Don"t Miss These Fun DIY Valentine"s Day Cards and Crafts

Make a card, a poster, a decoration for Valentine's Day or for other romantic special occasions using desktop publishing and graphics software. Pick and choose from the individual elements described here to put together a lovely Valentine's Day card, a Wedding announcement, or invites and decorations for a Valentine-themed party.

Color of Love: Red and Pink

Traditionally, Valentine's Day cards and decorations tend to be red or pink. Of course there are many lovely shades of red and pink. Pick the perfect palette for your romantic project.

Red is Cupid and passionate love. Pick your red from bright red to scarlet to salmon to dark cherry red.
Crimson is the blood red color of love and nobility that can also have a hint of playful pink in it.
Pink is romantic and charming. It's the sweet side of red and can be playful or tender.
Lavender is a grown-up pink. On the purply side, it's nostalgia and romance.
Violet is another romantic mix of blue and red.
Lilac is a nostalgic shade of pinky purple.
Plum is a feminine and romantic color that's less girly than pink.

Roses are a traditional flower for love. Whether you're buying roses or selecting rose images for a Valentine card, get the right color. Rose Color Meanings: Ordering the Right Valentine Roses at About.com Landscaping tells us that while red might signify "Valentine roses," par excellence, there are plenty of other rose colors with romantic connotations including purple roses for love at first sight.

Shape of Love: Hearts

Red hearts (or pink hearts or any color hearts) are symbolic of love and Valentine's. Draw your own or use heart symbols and clip art. Make hearts the centerpiece or the background of your cards and other projects.

Draw a Heart With Windows 7 Paint shows that you don't need fancy software to create crafty heart shapes with a personal touch.
How to Draw Love Hearts in Inkscape offers up several different ways to use this free graphics software to draw hearts.
How to Draw a Love Heart in GIMP uses another free and popular graphics program.
How to Draw a Love Heart in Paint.NET is yet another free graphics program that you can use to draw hearts.
How to Draw Interlocking Hearts in Adobe Illustrator shows you step-by-step how to draw a pair of entwined heart shapes.
Four Ways to 3D Hearts in CorelDRAW goes from the basic heart shape to four 3D styles in this multi-part tutorial.
Free Valentine's Day Graphics are for when you'd rather use someone else's hearts. You'll find free pink hearts, polka dot hearts, heart-covered frames, as well as a pink rose and red lips.
Free Heart Symbols for Adobe Illustrator is a free collection of hearts in red, pink, and even leopard print.
Valentine's Collection of Photoshop Presets includes heart shapes and brush sets as well as pink, lavender, and red layer styles.

Words of Love: Script and Valentine Fonts

Another name of script fonts could be "love letters" because they work so well for Valentines and Wedding Invitations. Write your loving words in flowing script or playful curls with one of these fonts.

Add Elegance or a Personal Touch With These Script Fonts group the fonts into formal, casual, and quirky.
Valentine's Day Fonts are fun fonts with heart decorations, plus a dingbat font of heart and cupid shapes.

Not sure what to write beyond Be My Valentine? Get inspired by these love messages, quotes about love and falling in love compiled at About.com Quotations.

Romantic Project: Card Decorated With Words Shaped by Love

Turn words into chunky or lacy snowflake shapes to use as the main image in a Valentine. This tutorial shows you how to use a variety of fonts and your graphics software to create this fun shapes. One romantic idea for a Valentine's Day card: A secret message.More »

Romantic Project: A Love Letter in the Mailbox

Make your homemade or store-bought Valentine or love letter even sweeter with a loving postmark. Just be sure to mail early (by Feb 4 or earlier) to insure delivery by Valentine's Day.

At the Loveland, CO post office you can get your valentines handstamped with a romantic postmark that includes a quotation. Enclose your stamped and addressed cards or letters in a larger envelope.

Mail to:
Postmaster
Valentine Re-mailing
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538

A cancellation from Valentine, Texas would be so sweet. A Valentine student designed the cancellation mark. Send your stamped and addressed cards or letters in a larger envelope.

Mail to:
Postmaster
Valentine Re-mailing
Valentine, Texas, 79854-9998

Romantic Project: Valentine's Day Scrapbook

Combine your love of digital scrapbooking with Valentine's Day with this digital scrapbooking kit containing digital papers (backgrounds), flowers, brackets, and word art in shades of pink. The Shape of Love Digital Scrapbooking Kit by Sharia Braxton is a free download at About.com Graphics Software.More »

Romantic Project: Bookmarks or Bookplates Made With Love

Use the colors, shapes, and words of love to create personalized bookmarks or bookplates with a Valentine's Day theme. incorporate photos of yourself or that special someone (or the two of you together). A few ideas:

Make a romantic bookmark to accompany a book of poetry.
Create a Valentine's Day-themed dust jacket to wrap around a copy of your favorite book of any kind.
Print up a book of your own poems or a selection of love quotes.

Romantic Project: Miniature Heart-Shaped Boxes

Print and assemble heart-shaped boxes in sizes suitable for doll houses or as favors for Valentine's Day parties or Wedding showers. Fill with your own chocolate as a romantic gift. Tutorial and graphics for the boxes come from About.com Miniatures and Guide Leslie Shepherd.More »