A Noble Quest

Not everything in our house involves GETTING STUFF. If you know me and my family you know that we also like to MAKE STUFF, so here's another day in our life.

While the majority of Americans most likely focus on the Superbowl today, our lazy Sunday started off not too nice with my sleepy son giving me THE LOOK,

because - among plentyful other reasons - I woke him up too late so he did not have any playtime before church...

The day improved gradually with a yummy lunch at Sandia Resort & Casino Buffet and reached it's high when we started some crafting.

I started an Internet search for Valentine's Crafts, specifically pop-up cards and we found http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/valentine/heartgarden/, which led to action!

We gathered our supplies.

and got going.

We cut a solid colored sheet of cardstock for the outside of the card and a coordinating patterned one for the inside in size 6x9 in., then started working with the colored inside sheet, folded it with the pattern to the inside, marked 2 lines of about an inch coming from the fold and cut them:

Then we folded the outside sections over towards the open side and marked and cut the outside sections again, making these cuts approx. half the length of the others.




We folded again the most outside parts towards the opening of the card,

then reversed the folded sections towards the inside of the card, so it looked like this:

Now, when you combine solid colored cardstock and the cut piece you already have your card, tadah!:

You add stems and colorful flowers/hearts and get an adorable Valentine's card that will knock everyone out of his/her pants!

Note that the smaller your cuts/garden stairs are, the longer your flowerstems can be. With larger stairs you have to shorten the flowers, so they won't peek out over the top of the card when folded.

Now you probably still wonder why I'm publishing this under 'a noble quest'.. well, that's what this is since she/we will have to make at least 12 of these for my daughter's whole class...! Two done, ten to go....

So what are you doing right now? Come on, get going, gather your supplies and make someone happy on Valentine's day!