Forget the chocolate, never mind the shiny baubles, and lose the roses – which is not say that I don’t like giving and receiving those things. When Valentine’s Day approaches, my thoughts turn to paper and what can be done with it to make greeting cards that will express the warmth of my sentiments toward beloved people in my life.

Since I always have card stock with matching envelopes in my stash of craft stuff, it’s easy to whip up a few cards when the spirit moves me – usually the first week in February.

I don’t have any specific way of making cards and no hard and fast how-tos. The ideas I employ usually evolve from the materials at hand, the amount of time I have available and the number of cards I want to make. I do, however, adhere to one particular mode of operation. I assemble all my materials – card stock, bits of pretty paper, snippets of satin, lace or velvet, magazines, rubber stamps, glue sticks, buttons, or anything else that might tickle my fancy – and keep them within easy reach.

I cover my work area with newspapers or paper towels and keep a damp cloth handy for wiping errant glue off my fingers.

The card-making methods I prefer are stamping and sticking.

Over the years I have collected a dozen or so heart rubber stamps, some big, some small, that I use separately or in concert to create the look I want. One stamp used repeatedly on the front of the card leaves spaces that can be filled with a splash of watercolor paint, a dust of glitter or even a dab of glitter glue.

Special scissors that produce fluted and scalloped edges, and paper punches come in handy, too. They give cards a pretty, lacy touch.

Sometimes I compose a greeting of my own to write on the cards. Or I cut words from magazines to formulate a greeting that might wander from the front of the card to the inside. I use a glue stick to tack the borrowed words to the card.

A glue stick also is great for sticking down hearts cut from art or craft paper. It’s fun to figure out how to arrange a fan of hearts on the front of a card.

I like to stamp a heart on the flap of each card envelope, too, or beside the name of the person it is addressed to.

If I don’t have time to be all that crafty, I make cards using photographs I have taken. I glue those to card stock with self-sticking photo corners or the all-purpose glue stick. I keep an album of photographs I have taken for this purpose. From the album I can choose from a range of subjects, including portraits of flowers, antique cars, the beach, flowering trees, boats, lakes, rivers and my backyard when the gardens are in bloom. Sometimes I photocopy a vintage family photograph. I embellish it with colored pencils or bits of pretty paper. In these cards I write a simple greeting that might be warm, humorous or both.

A simple way for children to make Valentine’s cards is to provide them postcards from the post office – they come with the postage prepaid – and let them stamp images or draw pictures. Grammies and grampas love to find these in the mailbox. Postcards are easy to affix to the refrigerator with magnets, a reminder every time they reach for the orange juice that love and pride are the glue that holds families together all year round, not just on Feb. 14.

Those who sew might want to make a fabric postcard to send through the mail to a best beloved. Visit www.art2mailcom or www.squidoo.com/fabricpostcards to learn how.

Snippets

The Machias Historical Society is seeking crafters and artisans to take part in the fourth annual Margaretta Day Festival planned for Saturday, June 21, on the mall at the University of Maine at Machias. To request a craft fair participation application, e-mail machiashistoricalsociety@hotmail.com, call 255-4223 or write: Machias Historical Society, P.O. Box 704, Machias ME 04654.

At www.knittersreview.com visitors will find a wealth of articles and information about all aspects of knitting. Click on “How-tos,” scroll down to “Lace” and click on “Free one-skein shawl pattern.”

ahamlin@bangordailynews.net

990-8153