According to www.timeanddate.com, more than 25 million Valentine’s cards are sent in the UK alone each year. You could save money and have a more eco friendly Valentine’s Day by creating a beautiful handmade card your partner will want to keep, using recycled/repurposed materials. This post will show you how to do that using materials available in the Crow Recycling Scrapstore.

First, gather your materials. Here we used a blank card, an envelope, a sheet of patterned paper (all priced at 10 pence each), buttons (£1 for a bag of 50)  and a reel of  cotton thread (20 pence). If you prefer, you could use all purpose adhesive or a hot glue gun in place of the cotton thread. You will also need a sewing needle (if you are using thread), a glue stick and scissors.

The first step is to cut out a heart shape from the patterened paper. If you are not confident to do this freehand you could first create a template from some scrap paper, and draw around it on the patterned paper in order to give yourself a guide.

Next, glue your heart shape onto the card blank. We used a glue stick, but all purpose adhesive or double sided sticky tape would work just as well, depending on what you have to hand.

Now you are going to attach buttons to outline the heart shape. You can do this one of two ways; either using the needle and thread method shown here, or by using a hot glue gun/all purpose adhesive if you find that easier. It is a good idea to experiment with arranging the buttons around the outline of the heart before you commit to sticking them down, so you can see how the finished card will look.

Finally, personalise the card by writing a message to your loved one inside. If you are planning to deliver the card by hand rather than post, you could decorate the envelope by using another button in place of a stamp.

We hope you enjoy having a go at this Valentines card craft. We love to see what the Scrapstore members make with our supplies, so feel free to send photos to us on social media! You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/crowrecycle

The Crow Recycling Scrapstore is open from 9.30am til 3.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9.30am til 12.30pm Fridays. Prices are for members only; there is a £10 annual membership fee.