DIY “What I Love About You” Cards

Seth and I have been together for a little over a year.   When the big 1 year anniversary rolled around, it called for a gift!  Can you already tell this post is a little late? Haha. If you’re like me, gifts are hard to come up with.  What would they like?  Where do I buy it? How much should I spend?   What if they get something for me that’s better? (Yes, a legitimate fear of mine – my gift not measuring up to the one given to me!)

Hand made gifts, in my opinion, are more special than store bought gifts.   I love to put together gifts in cute ways, however long it takes to think of something unique! It usually ends in me searching Pinterest for ideas and tutorials.  So much for originality. 😉

For Seth, I decided on “What I Love About You” cards. They work for friends, boyfriend/girlfriends, spouses, family – you name it!

After finding this idea a couple years ago, my siblings and I created “44 Things We Love About Mom” cards out of scrap book paper for her 44th birthday. She loved it so much she got our family, her sister’s family, and my grandmother to write a deck for my grandfather’s birthday. It’s super easy and so meaningful.

Like the “Open When” letters, this DIY gift has been floating around Pinterest.  The majority of photos shows the cards made with a deck of playing cards labeled “52 Things I Love About You.”

For Seth’s project, I stuck to plain white cards so I can have more freedom to play around with fun fonts and decorations.  To me, white seems more crisp and neat than playing cards.

Supplies

1. Cards such as blank post cards, index cards, or playing cards.
2. A pen.
3. A hole puncher.
4. Something to bind the cards with – ribbon, rings, etc.
5. A list of things you love about your special person.
6. Optional: scrapbook paper/ribbons/stamps/stickers to decorate.
7. Optional: A laminator to seal your cards before binding

How To

So since taking the tutorial photos on our actual anniversary (in November) I somehow managed to delete them. I luckily kept the finished product photos. Face palm. Awful, I know…

For my project, I ended up using watercolor paper.  I recently tried dabbling in watercolors and wanted to throw some color on the cards. Feel free to decorate with other supplies such as scrapbook paper or markers! (Also, make sure you shift your decorations away from where you will bind the card – my hole puncher cut off some of the watercolor.)

1. I started by cutting the 8 x 8 inch sheets into quarters. I mixed my colors together and added some blotches here and there on the front of the cards. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
2. Grab your list of things you love about your person and start writing! You can write lightly with pencil first if you use a pen like I did.  Play around with different fonts (I typed my list up on Word with a brush font for reference) and don’t forget to make front and bag covers!
3. On the back of each card, write a short note explaining why. For example, on my “you’re super sweet” card, I named a few thoughtful things he regularly does and how much I appreciate it.
4. Grab your hole puncher and punch a couple holes in the side of each card, making sure they all line up.
5. End by binding! I used twine for mine – it seemed more hand made and crafty than metal rings.

And…..you’re done! How easy was that?

Here are the end photos:

And the front and back covers:

Super simple and so fun to make!