Valentine’s Day is about more than candy and romance. It is about celebrating what you love, what makes you vibrant, and what brings you joy. For me, that means celebrating my love of creating. I love bringing you fun tutorials every week and I love creating free printables for you (like the super-sweet kid valentines in this post). Creativity is hard-wired into my existence and since creating this site I am always on the hunt for awesome photos, tools, and resources that I can use to create things for you. I wish I had known about so many of these resources long before DIY Adulation came to be because they are useful in everyday life as well. To help you learn from my regret, here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including the free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

[bctt tweet=”Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid #Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.”]

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

1. Digital Scrapbooking

Digital scrapbooking is great for busy moms because they take a lot less time to create yet still make beautiful custom pages that preserve your family memories. You want the journaling on your pages to look handwritten (although maybe not yours or my handwriting) and still be legible. Custom fonts can do that for you. They can also allow you to create beautiful titles that tie all of your memories together in a theme befitting your family.

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

2. Cricut and Silhouette

Want to put those beautiful vinyl sayings on your walls but not loving the $50+ price tag? You can design and cut your own for a fraction of the price using your Cricut or Silhouette, both of which allow you to cut your own custom designs. By the way, those vinyl clings are good for more than just walls. Cut smaller ones to label containers in your pantry, personalize the back of your minivan, and update the numbers on your mailbox! There are a ton of uses here!

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

3. Custom Shirts

If you have an upcoming charity event, fundraiser, or just a class reunion making custom shirts is a great way to raise money, get the word out about the cause, or simply commemorate the night. You can totally print these online using a custom font to make your design stand out but that can get pricey. Instead, opt for printing out your design and creating a wax paper stencil to paint the shirts.

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

4. Invitations

There are a ton of events during the year that you end up needing invitations for. From birthdays to graduations and weddings, the list seems never ending. Make your own invitations using custom fonts. Not only can you make sure that you get exactly what you want (great for control freaks like me) but once you have your design you can make sure every piece of stationary is coordinated from the invitations and thank you cards to the place settings.

moon-and-sun

5. Graphic Design

Our society is rapidly approaching a day when graphic design will be as ubiquitous as email is not. Don’t think you have a use for graphic design? What about:

Making your own calendar or planner
Creating personalized address labels
Family Christmas card
Organized shopping list pad

There are a ton of ways you might already be doing graphic design work and not even realize it. Heck, making a PowerPoint presentation is a part of graphic design. If you don’t believe me, sit through a presentation where the speaker just reads verbatim off of the slides as you sit there wondering, “Why didn’t you just print this out and let me read it?”

Here are 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

6. BONUS: Custom Cards

Yes, we talked about invitations but let’s expand on this even more. You can makes greeting cards, post cards, and these awesome kid Valentines cards I made for you. You may love creating your own cards so much that you could open an Etsy shop selling your custom designs and make a little extra money on the side for your family. How awesome would that be? Go ahead and download these free Valentines and start getting inspired!

Being Your Friend Rocks

Tape a fun size pack of Pop Rocks to the Valentines after cutting them out.

(This Valentine was made using the Great Park font)

The “Write” Friend 4 Me

Cut along the black lines and place a pencil through to create a useful, non-candy Valentine.

(This Valentine was made using the Manny and Great Park fonts)

I’m Sticking with You

Attach temporary tattoos (as pictured) or fun stickers for this one; another fun, non-candy card. If your tattoos or stickers are larger than the ones pictured, tape them to the back of your Valentine instead.

(This Valentine was made using the Lisbon font)

Get your free printable kids valentines + find out 5 awesome everyday uses for custom fonts (including free printable kid Valentines) that I wish someone would have told me about years ago.

Are you ready to start creating your own awesome projects? If you loved the Valentines above (or already have an amazing new project in the works) you can get those fonts along with 37 others for only $29 from FontBundles.net! You also get an extra 15% off exclusively for being a DIY Adulation reader when you use the code “DIY15” at checkout! Oh, and did I mention that the commercial license is included? (If you just squealed a little, that’s okay. I totally did too.) If you’re still not convinced, you can try FontBundles for free. They offer a so you can try before you buy. Seriously, you guys… swoon. Check it out and get your free font now!

P.S. If you want to send me a gift for finding you this super-sweet deal, I like watermelon Pop Rocks… Just saying.

See where I’m linking up!

Sometimes you take on a project that seems simple but turns out to be fairly difficult for you. This can be a recipe you are making for the first time or a DIY project that isn’t cooperating. For me last week, it was creating a vision board. I saw all of these beautiful vision boards on Facebook that, frankly, could have been considered works of art (they were that gorgeous). I had never made a vision board before but I believe in the concept behind them and thought, “How hard could it be?” It turns out, very! Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. If you are struggling, too, take heart that you are not alone.

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

[bctt tweet=”Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern for making one! #visionboard”]

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Getting Started

I sat down on my living room floor after the kids went to bed armed with:

Poster board
Stacks of magazines
Glue sticks
Scissors

I had New Girl on Netflix to try to channel my inner Jessica Day and began flipping through magazines. If you read How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions then you know I already had my goals for the years. To provide continuity of vision I was looking for quotes and images in the magazine that represented those existing goals. About thirty magazines in I only had 3-4 pictures pulled out. It was then that I realized I had no idea what I was doing!

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Researching Vision Boards

What’s the first thing you do when you want to learn how to do something immediately? You Google it. So that’s what I did. Want to know what I learned?

There is no hard and fast way to create a vision board.

I love lists and specific, defined steps when doing anything new. Those lists don’t seem to exist for vision boards. To help you out, here is the best list I could discern from my research:

You can use one goal or many
A vision board is meant to inspire you
Or focus you
Or provide visual goals
It can include quotes, pictures, and objects
It can be on a cork board, poster board, digital file, white board, or any other visual form

Wait… Huh? So a vision board can be anything made out of anything to focus on anything. Oh… Now I get it. Not! In the end, I decided to go with this Huffington Post article by Elizabeth Rider to use as a guide.

Finishing the Vision Board

My vision board has 4 focal points (one in each corner):

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Publish

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Business

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Travel

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Personal Growth

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

Once I got all of the pictures and quotes on the board, it still wasn’t inspiring. I had to figure out a way to make it something I would want to look at. How did I do that? I added Hello Kitty of course! Once she was on there, the rest of the vision started falling into place. I added flowers for a 3-dimensional pop and glitter because no project is complete without glitter.

Apparently vision boards are not intuitive, at least, not for me. Here is the best list I could discern from my research about how to make a vision board.

The process of making vision boards can be challenging but chances are, you will learn something about yourself whether it is what your goals look like to you or what truly inspires you. I, for instance, learned I cannot be inspired by anything that isn’t pretty. This experience also cemented my belief that Hello Kitty really does make everything better. Have you made a vision board yet? What did you learn about yourself in the process?

See where I’m linking up!