Happy Valentine's Day!

I was curious about the history of Valentine's Day so I did a little research online.  Some of the history is a bit sketchy. I did find that the holiday was named for St Valentine in 496 AD and set on February 14th.  At that time it wasn't directly tied to "love".  

 I quote this from The Holiday Spot:  "During the 14th century St. Valentine's Day became definitively associated with love. UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of "Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine", credits Chaucer as the one who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance. In medieval France and England it was believed that birds mated on February 14."  Hence came the connection to "love".

This bit of information seemed appropriate for my Valentine's Card with these birds by Penny Black.  The stamp is called "the forever dream".  My notes are very sketchy about what I used to create this card.  I know I used Copic markers to color the birds, I just can't tell you the colors.  I masked them to spray the Glimmer Mist background.  I first sprayed the yellow......I think it was Candlelight.  Then I cut a circle mask with a Spellbinders die to place over the birds. I used Dreamsicle Glimmer Mist to create the peach background.  The pattern on the card front and on the brown mat were stamped with PB "scrolling along" and embossed with Hollographic EP.  The verse is also from Penny Black.  Not quite the traditional red and pink! 

Here's a bit more information about the tradition of giving cards on Valentine's Day:

"It was not until the 1840s that Valentine's Day greeting cards began to be commercially produced in the U.S. The first American Valentine's Day greeting cards were created by Esther A. Howlanda Mount Holyoke, a graduate and native of Worcester. Mass. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". It was when Howland began Valentine's cards in a large scale that the tradition really caught on in the United States."

I hope you carry on the tradition with handmade cards to send love to special people in your life!

Happy Valentine's Day!