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Each year as Valentine's Day rolls around a mixture of excitement and dread creep in. Do I have time to make cards for all those I love? Will I get a giant candy heart secretly tucked into my mailbox? Should I just buy some Power Ranger cards and call it good? Ugh.

This year, instead of being a stress-case, I've thrown out the old rules and gone with a simple and fun crafted card that is easily reproduced and just a tad witty. This card is perfect for both young and old, technolo-geeks and low-tech creators, so try it yourself and melt those V-Day blues away.

Essential tools:

- digital camera, you, a heart-shaped piece of paper, candy suckers, markers

Expanded tools:

- printer, photo editing software, bone folder (or bamboo knitting needle), watercolor paper

Step 1:

Get together with a crafty buddy and take each other's photos. Take a few poses according to the style of card you want. Pose with your fist out as if you're giving someone a treat, or hold up a big heart-shaped piece of paper. Focus your camera on the fist or heart in the foreground (you will be slightly fuzzy in the background). Find a bright location for your photos that is full of natural light.

Step 2 (low-tech):

Take your photos to the local one-hour printers. Take the photos with your fist coming towards the camera. Cut small slits at the top and bottom of your fist. Pass a candy sucker or rose stem through the slits so it appears as if you're handing a 3-D gift out of your 2-D pic. Wowza!

For the images where you are holding out the heart, take a red permanent marker and write a love note in the heart. Or embellish the heart with glitter, jewels or felt. Now gift your personalized Valentines to all the loved ones on your list!

Step 2 (medium-tech):

This version works if you have an at-home printer. Download your photos and ready them for print onto watercolor paper. I used 9-by-12-inch paper, which I cut down to 8.5-by-11-inch. The watercolor paper gives the image a softer look and is softer so we can apply an embossing trick

Print two of the heart version that you like. Save one as the actual card and cut the heart shape out of the other. Place the cutout heart version over the top of the other and align the two images. Tape lightly in place if necessary. Flip the images face-down onto a hard surface and run your bone folder over the surface. The basic idea is to push the paper down into the heart hole so that when you flip it over there will be a raised heart popping out of the paper. This is a simple and cheap embossing trick that doesn't require a lot of setup. Use this trick for anything you'd like to pop, like your fist, or your face.

Step 3 (high-tech):

This version is for those with at-home photo-editing software like Photoshop. Once you've downloaded your images use the software to add text, tags, or make your heart look like a giant sweetheart candy. Once finished add embellishments like embossing or writing over the printed card to add an extra touch.

The fun thing about these cards is that they are personal and can be made a million different ways. So, have fun with it and you're sure to get a smile out of your Valentine this year!

Tanna Peters is a crafter and designer from wonderful, rainy Southeast Alaska. View her latest creations at www.alaskacrafter.com and her shared crafting sitecraftaddicts.blogspot.com. Send local craft inquiries and info to tanna.craft@gmail.com.