Deck of cards = awesome, easy, romantic gift!

[onetomatotwo]

I actually made this for my honey for our anniversary a couple of years ago, but with Valentine's Day fast approaching, I thought I'd share. This is so easy to make, but it has a lot of impact -- who wouldn't love to get this?

I want to say right now that I am not claiming this idea as original. Unfortunately, I made it over 2 years ago and now cannot find the post/site/etc. where I found the inspiration. As I recall, the one I saw was far more elaborate than mine. If you have seen this before, please feel free to post links in your replies.

All right -- let's get to it! Here is the front of my little book -- it's just a deck of regular playing cards with holes punched in 'em, held together with 1 inch binder rings (I got mine at OfficeMax). For the front and back covers, I used my Xyron sticker maker  to cold-laminate pieces of cardboard with scrapbook paper on them. This is certainly not a requirement for the project, as I think we craftsters could think of a million different ways to make little covers for a book like this:


(Our initials are B and K.)

The possibilities for this project are endless, but I didn't do anything fancy. I just wrote down the first 52 things that popped into my head, printed them out, ran them through the Xyron (you could easily use glue) and stuck them to each "page":



Some were sweet (like that one) and some were wacky:


(Just to clarify -- I meant physical comedy with that one... not people actually getting hurt!)

Here's a better shot of the binder rings and also you can see how fat it is (which I really like):



Here's a picture of the back... nothing fancy back there, but it makes a nice matching cover to the front:



Looking at this project now, thinking about all of the creative minds here on craftster... I think someone could really make a masterpiece out of this! Mine is so bare-bones. Perhaps I need to make a sequel...

[RubyTuesday]

Oh that is just gorgeous, thanks for sharing   What an excellent Valentines gift  ... I'm off in search of cards!!

[bigfatroses]

That is so cute!  Hmmm...  Off to find a deck of cards!

[onetomatotwo]

Be sure to post yours if you make them! I'd love to see what other people do with this project!

[6iggle]

omg! i LOVE this idea, and its so perfect and cute!

[putttipple]

I love this!  I always want to make a personalized valentine for my DH, but I'm not gifted at card making.  I have to start narrowing my list of 'whys' now... will be difficult 

[sweets4ever]

SUPER CUTE!  I made "101 Things I Love About You" but didn't use a deck of cards.  This is wonderful!

[MelCap]

Super Cute-- Im going to have to start thinking of 52 reasons....   well...maybe i'll use a half deck --- or 10  or 5 cards???     heee heeeeee

[tekalinosky54]

ok i REALLY WANT OT MAKE ONE,to bad i don't have a valentine....oh well!
totally putting this in the gotta make this someday list!

[ritapizza]

this is such a cool idea!
my man does magic tricks with cards all the time and this would be great!
I don't have a laminating machine but maybe some fabric wrapped cardboard could work