Instead of spending R40+ on a card that will lie at the bottom of the drawer for a year before getting chucked out, why not make your own, personalised Valentine’s Day card this year? Not only will you be giving your loved one a one-of-a-kind card, but you will also be reducing your impact on the Earth.
What you will need:
- Spray glue or stick glue
- A magazine
- A pencil
- An old mailing envelope (large size)
- Scissors or a blade cutter
- A cutting mat
Step 1:
Choose a theme. Browse through the magazine and carefully tear out the pages you are going to use. It could be a photo shoot of children in nature, colourful looking food or the celebrity gossip pages of a magazine – whatever suites your style.
You will need glue, a magazine, a pencil, an old envelope, scissors and a cutting mat for your Valentine’s Day card
Step 2:
Trim the envelope to the size of the magazine with the cutter or scissors. Take a ruler and measure the length and the breadth of the magazine pages and use a light pencil to draw a line where you will need to cut the envelope to make sure the line is straight.
Choose a theme for your card
Step 3:
Glue the pages of the magazine onto the envelope. Although spray glue will ensure there aren’t any glue bubbles on the page, this type of glue is harmful to the environment so try to use a glue stick instead. If you’ve been meaning to get a new glue stick, consider EcoGlue for an even greener solution.
Valley fold the inner panel of the sheets
Step 4:
Trim the size of the card (Valentine’s Day cards are usually 6” x 8”). You can do this by measuring the sizes on a ruler and drawing a fine line with a pencil and then cutting along these lines. You will now have two sheets – you will be using one of the sheets to create the pop-up inner sheet and the other sheet will be used as the outside sheet of the card.
Draw two concentric hearts in the middle of the sheet (leaving a 1cm gap between the hearts)
Step 5:
Valley fold the inner panel of the sheets (fold the sheets in half) and draw a two concentric hearts in the middle of the page (so that the fold of the sheet runs exactly down the middle of the heart). Cut out the hearts, leaving 1cm space at these points.
When cutting the hearts, leave a small section on the side of the outer heart uncut
Pull the heart from the page so that it pops out when the card is opened
Save paper by creating your own envelope
Use an old brown paper bag to make an envelope for your recycled Valentine’s Day card by following these steps:
- Take an old paper bag and cut it into an A4 size. Put the paper in front of you so that the paper is landscaped (horizontal).
- Take the bottom two corners of the paper and fold it upwards until it touches the top part of the page and press down onto the crease fold.
- Unfold the page so that the entire sheet is flat and take the bottom right-hand corner up, but only fold it up until the middle crease of the paper.
- Take the top corner and bring it down to the crease (so that you have a triangle on the right hand side of the page).
- Take the left side of the page and fold it at the bottom part of the triangle.
- Glue the sides of the envelope together so that your Valentine’s card an be placed inside.
The liveeco team
