Start with simple craft supplies and let your creativity take over.

Every February, millions of Americans head off to drug stores or card shops, hoping to find greeting cards that come close to summing up their feelings for their loved ones. If you've done your fair share of surfing the card racks and are looking for a more personal way to express your sentiments, you should consider making your own valentines this year. With a little effort and creativity, you can create something that's beautiful, unique and straight from the heart.

An avid traveler and card-maker since her youth, Wanda Wen has long been fascinated by the process of discovering cultures through stamps, ephemera and indigenous papers. Today Wen is the creative director of Soolip, a collection of three charming paper and gift boutiques along Melrose Avenue in the heart of Los Angeles' design district. She started the business 7 years ago with founding partner Grant Forsberg, turning a life-long passion for letter writing and the paper arts into a retail business that celebrates beauty and simple design in paper and home decorations. Here she offers a few simple ideas for creating homemade valentines:

• A box valentine.
  Valentines don't have to take the form of the classic greeting card. One type of valentine that Wen loves to make is a combination gift and card made from a small box. Taking a roll of wide, clear packing tape, she puts a pressed dried flower on the box lid and then tapes it into place, sealing it completely so it appears to be laminated onto the box. Once you have created a beautiful box lid like this, you can put anything you want inside the box, from dried flowers and gifts to love poems and photos.

• A collage card. If you've got your mind set on the sort of valentine that goes inside an envelope, you can still let your imagination wander free. Head to a craft or art supply store and pick out supplies like glitter, glue, watercolors, colored papers or whatever you want to work with. Don't worry if you haven't got the "art gene," just be creative. Pictures cut from old magazines or even old greeting cards can make a beautiful collage.

• Vintage stamps.
  Vintage postage stamps, available at many stamps stores and hobby shops, are also an easy way to decorate a valentine card or envelope. Wen loves the designs of stamps from the Jazz Age to the fifties, and enjoys creating eclectic montages out of these miniature works of art.

• A red heart.
  The least creative thing you can do, in Wen's opinion, is to buy a pre-made card at a store. Just picking up a red pen and making a classic heart shows more effort. Even if your not the type of person who would typically create a handmade card or gift, this is the time of year to show that you care, and that you took some time out to do something special for your loved one. So grab some scissors, glue and whatever else you need, and make something unique this Valentine's Day.

Soolip
www.soolip.com

Creative Valentine's Card Ideas
www.theromantic.com/stories/valentinesdaycards/main.htm

Making Valentines: a Tradition in America
www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Valentines/

HGTV: Homemade Valentine Gifts
www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_occasions_other/article/0,1793,HGTV_3478_1386049,00.html

Family Fun: Homemade Valentine Cards
familyfun.go.com/crafts/season/expert/dony0200askannvalentine/dony0200askannvalentine.html

All Crafts Valentines Day
www.allcrafts.net/valentines.htm