Valentine Notes: "I Love You" Library Pockets - Rebecca Luminarias

There's just something about Valentine's Day that makes it so much fun to create for, isn't there? I don't know if it's all of the pretty colors or the hearts or what, but I, for one, am smitten with this holiday! And I'm lucky enough to have three little nieces to give extra special valentines to!

I was inspired to make library card pockets by all of the library images and ephemera found in the Love Notes collection. I have some ready-made pockets but they're fairly flimsy and plain so I decided to make my own using some of the lovely LN patterned papers. I'll share a brief tutorial on how I made them -- it's incredibly easy if you want to try it, too!

You'll just need a few items -- a card pocket to use as a template, patterned paper, a pencil, scissors, strong adhesive, and a bone folder.

Start by taking apart the card pocket. To do this, I slid a letter opener under the edges of the flaps that were glued down and opened them up. Once you've done that, trace a template on the opposite side of the patterned paper you want to use (seen here is "Crush").

**Don't forget to make your scoring marks!**

These were so much fun to embellish; my nieces have three different personalities so I didn't want to make these all the same. This one seems very girly to me and fitting for a 7 year old who likes to play dress up and LOVES to read. With the big, beautiful rosette Stand-Out, you almost don't need to add anything, but I couldn't help myself and added the heart doily, some chipboard pieces, and just a touch of lace.

A row of glittery, see-through, and sticker hearts stitched to the library card adds texture but not a lot of thickness, so the card slides easily in and out of the pocket. Because the card pocket was chalkboard-black, I did want to add a hint of the same to the inside card and "love & kisses" seemed just perfect for that!

The next pocket was made from "Heartthrob", and after looking over the chipboard pieces, I decided to go with a postal-theme. The letters, the mailbox, and the airmail stripes all looked so cute clustered together. You can do as much or as little with these as you like.

A bit of glitter and doily snippets for the card insert tie into the design on the pocket. My sister has designated a special color for each of her girls and Iris' is blue; the blue mailbox was perfect and I chose the aqua accent card from "Book of Love" to match. Iris is only 18 months old, so I just wanted to make something sweet for her!

For the third pocket, I used the gray side of "Sweetheart" -- a fitting name for 4 year old Hazel! I brought the backside of the pattern (red and pink chevron) in with the little heart garland and really tried to use pops of the dark pink both on the pocket itself, and also, the insert. I wanted to keep some clear space on this pocket and a small cluster of embellishments at the top adds a lot of interest without being overwhelming.

Since there is just a touch of aqua in the badge on the pocket, I added the aqua heart sticker to the insert. There are also a few more cut elements here from the "Book of Love" paper. I tell you, those accent cards and tags go so far!

This was really a fun project and now that I figured out how to make my own library card pockets (it wasn't difficult), I know I'll be making them often from now on. I can't wait to drop these in the mail to my three special girls! Have a super Valentine's Day!