Introduction: Valentine's Surprise From Junk & Scraps

About: Self-employed YouTuber, creator and maker working from studio at home. Running craft workshops and making instructional videos for YouTube. Also manufacturer of craft tools and templates.

Did this as a bit of fun for Valentine's day coming up soon. The brief I gave myself was to create something from my recycling bin which includes food packaging and scrap craft card. I don't throw much away because food boxes are always good for crafts. I have a ton of expensive card scraps left over from the days when I used to go and buy nice shiny, glittery card stock, so I used a bit of that too. I have loads of 'skeleton' cards where I have punched out shapes. The left over bits always come in handy for something - no matter how small.

Step 1: What I Used

  • Card from food packaging
  • Left over shiny metallic gold card stock
  • Left over shiny metallic red card stock
  • Tacky white glue
  • A large tag punch
  • A Small heart punch
  • A tiny heart punch
  • A gold split ring
  • Euro punch or Crop-A-Dile hole punch (not shown in pic)

Not in picture

  • Something to attach the split ring to - I used an ear ring wire
  • An embellishment for the heart - I used a tiny red gem.
  • A gold dye ink pad or gold acrylic paint and brush.
  • A personal message to punch out with the large tag punch. I did mine on my Mac sized to fit my large punch.
  • Some romantic music to listen to while you work - I lasted 3 minutes with mine before I stomped on the CD and put Metallica on :-)

Step 2: Cut Your Shapes

  • First take your card from the food packaging and punch out six large tag shapes (by large, I mean around 3 inches high but of course you can use whatever punch you have - no one is going to come round and check).
  • Next cut two shiny gold metallic large tags for the front and back of the Valentine's Guess Who
  • Then cut six small hearts and four tiny hearts from the food packaging card.
  • Finally, cut one small heart from the shiny red metallic card and one tiny heart from the shiny metallic gold card.

Step 3: Assemble the Pieces

  • First take your six large tags, spread a thin layer of tacky white glue on one side of each and stack them together neatly. Press together hard to get a good bond but make sure they do not slide apart and become uneven in the way they fit. If they do, line them all up neatly again before they dry.
  • Next, take the six small hearts and stick them evenly together.
  • Then take the four tiny hearts and stick them evenly together.

Let them all dry. I let mine dry overnight to be sure but a few hours is probably fine. Once they are fully dry, they will feel like pieces of light wood - rigid and not easily bent.

Step 4: Color the Edges

  • Take a gold dye ink pad and use to color all the edges of the 'wooden' tags and hearts. I must confess though I gave up on my ink pad as I had got too much white glue on the edges and the dye resisted it. So I used gold acrylic paint.
  • Take the shiny gold metallic tags and make sure you get rid of the white edges by wiping them carefully across the gold ink pad. You don't have to do this but I think it looks nicer when it is finished.

Step 5: Putting the Final Pieces Together

  • Either hand draw a personal message the right size to cut with the large tag punch or make one on the computer. Punch it out.
  • Use the white tacky glue to stick the message to the 'wooden' tag you made. Be careful to line it all up perfectly while still wet and moveable.
  • Take the shiny gold metallic tag and stick to the back of the 'wooden' tag - once again lining up the edges perfectly.
  • Take the small heart and stick the shiny red metallic heart on it in perfect alignment.
  • Ditto the tiny heart and the shiny gold metallic heart.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

  • Stick the tiny heart onto the small heart and stick it to the front of the tag.
  • If you have any embellishments to hand, stick a small jewel to the gold heart.
  • Using a Crop-A-Dile tool or a Euro Punch tool (anything that will make a small neat hole) punch a small hole in the top of the tag.
  • Use some wire (I used an odd ear ring wire that I had laying around - I bent it back on itself and twisted it around) or a large jump ring to put through the hole and then attach a gold split ring. You can then put some ribbon through if you want to and your beloved can hang your masterpiece up to reflect the light.
  • Finally, send your Guess Who to the person of your dreams.

Have fun on Valentine's Day!

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