Folk Valentine Cards

Yesterday when I was looking at the blog I realized the Valentine I made for my mom perhaps bore more resemblance to sperm and egg than a lotus flower.  At first I was horrified but then I had a good belly laugh.  Though not entirely inappropriate for Valentine's day, a sperm and egg card is not what one wants to send one's mother.   To redeem myself I decided to try again.    

I started making these cards with the intent to cut them out of paper.  I was spurred on by a last minute purchase from Michael's dollar bin of some irresistibly cute, circular scalloped-edge cards (must stay away from the dollar bin!).  I also thought it might be nice to plan out my design instead of just free-forming it like I did on my mom's card (look where that got me!).

As it turns out the cards were only 3.5'' tall which made the shapes so tiny that it was very hard to cut the curves on all of those hearts.  I could hardly move my hand afterward and I wasn't loving the choppy results (I wanted to say it was "jacked up" but wasn't sure if it was appropriate...decided it's OK inside parentheses).  In the end I decided I shouldn't quit my day job to become a full-time paper cutter.

Paper cut version