Hey, remember Valentine’s Day?
It was this holiday, like, a week ago? I’m pretty sure it made 75% of America feel terrible?
I was one of the lucky few that really enjoyed her Tuesday. Not to brag, but I probably ate more chocolate in 24 hours than most of you eat in a month. I’ve just got it like that.
Anyway, Boyfriend was not one of the lucky ones. Since I wasn’t sure we’d even be celebrating, I waited until the last minute (i.e. after I’d received a present on Valentine’s Day itself) to get him something. The good news is that I already had a gift in mind, something I had seen on Pinterest. It looked cute and easy and like there was potential to futz around on PowerPoint. Hooray!
I had a lot of fun making this gift and took pictures along the way. Please note that if you want to make one yourself and need specific guidelines to do so, other bloggers have done a much better job than I have. I think Papervine’s finished product is especially lovely, and she gives all the details here.
Papervine’s Mini Love Book
So here we go with my version of this idea:
Deck of Love Tutorial
1. Get a deck of cards (duh). I found these adorkable ones at a thrift store. I think of them as a celebration of the fact that Boyfriend and I are incredibly nerdy.
You could also use standard playing cards. Maybe you already have one spare set lying around your house (or twelve, if you’ve got some sort of problem).
2. Punch holes in your cards. I failed to use a ruler and just eyeballed the first one with my hand punch. Even though I used each card as a model for the next, the spacing was pretty inconsistent. In other words, don’t be as lazy as I am.
I put my punched cards onto binder rings. You can imagine the satisfaction when I snapped those babies closed.
Side note: punching holes takes a lot of time. And energy. And wrist strength. I’d imagined that I could finish this project in about two hours, which now seems laughable as I spent at least that much time punching holes. The good news is that you can do it anywhere, including play rehearsal or sitting on the front stoop on a sunny day. Stoopin’ with paper crafts.
Having one of these on hand will both skyrocket the cute factor and decimate productivity.
3. Make labels and glue them onto the cards.
Again, this part took longer than I thought it would. Sometimes I think the entirety of my adult existence centers on my need to realize that everything takes longer than I estimate. Including this blog post. Augh.
So I made labels in PowerPoint. This time I used a ruler, but I still had to adjust it a few times. I chose the font and the color to reflect The Science Fiction Book Club theme, not the usual red and black business. Then I cut out the squares and glued them on with a glue stick. For one blissful hour I felt like a kindergartener again.
4. Clip those binder rings closed!
All done. I think my favorite part was brainstorming the fifty-two things I love about Boyfriend. Happily, my attempts at humor did not go unnoticed, and even though he got it almost a week late I think he liked it. (Of course I gave it to him at the end of the day, when his alternatives were express delight or sleep alone.)
One last thing: while brainstorming my reasons for love, I felt awash with warm and fuzzies. This leads me to believe that ruminating on the virtues of our loved ones, no matter what the occasion, is a great way to rejuvenate gratitude, a practice so healthy it might even compensate for all the chocolate.
