Ideas and tips for making do-it-yourself Valentine's Day greeting cards that also love the environment
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousHere we go again. Valentine's day, by far one of the most loved (or hated, it depends on the points of view and the satisfaction of one's love life) is now imminent. Just to recall an emblematic case: in her famous Diary, our darling Bridget Jones records all the phases of her spasmodic waiting for a ticket greeting.
A wait made up of very frequent exits on the landing of the house to make sure that there is not a postman or an envelope peeking out somewhere. Having to realize most of the time that yes, there are some letters, but they are addressed to the young and pretty neighbor, the classic girl next door, practically perfect and, for this very reason, a little hateful. In short, for Bridget to receive one greeting card for Valentine's Day, perhaps with a few cheesy phrases inside, it really is a vitally important business. The long wait makes her very nervous and in a bad mood. In the end, however, when her much-coveted note arrives, he doesn't open it - ironically ... - of her, thinking it wasn't meant for her.
Beyond the romantic dreams of all the Bridget Joneses in the world, Valentine's Day is definitely a holiday characterized by greeting cards: every year about a billion are traded, with a particular concentration in Anglo-Saxon countries, where the tradition is stronger, more common and more felt. On balance, it comes down to a real business, which also has a rather large cost in terms of environmental resources. Just think about the amount of paper that is used and, too often, wasted for the occasion. Precisely for this reason, here is a small suggestion for all lovers: because this year, in addition to dedicating little hearts and sweet words to our him or her, we do not also a nice gift to the environment by focusing on recycling and on reuse? It is not too complicated and it is also much cheaper.
As we have seen on the occasion of Christmas, there are numerous possibilities to make gods DIY greeting cards: just set your imagination in motion and, if you want to create more elaborate works, arm yourself with a good dose of patience. As we will see, to meet the less skilled or creative among us many sites and blogs also offer very useful and very detailed tutorials: in short, anyone can succeed in the enterprise.
An always valid idea is the resort to patchwork, perhaps recovering old fabrics, tulle and ribbons from the bottom of our drawers or wardrobes, to be cut and matched according to our tastes or those of the recipient or recipient. Alternatively, a personalized collage with paper clippings. All taking a nice one as a basis cardboard in recycled paper or anyway FSC certified.
To decorate our card, we could take advantage of the used wrapping paper we have at home or packs of chocolate bars, some candies or any colored or decorated casing that happens to us. Just cut it out in the shapes we prefer and that we believe are best suited to convey our emotions and feelings, and then compose our personal collage. Being Valentine's Day, for sure hearts will abound, but nobody forbids us to be more original!
If you good with needle and thread and what is missing is only the right idea, you can take a look at the templates and tutorials offered by the blogs The Long Thread e The Purl Bee: greeting cards decorated by sewing scraps of colored paper recovered from packaging and scraps on a cardboard that each of us has at home, with truly graceful and original results.
If, on the other hand, you want to try your hand at something a little more articulated and complex, you can take inspiration from Seeds of love ("Seeds of love"): a small flowerpot made with paper, glue and scissors, to give your him or her the seeds of his favorite flower and plant. A perfect gift if the recipient is a flower lover or a gardening enthusiast.
In short, it is possible that more elaborate and more refined tickets are on sale in stationeries than you will be able to achieve, but you want to give the satisfaction of being able to tell your him or her "I did it with my hands for you“? It is much more romantic.
If you really can't make a nice DIY card, you can always run for cover by choosing to buy an eco-friendly greeting card, on the model of those themes proposed by Earth Greetings and the simpler and more generic ones packaged by Poopoopaper.
And if you don't like do-it-yourself and you also want to save on costs, keep in mind that on specialized sites such as Auguri.com or Cartoline.net you can send a digital card to your sweetheart completely free of charge, with a simple click.
Lisa Vagnozzi
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