I'm not exactly a Valentine's Day fan - I'm more skull & crossbones than hearts & teddybears. But I am a fan of go big or go home, so please enjoy this ridiculously huge, candy filled homemade Valentine's Day card tutorial.
Skip right to the instructions.
It's hard to pass by a bulk bin filled with the shining foil wrappers of Hershey's Valentine's kisses. They're the only thing grocery store fluorescent lighting can actually make look good. On a whim I shovelled what I thought was about $10 worth (but ended up being $25 worth) of them into my cart and started planning.
I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them. All I knew was that only good could come from $25 worth of kisses. (Unless they're kisses from a scabby, cocaine addicted prostitute. Only bad can come from that.)
A couple of days later, sure enough, I knew their purpose.
A giant, DIY, candy filled Valentine's Day card. Even though I don't like Valentine's Day and frankly had no one to give the card to.
The actual card is two pieces of Dollar store foam core board and some construction paper.
The inside, a great big heart of Hershey's kisses which through the magic of technology (a hot glue gun) can be plucked off the card and eaten.
DIY CANDY VALENTINE'S CARD
Want to make the most ridiculous Valentine's Day card in the world? Here's what you need.
Materials
3 lbs Hershey's Kisses ($25-$30 depending on whether they're on sale)
2 pieces of foam core board
Construction paper (2 sheets of black, 1 sheet of white)
Hot Glue and gun
Instructions
1. Lay Hershey's kisses onto foam core board in the shape of a heart. I chose to let the red fade into the pink at the bottom. Just fool around with it.
2. Once you're happy with the look, lift each kiss up, put a very small dab of hot glue* on the bottom of the foil and stick it back in place on the board. Continue until all the kisses are glued down.
3. Cut a 6" wide strip of white construction paper lengthwise. This will be the spine of your card.
4. Lay your card heart side down with your other piece of foam core 2" to the right of it. If you'd like the back of your card to be black like mine, glue a piece of black construction paper onto the back of the foam core on the left. (the one with the chocolates on the other side of it).
5. Glue your strip of construction paper on both side of the foam core to form your spine. You need the 2" space between the foam core boards to allow room for the candy inside.
6. Decorate the front of your card with anything you want. I chose to cut out a black heart from construction paper.
7. You can also write on the heart with a white marker. Here are a few ideas.
I mean, I'd never use any of those cheesy sayings, but Valentine's Day seems to bring out the cheese. Actually, I wish it would literally bring out the cheese because I for one would applaud any man who showed up at my door with a $75 block of cheese as opposed to a $75 bunch of red roses on Valentine's Day. I would applaud him, grab the cheese, shove him away, then shut the door. Because it's my cheese and I don't feel like sharing.
The total cost of this card is around $30 if you get your chocolates on sale. Which is probably about what you'd spend on a card and a small gift or box of chocolate anyway and THIS one is much more fun. Plus you can make it a custom Valentine. Write anything you want in it or on it.
If you think this is just a little too big, you're wrong. BUT, I'm willing to bend here a little bit so if you'd like to make this card smaller, you could do it half the size with half the amount of chocolates and therefore half the amount of money.
These are two DIY gifts that I think would work really well for Valentine's Day.
DIY Valentine's Gift Ideas
Easy Embroidery Hoop Art.
Instead of using fabric samples in the emboidery hoops, use a favourite tee shirt, or ... and this would be GREAT ... something incredibly thoughtful and sentimental like an article of clothing one of you wore on your first date.
"Antique" Cheese Board
I featured this over Christmas, but again, I really think cheese and Valentine's day should be a thing, lol. This homemade cheese board with a nice hunk of cheese would win anyone's heart.
Is this a completely ridiculous Valentine's Day card? Yes. Yes it is. But Valentine's Day in general is ridiculous and as far as I'm concerned, any man who went to the trouble of making this for me as opposed to buying me overpriced fragrant roses knows the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach, not her nose.
Unless she's a scabby cocaine addict of course.
But for future reference? I'd still prefer the gift of cheese.
New haircut? By the way, you were made to wear dresses!
Thanks Linda. And actually it's a very old haircut. :) I'm getting it recut and bleached to within an inch of its life on Saturday. I love dresses. They're my outfit of choice (casual ones) all summer long. People at the community garden think I'm nuts I'm sure. But they're way easier to throw on and work in than shorts and a tee shirt. ~ karen!
