This is a guest post from ACE Youth Advisory Board Member Daniela. 

Hey, there! It’s Daniela, from the ACE Youth Advisory Board.

So, the other day, I was browsing the endless array of Valentine’s Day cards at my local supermarket – the red-pink-sparkly-funny-cute-embellished-crazy mix of alllll kinds of sentiments. You can buy anything from a serious card for your husband to an Elmo card for your niece – and some of them are actually really clever! (Why Valentine’s Day now means giving a gift to everyone and their mother is a story for another day).

As I weighed several options, I had to stop and put them down – even though I could connect with the funny sentiment of “Stalker? I prefer Valentine,” I felt like any card I bought wouldn’t carry too much meaning because someone else wrote the words.

If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, I came up with a project to save the day – it’s super easy, super cheap, super cute, and green, too… drum roll, please… collage your own valentine. Keep reading to learn how.

Materials: a cereal or other thin cardboard box; some magazines, left over gift wrap, or other pretty scraps of paper for embellishment; glue; scissors; pencil & Sharpie; (optional) Mod-Podge & brush*

*Mod-Podge can be found at any art store; it’s basically a form of glue/varnish that you can brush over paper projects to seal it up. Learn how to make homemade Mod-Podge, but take note that it’s less long-lasting.

How to do it:

1. Take your cereal box, cut it apart to lay it flat & draw a heart on one side. I drew my heart on the outside of the box, so I could collage on the plain brown side inside. I kind of like the letter-pattern that will be on the back of my heart, too – play with the designs on the box! Cut out your heart.

2. Go through your magazines & paper scraps and start tearing out pages for background ideas and cut out words to construct a message for your recipient. Be creative! I used gift wrap as a red background & cut out words from about 5 different magazines for my valentine. If you can’t find the exact word you want, cut out cool letters and put it together yourself! You can tear out a bunch of things, figure out what you want to use when inspiration strikes, and save the rest of the clippings in an envelope for future art projects.

3. Lay it out on your heart! Feel free to layer pictures with words and imagine if you’d like to draw anything, add glitter, etc. When you’re ready, glue it all on with a glue stick.

4. If you like, brush Mod-podge over your piece – it will make sure that no edges stick up or embellishments come off. Some Mod-podge has glitter or a shiny finish, too. It will look white and weird at first, but it dries clear and smooth and beautiful!

5. Ta-da! You’re done, or just beginning – you can decorate the back, add doodles, or attach a ribbon to the back so that your recipient can hang it up. Other ideas: add a strip of magnetic tape, put it in an envelope, put it in a frame, use puffy paint or glitter paint… the sky’s the limit!

This project can really be modified for anything – cut out different shapes, do it for birthday cards, just for fun, for friends, send it as a secret admirer… 😉 Your valentine is sure to love it and to appreciate that you’re using recycled materials to make something way more special than a Hallmark card.

Ahem, and it’s perfect for procrastinators.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Keep it green! 🙂