to our country. 

I hope that the veterans who receive my valentines enjoy them; I enjoyed making them!