Beary Special Valentines

I decided to make heart shaped faceted boxes for my valentines this year. 

These multi-sided, self closing faceted boxes have always intrigued me. I was happy to find a freebie template created by Petrina Burman and shared on her blog, The Walking Mombie. The original template for this box fits on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock, but since I wanted my box to be larger (to fit more candies!)  I enlarged it to fit onto a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock.

The cute paper pieced valentine panda is from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Panda Love" . The really nice thing about the paper piecings from Marjorie Ann Designs is that she includes a blackout silhouette piece with her files which makes it so much easier when it comes to assembling all the tiny pieces together. Also included are clipart, making it possible to do an even easier print and  cut. For my pandas, I decided I didn't want to have to struggle with cutting and piecing panda's mouth together so I printed his mouth and had the Silhouette simply cut his muzzle. I used digital paper from Jazzy Pattern's "Romantic Adventure" to fill the faceted panel pieces and cut them on the Silhouette. Put together a dozen of these panda valentines and filled them with chocolates for sharing with special friends.

Only had time to make one Valentines Card this year...and guess who it was for! Been seeing a lot of Bridge Fold or U - Fold cards on the web recently so I decided to give one a try for our granddaughter's First Valentines Day card.

I love that this just may be the easiest pop up type card I've ever made. It's sort of like a simple gatefold card with a strip of cardstock running from one end to the other and with a strut (similar to those pop up box cards) running behind it. There are also many fancier versions that have an extra flap to create a countertop in the center, but I wanted to keep this card as simple as possible.

Cupid Bear and X-O-X-O border paper piecing file comes from Cuddly Cute Designs, "Cupid Bears".

Here's a shot from the top where you can see the strut on the inside to which cupid bear was attached with a strip of clear acetate, so it would look like he was flying.

I added our sentiment to the backside, and this card easily folds down to the left or right side to slide into an A6 size envelope.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Valentines Day... don't forget to tell those who are close to your heart how special they are!