Button Card Valentines

On the eve of the 14th this year, I was sitting under the halo of my brass desk lamp assembling these little cards. Nothing seems to beat pink scraps of paper come mid-February, except maybe boxes full of milk chocolate. Earlier in the winter I was working on some sewing illustrations for one of the magazines at work, and I got to thinking how perfectly suited old button cards are for those quintessentially tiny valentines that children hand out in grade school. I spent January thinking about this idea, and the opening weeks of February getting to work in Illustrator. The finished cards have a pastel palette, some dimension courtesy of pop dots, and an assortment of trite sayings like "Beau Buttons: Handsome and steadfast" and "Arrow Brand: Cupid's preferred button." Lastly, they're designed to pair with #1 envelopes from Paper Source in Blossom and Papaya.

To make them yourself, download the .pdf by clicking here. To assemble as shown above, cut out cards on page one. Then punch out buttons on page three using 1" and 5/8" circle punches. Adhere buttons to cards where indicated with 1/4" pop dots. I've also included blank button cards, in case you'd like to attach your own buttons or use them in your scrapbooking projects.