52 Reasons I LOVE YOU!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try for my husband for Valentine's Day!  I know it has been awhile since Valentine's Day, but forgive me in that I am just now getting around to posting this.

All you need:
1.  A regular deck of playing cards
2.  Scapbooking paper of your choice AND cardstock paper
3.  Two large binder rings
4.  Hole punch
5.  ColorBox Fluid Chalk Inkpad (I used dark brown for antiquing)   
6.  Paper cutter or Scissors
7.  2 Glue Sticks
8.  Any embellishments (like the key and heart lock) that you would like to add!

STEP ONE:  Come up with the 52 reasons of why you love that person.  (This can be given to a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, son or daughter, etc...)  You can either type them all down on the computer or write them all down by hand.  This is the fun part, so get creative and put some heart into it!

STEP TWO:  After coming up with all your reasons, format each of them on the computer (or by hand) to the correct size and style to fit onto the card.  I did mine on Microsoft Word instead of hand written, because I found it to look nicer and easier to fix any mistakes.  Print onto cardstock paper.

STEP THREE:  Cut out and paste with glue stick all the "reasons" onto your cards!

STEP FOUR:  To make the cover of your "52 Reasons I Love You" cut a piece of scrapbook paper to the size of the card and paste onto one of the Joker or Blank cards.  Print from computer (or hand print) the title you want on the front of your cards onto cardstock paper.  Cut out and paste to cover.

STEP FIVE:  Hole punch the cards with two punches each.  To get them exactly lined up, I used one of the big hole punchers with the measurements on it.  However, you can do it the hard way and use a one hand hole punch, but just remember to take a ruler and measure out where you want the holes first before punching so all the cards line up nice and neat!

STEP SIX:  Put all the cards in the order you would like them and hook them onto the binder rings to make a "book".  This part can be a bit frustrating, but in the end it looks so nice.

STEP SEVEN:  Add any and all embellishment.  As you can see from the photo, I added some antiquing to the edge of the cards, put a key and heart lock on the binder rings, and added some "ruby" stickers.  Please note that if you antique all the cards like I did, that it takes awhile!

When I gave these cards to my husband, the biggest smile lit up his face and he truly LOVES them.  He even took them to work and they now sit on his desk for him to look at any time.  It's a great heartfelt gift and is a great way to show someone how much they really mean to you.