52 Reasons | Redux

This is one of the first crafts I'd ever posted online. I used to belong to a community called Craftster.org (waaaay back in the day). It's still around but I rarely remember to visit. However, it pops up on my radar about this time of year. One of my crafts was featured in their Valentine's Day collection on the forum. And now that Pinterest is here, my old post keeps resurfacing.

My problem is I took the pics and posted them in a bit of a rush. And seeing those photos back in circulation kinda makes me cringe. So I decided to re-take the photos and create a new post.

I am able to do it because 1) the boypiece still proudly displays my project and 2) he lives under the same roof. Which makes it simple to steal it back and retake the pics!

So here it is, back again, my "52 Reasons Valentine Deck of Cards"  (ps. If you want to check out the original post from 2008, you can find it HERE)

At the time when I made this, there were a few other versions out there. I decided to use the full deck of cards instead of just using cards as the "book cover" with cardstock pages. I also used ribbon instead of jump rings to bind the pages. There are still a few other versions out there, but this is just how I did it :) Oh and one other HUGE difference, mine says "like" instead of "love". And it's still relevant today, since we prefer not to use that other word (strange, I know).

Supply list:

• 1 full deck of playing cards
• 1 foot of red ribbon
• paper hole punch
• glue stick
• scissors
• personal photos and clip art from the internet
• computer

Quite possibly the most difficult part of this entire project was coming up with the 52 reasons! It probably wouldn't be so hard these days. But at the time I made this, we had only been dating a year and a half. Although, all the reasons are still true to this day :)

Step 1) Open up any word processing program on your computer and start typing out your reasons. They can be silly or sentimental...mix it up!

Step 2) Once you've got your reasons, it's time to figure out what pictures best compliment your words. I used a lot of clip art (yay, Google!) and a few personal photos from my computer

Step 3) Print everything out and cut down to size

Step 4) Spread out your deck and arrange your pics/text on the cards. Don't forget to leave the Joker cards for your front and back cover!

Step 5) Use your paper punch to add two holes to each card. I suggest punching the holes prior to gluing down your pages!

Step 6) Using your glue stick, secure each text/photo combo to their playing card

Step 7) Once the glue has dried, arrange the pages in the order you prefer

Step 8) Tie your ribbon through the holes and finish it off with a bow!

I also added a special Happy Valentine's Day message on the joker used as the back cover :)


The most time consuming part is finding the pics to use and coming up with the 52 reasons. If you can do that fairly quickly, you could throw this together as a last-minute gift! It's also great for birthdays or anniversaries if you don't really celebrate Valentine's ;)

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Have fun creating! And Happy Valentines Day!