A Vintage DIY Papercraft: Victorian Valentine’s Day Cards
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If you love Victorian Valentine’s Day Cards, you’ll adore learning the history behind these sweet cards and be inspired with ideas on how to make your vintage-inspired cards with videos, resources, and an easy supply list.
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The Victorian era somehow personifies romance and beauty… and Valentine’s Day.
Victorian Valentine’s Day Cards
These ever-so-sweet cards of sentiment are time capsules of a kinder, gentler, and more innocent age.
A time when a handwritten message, a card, a greeting… a correspondence was ever so important and a priority.
Yet these beautiful artifacts of Valentine’s Day need not remain in the past. We’ll show you some easy ways to recreate these historic and vintage cards. See the foot of this post for supplies and inspiration.
But first… a little history.
History of the Valentine’s Day Cards
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum denotes:
“The tradition of sending love tokens and notes on 14th February has been around for hundreds of years, with the earliest surviving valentines dating from the 15th century. Early valentines usually took the form of handwritten notes or poems, and it wasn’t until the 1800s, with the availability of cheap paper and development of new printing techniques, that making valentines really became an industry.”
They continue,
“The valentine industry grew throughout the 1800s, and up to 60,000 cards were sent in 1836. This greatly increased with the advent of the Penny Post in 1840, and by 1886 so many cards were being sent that the Post Office had to issue a notice asking people to post them as early as possible to avoid overloading the system. The cheaper post also led to an increase in the market for mass-produced printed cards.”
Inspirations for making your own Victorian Valentine’s Day Cards
How to Make Victorian Valentine’s Day Cards
Begin by searching for public domain images online. Here is a link to a Google search.
Vintage images online. Google Search
Simple Supplies to Gather
- Victorian-style card stock or scrapbook paper cut into sizes of choice
- Pinking shears or decorative scissors
- 3D pop foam dots or squares (available at any craft store)
- Glue
- Paper heart doilies
- Marking pens
- Boning tool (or an acrylic ruler works just as well)
- Scraps of ribbon, material, or cording
- Pearl buttons or embellishments
Resources for Making Vintage Valentine’s Day Cards
- How to make Valentine’s Day Cards – Martha Stewart
- Martha Stewart video on creating basic cards with scrapbooking supplies.
- Martha Stewart: Antique Style Valentine
- How to Make a Vintage Valentine’s Day Card
- Printable Victorian Valentine’s Day card ideas.