Last Minute Valentine Idea

OK, so this is only last minute if you have a Silhouette or similar cutting machine and some card stock on hand.  You’ll also need some glue or I used glue dots which made the process so fast!  I also used washi tape on the envelope.

First, I can’t take credit for this adorable idea as this cute Valentine glasses printable comes from the geniuses over at Mr Printables (mrprintables.com).  The first time I saw this I knew immediately I had to do this for PSP’s Valentine party.  (Lamp’s school doesn’t do holiday parties. Boo!) 

I’m still a Silhouette novice, but any problems I have come across have been easily fixed with a google search or two. So first, go to mrprintable.com and download the heart glasses template and the envelope template.  You must convert the file into a jpeg to work with it in Silhouette. Then simply use the trace tool to create a cut file. I found I was able to get 3 glasses per page.  Barely.  (I’m not going to go into all the details of how to trace an image–there are a lot of tutorials for learning if you don’t already know–and I didn’t before this week!  However, when tracing an image like this–a line drawing essential–you may have the problem of your Silhouette cutting a double line around everything.  This is annoying and will be a huge waste of time for your cutting machine. This was by far the best tutorial I found for learning how to eliminate the double line issue–but it’s at the end of the video FYI.)

Now it’s just a matter of cutting and gluing. Once your silhouette has run the image through take the glasses off and attach the sides.  I was going to use Elmers glue, then I realized these sticky dots were perfect!  The process went really fast.  I was going to have PSP come help me, but she was sick and before I knew it I was done.

For the envelope I didn’t want to use up a lot of card stock on these, so I decided to just use regular printing paper and I think they look great! Again, download the file, convert to jpeg and then open in Silhouette and trace. However I thought it would be cute to have a clever little message on the front. So I simply ran a couple of sheets of plain paper through the Silhouette to cut the envelope, then I approximated where I would need to write that message on my printer paper.  Then I wrote the message, printed it out and then ran that paper through the Silhouette.  It took me a couple of times to adjust both the printer and even the trace image on the Silhouette, but I got it right.

Once I took the envelope off I folded the paper and fastened it with a piece of washi tape on the back to make it quick and for a little pop of color.

Done and done!

I love these.  Original, cute, clever and sugar free. If you’re a crafter than you probably already have a lot of supplies on hand, so basically free too. And I know the silhouette is a big part of being able to make these for an entire class, but if you don’t have one ask around and make them with a friend.  You might be surprised how many people have one. I hope this helps someone out there.

Yay for technology and cute crafts!

By the way, it’s good to be back.