Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and I like to send Valentine’s Day cards to my 5 grandchildren.
I remember my daughter saying that her grandmother (my husband’s mom) often sent cards to the children that had some kind of activity in them and she really loved that! (Grandma often put a $5 bill in the cards, too, which ALL of the kids loved! You know how they open the cards expecting to get that little “surprise”… slowly, and tipped into their hand. HA!)
This year, I really wanted cards that included an activity, and these coloring cards with crayons are a perfectly easy and quick project! If you have put off getting cards, this is a great solution to simple and FUN. And a bonus, your children or grandchildren can help you put them together at the end!
This would also make a great Valentine to give away for a child’s class—they would be giving an activity instead of candy.
Valentine Coloring Cards Project Materials
- Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore
- Cricut Design Space account
- Cricut Access Subscription (Cricut Access is a monthly or yearly subscription that unlocks access to unlimited use of a growing library of beautiful fonts, images, and projects in Design Space. In addition, you get exclusive savings when you shop Cricut products on the Cricut website.)
- StandardGrip Mat OR LightGrip Mat
- Cricut Black 0.4 Tip Pen
- Fine-point blade (comes with your machine)
- White Cardstock
- Crayons (choose colors that go with your animals—or go crazy and mix it up! I’ve seen a purple hippo haven’t you?)
Step 1: Create Your Valentine Card Design in Cricut Design Space.
Open Cricut Design Space. We’re going to load some Cricut Access images to your canvas. To do that, go to Image on the left menu, type the number of the item you are adding in the search bar, and click ADD TO CANVAS on the bottom left of your screen.
- Scalloped Edge: #M45C24
- Crayon holder: #M27B812
- Animal drawing of your choice
Here are the animal images I used in my cards and the saying I put with each one:
- Waving Cat – #M16F55AB7 – Valentine, you are PURRfect!
- Monkey – #M20782E4B – I’m BANANAs for you!
- Elephant – #M20782DB6 – You’re a TON of fun!
- Hippo – #M20782DE9 – I love you a TON!
- Bunny – #M142AE819 – Some BUNNY loves you!
- Cow – #M20782D7F – Valentine, you ring my BELL!
- Lion – #M20782E33 – I’m WILD about you!
- Dad and Bear – #M14297015 – I love you BEARy much!
- Frog – #M3250CD1E – You are TOADally awesome!
Once all three items are added to your screen, you’ll arrange them into a placing you like.
DO NOT resize the scalloped edges card or the crayon holder. ONLY resize the animal to fit within the borders of the scalloped edges card.
The cat image is the only image in which I changed the locked dimensions. I preferred the cat to be a little taller than it was. I clicked on the unlock icon above the width and height on the top menu, then adjusted the width to 4.2 and Height to 2.8.
For all other animals, I left the width and height locked, and using the arrows, I dragged the image to fit the card.
Step 2: Add Text to the Valentine’s Day Card.
Now, add the text. I used a Cricut Access font called “DTC Apple Cider”. Click on the text box on the left. A small white box appears that you type your text into. For the cat valentine, I typed, “Valentine, you are PURRfect!”
Once the text is typed, highlight your text and change the font in the font box. Make sure the style (a box next to the font box) is selected on “Writing” and not “Regular.” Then, change the size to fit inside your card and change the alignment to center.
Do the same to add the “TO: From:” text.
Since you’re writing the text onto the card and not cutting the text, you need to change the setting on the OPERATION tab to Pen instead of Basic Cut. Do this for both textboxes.
Step 3: Fine-Tune Your Valentine’s Day Card Design.
One last trick I’ve learned to make sure my card is lined up perfectly:
- Highlight everything you have placed on your canvas (click and drag your mouse to make a large square around everything).
- Click on the ALIGN tab at the top.
- Select the option to center horizontally.
This will move all of your pieces to the exact center of your card, which cleans it up for you!
Then, highlight everything one more time and click ATTACH in the bottom right corner of the screen. This will keep all of the parts of your card in place for when you go to draw and cut. It won’t separate them out on your paper as separate elements. (A mistake I’ve made in the past!)
If you’ve done this correctly it will look like the following image and say “Attach” at the top of the list of your items on the right. They will all be in grey.
Now you’re ready to make it!
Step 4: Cut Out Your Valentine’s Day Cards.
Load white cardstock onto your mat. This project ends up being a 5 x 7 card. Be sure your cardstock is at least this large. I get two cards out of one piece of 8.5 x 11 cardstock.
Load the black Cricut pen into the left cartridge A and load the fine-point blade into the right cartridge B.
Click MAKE IT on the top right of your screen. Follow the prompts on your screen. Press Go and watch in amazement as your Cricut draws and cuts your card!
I love watching it draw my design. I don’t know why this part fascinates me, but it always does! Especially these cute animals!
If you want to make more than one of the same card, don’t click FINISH. Just take out your mat and reload new cardstock. Reload the mat into the machine by pressing the flashing arrow light.
Then, click the Go button (second button) to make a second card.
If you’re ready to make a different animal, simply add that image to your canvas. Resize it and place it where the other animal was. Click the eye next to the other animal to make it invisible and click MAKE IT again!
Step 5: Add Crayons to Your Custom Valentine Coloring Card!
The last step is to add your crayons.
This is a great way to include children in this project. Let them choose the two crayons to add to each card. The combinations they select may surprise you!
I’m such a purist – I’ll try to include the colors that would show up in nature. Black and pink for the cow, brown and yellow for the lion, grey and pink for the elephant, and so on.
Conclusion
It’s so easy to create these cards and so satisfying to know my grandchildren will have fun coloring them!
Let me know which animal is your favorite in the comment section below. Mine is the cow! He’s adorable! Wait, I really like that frog. I just got a kitty, maybe it’s the waving kitty. I think it’s whatever one is printing right now!
Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Crafting!
