The day has arrived. My valentines are in my shop and ready to go out into the world!
If you’d like a bit of the background story on the cards I’ve put out, snuggle up and I’ll share…It all started on a car ride to Trader Joe’s. I can’t remember what possessed me to start googling pick up lines as Bobby drove us to our Sunday shopping trip – I guess the valentine muse was simply with me. I started giggling uncontrollably as I read some of the ridiculous pick up lines aloud to Bobby. Most of them were awful but some of them were pure gold (I mean, as “pure gold” as you can get with a pick up line). I had visions of them being typed up on cards and being sent across the country for Valentine’s Day. As soon as we got home and groceries were put away, I sat down at my typewriter.
Yep, I’m at the top of my game these days for pick up lines.
I sat on the floor, pouring over the stack of catalogs I’ve saved over the past couple years and started cutting out pictures of every sexy looking male I could find. I KNEW those J.Crew catalogs were going to come in handy at some point and the day had finally arrived.
The desk of my studio became dotted with thank you notes, watercolors, and magazine cut outs. When an idea comes to me and I get super excited about it, sometimes I think it’s worth it to jump train tracks for a bit, even in the midst of other projects.
Recognizing that women can spout off pick up lines, too, I sprinkled in a few sultry looking ladies.
These cards were clearly a multi-step process including finding the correctly-sized images, pairing them with the right pick up lines and typing them on cards, gluing the images to the cards, and finally finishing each piece with a fun, watercolor patterned background. As I saw them coming together, I was hooked.
I am giddy over the way these turned out.
Whenever I create a new card or product for my shop, I try to envision the scene of someone heading to their mailbox and finding the particular card waiting for them. My aim is always joy and delight. Something that has the potential to make the recipient laugh. I really think these valentines fit that bill.
If you don’t want to send your sweet little grandma a pickup line card, HAVE NO FEAR. I also created packs of valentines using time cards!
For Christmas, my mom gifted me a big pack of time cards that she found at the thrift store – she figured they could somehow be turned into unique and fun treasures. (Thanks for always looking out for me, Mom!). After some brainstorming, I decided they could be re-purposed into Valentine’s stationary.
It’s just my opinion, but I’m pretty sure these timecards are more excited to be used for love notes than for punching people in and out of the job…
I’ve loved Valentine’s Day for a long time – even when I was single and had no romantic prospects in sight – because I love having a designated day to send out bright mail full of hearts and funny sayings to the important people in my life. A chance to send out valentines that shout: “HEY YOU! I LOVE YOU, I REALLY REALLY LOVE YOU! THANKS FOR BEING IN MY LIFE!” I hope you’ll join me and do the same for your people. Friends, lovers, parents, siblings, co-workers, your dog sitter, the friendly librarian – they ALL deserve valentines in my opinion. (Whether they’re my valentines or not! Just send something!).
Valentine’s Day isn’t the only approaching holiday – Mardi Gras is coming, too! Seeing as it’s Carnival season, I’d be remiss to not offer something for those of us who love New Orleans. (Thanks to my spirited and creative friend, Alisa, for suggesting that I create some listings to fit the Mardi Gras bill…)
I made some envelopes full of Mardi Gras colors!
And some postcards!
And a card about crawfish!
Something for everyone.
If you’d like to see the fruits of my labor over these past couple months and the entirety of my love-filled line for this season, you can hop over to my shop. Thanks, as always, for supporting these stationary-filled dreams of mine!