Using Craft Powers for Good

Just to show you that I'm not a complete cynic when it comes to Valentine's Day, here's some photos of my craft efforts to make a Valentine's Day card for Mark.

One of my recent discoveries is a radial blade. I'm learning how to use it properly, but one of the things it's good for is making straight cuts in the middle of a piece of paper. I used that quality to cut out a picture of a banner from when Mark and I got "married."


I used an empty (sadly) chocolate box as the base for the "card." I envisioned one of those pop-up types of cards that uses 3-D effects. My vision was that the banner would hang just inside a garden gate. I used a different picture from our "wedding" for the gate.


I made two paper columns to hold up the front. Paper has a lot of tensile strength, and when it is folded, that strength can be used to make the paper accept a light compressive force (see what happens when you live with architects for four and a half years?).



The banner was a little too big, I think; next time I'd scale it down. But I did like the effect of seeing the "yard" through the gate.

The best part about this is the whole thing folds down to fit inside the chocolate box. When it's opened, the scent of chocolate ghosts through the room. As my friend Cathy Fylling would say, "La; love; true love; ha ha!"