Ruining the Romance?

Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching and this means my first show of the year is looming too.

I do have a lot of fun thinking up new ideas for this one day of madness.

Why should we go to so much effort for just ONE DAY? Ah well…I suspect it’s rather like Christmas…the fun is in the run up to the day and not necessarily the day itself. Christmas is in the darkest time of the year when we all need a little sparkle and warmth to lift our spirits. Valentine’s Day I suppose is of the same ilk. February can be a cruel month….here in the U.K. More small birds ( I am told ) die in February for want of warmth, than in any other Winter month. It more often snows in February, if it is going to snow at all, than in any other month and the bitter winds which we can experience cause untold damage to plants.

So why should we not celebrate a nice comfortable day of goodwill…….with chocolate, champagne and other luxury things and share them with our loved ones?

It does puzzle me though.

We are all encouraged to make ( us crafty people), things in red and white for Valentine’s Day and to parade them out in the craft shows and in our online shops and websites. WHO ARE WE MAKING THEM FOR?

Let’s look at the tradition as a whole and we might find an answer.

It’s said that on Valentine’s Day we celebrate the love an affection that exists between intimate companions. We are often to be seen buying gifts as a token of our esteem and on Valentine’s Day it’s customary for a young man to ask the lady of his choice to be his wife…. ( except my husband chose St. Patrick’s Day…what does that say about him?) < AHEM>

Ah yes……. a young man.

Well nowadays of course, the marketing people have got hold of it and we find ourselves, at any age, following the urge to indulge our partner; to purchase chocolates or pretty things, perhaps to take them out to dinner.

But it is still the male of the species that is supposed to do the buying, for the female of his choice.

Now….. in my experience, it is the female of the species that does the buying of most pretty and crafty things. Men are not big visitors to craft fairs. In fact men aren’t big spenders when it comes to, well…much at all really.

So who is going to buy our hand made howdoyoudos , our fancy folderols, our lovingly created Valentine bits and bobs?

Women of course.

Have I ever bought myself a Valentine item….? Never. Have I ever bought anyone else  ( besides my husband ) a card to show my affection in a more tangible and romantic form than just washing his socks and ironing his shirts? Never.

Hmmmm….?

Doesn’t it make you wonder what all the fuss is about?

Besides……we can’t even decide historically, who Valentine was. There are quite a few contenders. Five in fact. And there is no romance what so ever about being martyred, I can tell you. Boiling alive, being shot with arrows, beheading, crucifying or starving to death..isn’t in the best tradition of The Romantic Tale….unless you are starving yourself to death for unrequited love…and  there doesn’t seem any evidence that any of our Valentine contenders had a young lady who would not respond to his ode of love or his affectionate little ditties.

It was during the time of Chaucer, that chivalrous and courtly love era, the fourteenth century, when Valentine came into his own. This festival in turn, it seems was built on the Roman one of Lupercalia. ( Feb 14/15th ). This was an archaic rite devoted to fertility, where young men ( again) would run around the streets of Rome, dressed in nothing but a wolf skin ( something to do with Romulus and Remus being brought up by a she wolf ), and they would smack any ladies they found around and about, across the buttocks with a cane. Hmmm very Romantic I’m sure.I’d smack’em right back!

Can you imagine this happening on Valentine’s Day in Royal Leamington Spa, Reading or Romford?

No I thought not. 🙂

So perhaps it’s just as well that we no longer have blood thirsty jousts to determine the champion of the day – oh yes we did this too, or pine away for want of a signal from our lady love after sending her the wrong kind of flowers – each species being a symbol for something.

You know…. Cyclamen ( Goodbye )

instead of Carnations ( My heart aches for you.)

So, when I show you my Valentine creations, roses red and pink….mostly ( I love you and Please believe me ), I’m hoping that you will just like them for what they are and not for what they represent.They MIGHT be bought by some gentleman of excellent taste for his lady love…. or they might just be snapped up by a fellow crafter who appreciates the work gone into them. I don’t mind.

I just have great fun making them and thinking them up! 🙂

Two little heart shaped boxes the lids of which are filled with hand rolled roses.

Flat heart wreaths with paper flowers

The little boxes are bought in papier mache ones which I have covered with tissue paper. I made a paper strip with an edge punch and fixed this to the edge of the box, the lip slightly protruding above the lid top. Then I filled the top with hand rolled roses, some plain red some patterned, some plain pink some patterned.

The little flat hearts were cut on the Bigshot with the heart die from Sissix, using plain Real Red card from Stampin ‘ Up. I cut a heart shaped hole in the middle of each.

The left hand one was put through an embossing folder and a punch was taken to the edge of the heart. Other punches were used to make the heart look as if it has been cut into filigree with scissors- rather in the manner of a Victorian paper cut. It was then overlaid on a white heart. Tiny white and red flowers were then added here and there.

The middle one has Pergamano  glitter paper flowers and trailing leaves on it and hand rolled roses and other flowers have been added in clusters. Owing to the lop sided nature of the design, the heart doesn’t hang perfectly,  so I added two red buttons to the underside to weight it… a good tip if you ever have a problem with a three D design .

The right hand wreath is made in the same way as the others but a zigzag of spotty paper was made to curl around the middle cut away shape. Roses and flowers were then added in spots, in reverse red and white and a large punched flower decorates the point. It’s all finished with a spotty ribbon.

All they need is a legend. Be My Valentine…. Happy Valentine…. My Heart is Yours…what ever you fancy.

And remember…never sign a Valentine…… tremendous bad luck.

You might end up a martyr. 😉