"As for dinner the other night I had a beet and feta cheese salad, duckbreast with duck leg confit with Jerusalem artichokes. Creme brule for dessert."
Yummo!
Yep, workout routine too please. Though I guess that would need to be a separate post. Donnknow! Depends on Robert. :)
I love Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe stories. He starts off telling a story about one thing and then the story becomes about something completely different. Your story started off about a brilliant idea for a huge V'Day card and then morphed into a story/comments about your arms and what you eat. I love it. And your arms and shoulders too.
While hearing what you eat would be interesting, I really want to know about your workout routine!! Please share Karen! Love ya from Virginia!
Definite all around awesomeness!
Yes, you definitely look smashing in that amazing outfit and evidently those photography classes paid off although your gift of composition has always showed and continually astounds me and the project is very fun BUT I WANT YOUR LOVESEAT!!!!!! (My addiction to cane has begun to overwhelm my house. Sigh.)
How much for the cat? <3
I am so totally doing this - but definitely on a smaller scale. Off to buy Hershey kisses. thanks for the idea.
You look MAAAAAHVELOUS!!!!
Yes, I def have a girl crush, and a caned settee crush.
I really thought you were going tor the steel cut oats. That was disappointing.
Love that dress...and such a cute card. BTW, you look wonderful my dear. Show off that back and those arms.
Love the card idea! I'm afraid I would eat most of the kisses before I glued them on.
Combining vintage dresses and ultra cool shoes is fun and looks great on you.
Seriously, your blog is one of my new favorites! Such lovely pictures!
I do have a weird question: What is the giant book you are writing in in the second to last photo?
Oh, lol! That's a gardening journal from Lee Valley. So I can keep a record of what I grew, when I planted it, etc. etc. Welcome to my site! ~ karen
Cool, thanks! My mom is a gardener - I got her the moleskin gardening journal for Christmas and she loves it. Maybe for Christmas next year I can get that for her. She would love it!
Love the dress .. Love the idea .. but unfortunately my DH is diabetic.. So I will have to think up another idea for him..
I used to make birthday and congrats cards this way using different candy bars to spell out my sentiment which was a short wish or whatever since candy bars have names that beg for a story to be told. Everyone, even those that didn't eat chocolate candy loved getting these and their friends got to enjoy the candy IF they carefully opened the end up and left the hot glued bar wrapper in place! It is a fun project for the whole office to do together as the more the merrier in making up a wish using the names of the candy. Just be sure to have a big pot of coffee going so everyone can play along and enjoy - it gets so funny and usually dirty, too. Your valentine post is great but I wonder about the blackheart and maybe it's a nod to your true feelings about it.
Oh I don't like Valentine's Day at all. Never have. But the black heart is because I don't like to do things too typically. A red heart would have been too cliche and cutesy that's all. :) ~ karen!
Great Idea! And I HAVE to have that dress! Details, please!
It's vintage from an antique store I'm afraid. :( ~ karen!
You have the gift. Dollar stores, vintage clothing stores, etc. I walk into one, and there's crickets. Everything on the racks is rubbish and looks like even Grandma got rid of it because it's so horrid. One of these days.....
Twenty-somethingth on the 'how good you look in that dress' comments. Although I will not be making this card the OCD element of gluing down all those kisses appeals to me.
Hey Karen, where's the black eye you mentioned in your "behind the scenes" newsletter? You said you gave it to yourself from using an automatic cleansing brush and I'm dying to see what that looks like. Because it means that you're clumsier than me. ;) (Sign up, you guys, for fun, EXTRA info!)
I tried to get a picture of it, but because of the lighting in my bathroom it wasn't showing up great. The actual black eye ran from around the inside corner of my eye to the middle so in photos it just looked like a shadow. I'll see if I can fool around with the contrasts in photoshop to make it show up. ~ karen!
I read this post about 1:30 this morning, but I was too comfy to sit up and smartphone a comment. The composition of that first image is verra cool. Verra, verra. Love the dress. Love the shoes. Love your big black valentine heart.
Don't think I didn't notice those Cubit's seed packets in the final shot. I did order those beets. And the leeks. And some carrots. And... :-D
Gorgeous dress and shoes not to mention the wearer
Aw. Thank you Michelle. Betty bought me the shoes. She buys all my shoes, lol. Watched the show last night and loved it! (Michelle is a director on Masterchef Canada!) ~ karen