tutorial {easy digital valentines}

for several weeks, i'd had an idea floating around my head...i wanted to do some sort of super cute valentine photo shoot with coleman and turn those adorable shots into the most amazing digital valentine ever. well...that didn't happen. so i improvised.

i wasn't even planning on buying coleman a "valentine's day shirt" because it's such a girly holiday. however, i found the best shirt at target. it said "cupid is my homeboy". how flippin' cute! anyway, i digress.

on this day of creative goodness, i put the shirt on coleman and did a mini photo shoot. i got a few acceptable shots so i let the little munchkin off the hook. i created a very quick and simple digital design in PSE7.

my canvas was 4" wide by 3" tall. i began with a basic red striped background. then added my photo with a frame. in the left corner is a heart/love embellishment and then i just typed a quick note at the bottom. not very impressive, but i was short on time. here is the digital file:

i printed six to a page (on hp presentation paper)

i cut each one out leaving a thin white border, then matted with black cardstock.

i got lucky and happened to find some envelopes that fit. TIP: choose an envelope FIRST and then create your valentine based on the size! I just got lucky.

i needed 24 pencils for spencer's class and had a pack of 30. that means there were 6 remaining - the exact number of kids at daycare. see where my mind went??? i added decorative circles to the pencils (you see more information on these in my text tutorial for cupcakes).

i also used the decorative circles as "seals" on the envelopes, and then taped the pencil to each one.

Not super exciting and certainly not even close to the fantastic ideas in my head, but i was pleased to have done something personal. spencer has always done boring, store-bought valentines (which is fine). now that i have {minimal} digital skills that i lacked when he was younger, i hope to be able to do something cuter for coleman each year (until he tells me to stop!).