When you’ve had enough of Spiderman Valentine cards, here’s what you do...

Peter Rukavina

It seemed unconscionable to outfit [[Oliver]] with “store bought” Valentine’s Day cards this year, what with our own print shop standing at the ready. So this is the year said goodbye to Spiderman, Dora the Explorer et al and went completely DIY.

We started with setting Be my Valentine – a sincere but not overly goopy sentiment, I thought – in 18 point Dorchester:

Valentine's Card Type in Chase

I then broke out the can of Flame Red ink generously sent my way by Kwik Kopy, a colour that seemed tailor-made for the task at hand:

Flaming Red Ink

After experimenting with various paper colours and weights, we settled on an unexpected choice, the same bright orange I’d used last year to print some early business cards. Somehow it just seemed right. I ran Oliver through to to line of the card on the press so that the message printed in the right place, and then he got to printing:

Twenty-five pulls of the press later, we had cards that looked like this:

Printed Valentines

A snip to the top corners using my newly-acquired corner cutter, and a punch of a heart through the middle using my newly-acquired heart punch (a tool that, I admit, might get very little use outside of the pre-Valentine’s Day week):

Rounding Corners

Punched Hearts

And this is what we ended up with:

Printed and Punched Valentines

It was with some distress that I realized that I was shopping in the Martha Stewart section of Michael’s this morning: I think, technically, I may be, if not a “scrapbooker,” at least a “crafter.” Not that I have much of a rock and roll reputation to preserve going into this. I believe this might also qualify me as one of those over-achieving parents who helps their child construct a fully-working model of the Space Shuttle for science fair; I’ll have to work on this.

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!

Comments

Submitted by Tanya on

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This is fantastic! I totally understand the need to print your own stationery for the occasion when you’ve got a perfectly functioning printing studio for such matters. I have nothing against Spiderman valentines but this is the way to go. Kudos to your son for being game! The cards are lovely, the type is spot on, the heart cut out is a nice detail as are the rounded corners. PS. I’ve also strolled down the Martha Stewart lane at Wal-mart, just to “browse” ;)

Submitted by Joshua Biggley on

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I had to laugh for before I reached your concluding paragraph, and declaration of your craftiness, I thought to myself “should I tell Peter than his passion for paper has aligned him with the uber-obsessive ‘scrapbooking’ crowd?” Being married to a published scrapbooker (and sporting a basement full of punches, stamps, machines, and papers back it up) I can only imagine how Catherine feels when you get that maniacal paper-gleam in your eye. ;)

Submitted by Heather M on

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Fantastic cards Oliver! I love seeing him involved in the printing process. Great colour choice too - very funky.

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Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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