This Five of Hearts Valentine’s Card is a greetings card with a difference. It’s very personal, you can add a greeting of your choice and it looks like the Five of Hearts from the front and the Ace of Hearts when you open it.

You can add a message to the mini heart Valentine’s envelope on the inside.

Children should be supervised by adults, if they want to make this project.

Where can I buy art and craft materials?

Dick Blick Art Materials sell a vast range of art materials. It is an art supplies company that is based in the US.

If you order over a certain amount, shipping can be free within the US, conditions apply. Orders placed from outside the US will have a different shipping charge and may be subject to import duties. (Click on the shipping information link at the bottom of the page on Dick Blick Art Materials for details.)

You can also buy craft materials from ScrapbookingAlley.com, who are also based in the US.

If you are based in the UK, Hobbycraft is a good place to buy very similar art and craft materials.

How to make a Five of Hearts Valentine’s card, step-by-step

You will need:

• card and papers of your choice
• Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, White gouache paints or Distress Inks
• brushes or sponge
• craft knife or scissors
• white glue or craft stick
• decorative card back paper
• bradawl
• ruler
• white gel pen/ black gel pen
• stamps and ink
• decorative brad for mini envelope

[Click here for a SLIDESHOW]

Five of Hearts Valentine's card
Here are two versions of the same Five of Hearts Valentine's card design. One made with paper hearts, the other with felt hearts.

Ace of Hearts Valentine's card
When the card is opened, you can see an ace of hearts card with a small envelope inviting the receiver to open it.

Step one
You can use any type of card or cardstock. Here I've used an A4 size sheet of card, which I folded in half and rounded the corners with scissors.

Step two
Glue a decorative card back of your choice to the back of the card. You will need a back for the Five of Hearts and another for the back of the Ace of Hearts. Then you can add paint or ink to give the card a vintage look. I used gouache paint but you could use Distress Ink.

Step three
You will need to cut a whole from the front of the card. the size and shape of the hole is your choice but it needs to be in the centre and to line up with the decorative back. I used a bradawl to make holes as a guide and then a craft knife and ruler to cut lines between the holes.

Step four
The end result should look like this. I used the bradawl holes as a guide to make sure that the hole lined up with the decorative backing before cutting.

Step five
Use a heart and a number 5 to stamp the corners of the card. Look at an actual playing card to see how it should look. Two of the hearts are upside down.

Step six
You will need to cut out five hearts from paper or material of your choice. Use letter stamps to create a message of your choice on the hearts. Mine say "The start of a...?"

Detail of Valentine's mini envelope
And on the inside of the Ace of Hearts envelope: "beautiful relationship?" You can create the mini envelope from paper that has two different patterns on each side.

Detail of Valentine's mini envelope
I also created a mini Ace of Hearts card to go inside the envelope. You can add a message of your choice.

Finished Five of Hearts Valentine card
Here's the card made in paper.

Five of Hearts Valentine card with felt hearts
And here I've used felt hearts.

I decorated mine with snowflake stamps, but you can use whatever type of paper or embellishments that you like. Each card is unique and personal to you.

Children should be supervised by adults, if they want to make this project.

Where can I buy art and craft materials?

Dick Blick Art Materials sell a vast range of art materials. It is an art supplies company that is based in the US.

If you order over a certain amount, shipping can be free within the US, conditions apply. Orders placed from outside the US will have a different shipping charge and may be subject to import duties. (Click on the shipping information link at the bottom of the page on Dick Blick Art Materials for details.)

You can also buy craft materials from ScrapbookingAlley.com, who are also based in the US.

If you are based in the UK, Hobbycraft is a good place to buy very similar art and craft materials.

How to create a Christmas Tree greetings card, step-by-step

You will need:

• papers of your choice
• craft knife or scissors
• sewing machine (optional)
• glue or craft stick
• gel pen in a contrasting colour
• stamps and ink (optional)

[Click here for a SLIDESHOW]

Step 1
Choose your paper. I chose a dark blue card for the background, white tissue and silver foil for the trees.

Step 2
Fold the paper in half and cut out the tree shapes.

