Valentine Countdown Pouches

Those Papertrey Background Basics stamp sets, gotta love 'em! Nichole has created a Background Basics: Hearts stamp set just in time for all those lovey dovey Valentine projects. They're the perfect accent stamps for projects like I'm showing you today.


I started my project by punching out small and large hearts. The smaller hearts are punched from the new Simple Valentine patterned paper coming out this month, along with a few hearts from old sheet music. The larger hearts were punched from Stamper's Select White and were then stamped with various heart images from Background Basics: Hearts. All of the hearts were accented with Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Cream twine. (I know you all love my little fluted heart tins...I picked these up at an antique store). After punching and embellishing all of the hearts, I created these adorably cute envelope pouches. Do you remember the days of making Valentine mailboxes out of two paper plates in grade school? The idea is the same here. These little envelope pouches will hold Valentine goodies all during the month of February. I'm planning a little Valentine countdown for the girls. They'll love it!!

Here's what I did: For the outside of the envelopes (A2 Kraft), I lined up 4 of my heart doo-dad embellishments on top of a strip of Raspberry Fizz Twill Ribbon. I just used glue dots, you could also use pop dots.

For the tops of my envelopes, I lined them with Simple Valentine patterned paper and just trimmed around the envelope flaps. I used a corner rounder to round both corners of the envelope flaps. I also added name tags using a white cardstock circle, letter stamps, white brads, heart sequins and Raspberry Fizz Luxe Satin ribbon. I stitched around the envelop pouch portion using my sewing machine and white thread, just to add a little extra stability. All the Kraft edges were inked with Fresh Snow ink.

We also made some paper embellishments using punches and hand cut hearts. The base cardstock is Kraft. The next layer up is white cardstock stamped with more images from the Background Basics: Hearts stamp set. The final top layer is more patterned paper. You'll notice some brown magnets in the photo below....stay tuned.

Each day during our Valentine countdown, I'm planning on adding something fun to the Valentine pouches, inviting the girls to do the same. It can be a love note, Josey loves to find quotes on her Ipod....candies, suckers........or like I've done below, some bookmarks.

I used large pre-made tags to create a simple bookmark. The bottom is Simple Valentine patterned paper and the top portion of the bookmark is stamped with the fun script image from Background Basics: Hearts. I just that there is a script background with this new set. The square scallop punch has a cute cupcake image and sentiment from the Tiny Treats: Valentine stamp set.

I cut extras of the supplies so that the girls could each have a bookmark kit of their own to embellish. With just a few extra supplies, the girls can have a fun little stamping session. I tucked all the kit contents into medium glassine sacks. You can see how easily the kits will tuck into the envelope pouches.

Now here's the best part (and sorry for the not so hot photos, it was getting too dark). I purchased this large magnetic board at my local scrapbook store recently. It looks like a giant sheet of brown, scalloped patterned paper (sorry I don't have the source). I'm going to use this as *Valentine Central* during the month of February. It has really strong magnets...those ones you saw with our homemade doo-dads earlier.......so I can easily attach the envelope pouches to the magnet board. The girls can rearrange all the goodies as they please each day (girls love that kind of stuff). I might leave it out on the little easel.........

Or perhaps I'll hang it on the wall, who knows. It's going to be soooooo much fun. I'll be sure to show you more of the goodies I plan to insert into the Valentine Pouches. I'm hoping the girls like them so much they become a yearly tradition!

Hope you're enjoying this holiday season! Valentine's Day will be right around the corner so be sure to plan some ahead for some fun festivities for your little sweeties. Papertrey has everything you need for that one stop Valentine's shopping!