Step 3
Position them on the card.

Step 4
Sew the tree shapes down the middle, using a sewing machine. Alternatively, glue in place and draw stitches with a gel pen.

Finished Christmas Tree Card
Add final embellishments to the card. I stamped snowflakes onto the white tissue tree shapes.

More Christmas Tree Cards
Here are more examples of Christmas cards. I decorated the tree shapes with small paper cutouts in a contrasting colour.

Hmmm…so much for high fashion

Konigsallee is a famous street in Dusseldorf, Germany, and is also very beautiful. It has designer shops that run alongside a canal.

I was there in November, which is a good time to catch the Christmas markets, but also to create sketches of the river and the people with their funny little dogs.

Embellish the snowflakes with crystals and star shapes in contrasting colours to finish.

Children should be supervised by adults, if they want to make this project.

Where can I buy art and craft materials?

Dick Blick Art Materials sell a vast range of art materials. It is an art supplies company that is based in the US.

If you order over a certain amount, shipping can be free within the US, conditions apply. Orders placed from outside the US will have a different shipping charge and may be subject to import duties. (Click on the shipping information link at the bottom of the page on Dick Blick Art Materials for details.)

You can also buy craft materials from ScrapbookingAlley.com, who are also based in the US.

If you are based in the UK, Hobbycraft is a good place to buy very similar art and craft materials.

How to create a snowflake greetings card, step-by-step

You will need:

• papers of your choice
• craft knife or scissors
• glue or craft stick
• crystals

[Click here for a SLIDESHOW]

Finished snowflake card
This is a very simple Christmas or winter time card embellished with glittery paper snowflakes.

Step 1
First of all fold a piece of card and cut it with a craft knife on a cutting mat to the required size.

Step 2
To decorate the card, make paper snowflakes. Choose a paper that is easy to fold. Here I am demonstrating with ordinary white paper. Draw around a round object onto the paper.

Step 3
Cut out the circle and fold in half.

Step 4
Fold the paper circle again into quarters.

Step 5
And finally fold the paper circle again, until it looks like this.

Step 6
Cut out shapes along the edge of the folded paper.

Step 7
Unfold the paper and see what the snowflake looks like. Experiment and see which shapes you like best, before adding them to the card. Embellish the snowflakes with crystals or star shapes and stick them onto your folded card.

Public art in front of the Duomo Milan.

The idea is to take an hour or so for yourself without friends, family, or even colleagues distracting you, choose something to do that you wouldn’t usually do, and spend time on your own doing it.

For example, I visited the site were William Blake was born, one lunchtime when I still worked in London. Even though the original house no longer existed (a blue plaque marked the spot) just going there took me out of all the usual negative thoughts I was having and made me focus on someone I found inspirational. I imagined him living there and writing and drawing.

The secret is, and this is very important, you need to go on your own. Other people will want you to focus on them, possibly act bored, not get it, or just be a distraction.

Take time out and good luck. You can read about and buy The Artist’s Way, here.

Another sketch drawn in Derbyshire. The colours are so garish… I mean vibrant, because I’ve used Intense pencils again. I love bright colours and often feel that watercolours can become muddyish if you’re not careful. I think colours should convey mood rather than slavishly sticking to what looks ‘real’.

Intense pencils have the vibrancy of ink and are similar to watercolour pencils in that you can draw with them or mix them with water to create a wash.

I usually draw in the outline with a black waterproof graphic pen. They come in different sizes. I use 0.1 (giving a very fine line), 0.3 and 0.5 (which gives the thickest line).

If you want to buy art materials, Daniel Smith Art Supplies is a company based in the US.

Dick Blick Art Materials sell a vast range of art materials and is also based in the US.

If you order over a certain amount, shipping can be free within the US, conditions apply. Orders placed from outside the US will have a different shipping charge and may be subject to import duties. (Click on the shipping information on their websites.)

If you are based in the UK, Hobbycraft is a good place to buy very similar art and craft materials.

This is the Chinese room at Claydon House, a National Trust property in Buckinghamshire.