Unique Valentines Day cards are booming everywhere! Give something fun to a secret crush, your grade schoolers classmates or your life-long love. There is something for everyone from easy DIYs, quick printables and a few fabulous Etsy card inspirations.

Finish off your Valentine's Day Cards with a matching sticker printing order to seal up the envelopes. Find great deals at Next Day Flyers.

source: Fortune Teller

Activity cards can be fun for all ages. Present your valentine with a fun fortune telling card. This DIY card could get really creative! The fortunes on the inside could go as far as presenting fun things to do with your day/evening when you give it over... if you have made mystery plans for your crush or loved one, you could let them choose their fortune of events such as dinner, dancing, drinks, foot rub, shots, wine, make-out... you get the picture. ;)

Wallpaper of today is definitely not what it used to be with the installation process and the choice of patterns or images available. Ghastly florals and patterns of the past are replaced by reinvented, contemporary florals, patterns and palettes of the present.

This article is presented by InkShuffle.com offering you beautiful Easy Off Wallpaper – perfect for renters. Millions of designs in categories like vintage, cityscapes, and room openers.

We recently published a post about wall stenciling, also a booming trend and a more budget-worthy route than wallpapering, but could also be more work, depending on what you chose to paint. Wallpapering can also almost ensure a very clean, accurate and even more elaborate finished wall as well. At the end of the day, both have their pros and cons like anything else, it's just a matter of budget and preference.

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I'm falling fast in love with Kreme wallpaper patterns. Very Moroccan-inspired design work with fabulous palettes. The example above is one of their more minimalist designs called, Painted Gate.

"Painted finishes, although great in some spaces, don't equate to the luxury and opulence a few rolls of wallpaper can provide." - Cadee Wilder of Kreme

Sourced from slideshow in Kreme Wallpaper California Collection 2012

Contemporary wallpapers are sometimes so graphically reinforced with such dramatic design work. This type of pattern design is so intricate that paint just couldn't replicate (or could, but with a lot of effort).

Though Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday this year, some couples choose this day as a special time to tie the knot, often with small elopements or intimate affairs. Whether you choose a Valentine's Day wedding or one that falls the weekend after, you can add in some special details to keep the feeling of Valentine's Day alive.

If you are dying to add a few special details and crafts to your big day, here are some great ideas to add into your Valentine's Day wedding (or any other wedding for that matter!) Get ready for a little red and pink madness that will make your big day awesome.

Source: Once Wed

A girl has got to look her best on her wedding day, and to do so, a girl needs a few fabulous details to make her look great from head to toe. A sparkle Bando heart or a pair of fabulous Vivian Westwood plastic shoes will do just the trick. These details just scream sophisticated Valentine's accessories.

Source: Bando, Vivian Westwood, Ruffled

Though they are a details often forgotten, favors are a fun way to thank guests for coming and give them something personal to remember the day by. Boxes of small candies, a CD with music from the big day. or something else special is often times a very personal way to say thanks.

Source: Favors, Heart, Programs

If you are planning to have a Valentine's Day affair next year, here are a few unique Save The Date ideas to get your guests excited about your big day. A simple paint job (see the rest of this red paint shoot, it's awesome) or kraft paper save the date's with fingerprints from the happy couple.

Source: Save the date, Save the date

Sweet treats and fabulous florals are a necessity for any fabulous event. A color palette of vintage pinks and soft red's are a way to add Valentine's touches into a mid-February color palette.  A dessert bar full of macaroons are a great addition to any Valentine's dessert table.

Source: Flowers, Macaroons

A heart cake is one of my favorite ideas ever, but for a Valentine's Day wedding, it is even better! When the couple cuts the cake open there will be a nice surprise for all he guests with a big heart down the center. You can get even more creative adding in different colors, or adding a heart in the center of cupcakes. So awesome right?

Source:  Cake

Source: Shoes, Cupcakes

Looks like we can't get enough of fabulous cake ideas when it comes to Valentine's. Truth of the matter is, that no matter when your wedding is, a heart cake topper is always a detail that will be well-received.

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It can be fun to play up the Valentine's theme at your special day if you add in certain details to make the look complete. Of course, feel free to add in many other elements that you feel make the day totally unique to you. Red, pink and a slew of hearts will never go out of style, so play it up and have fun crafting the perfect details for your big day.

Want more Valentine's Day inspiration? Check out our Pinterest board filled with lots of pink, red and an insane amount of hearts!

Today we are chatting with Matthew Smith, currently the creative director of Zaarly. Known for his online persona as "whale," Matt has proven himself as a great designer and influencer in the field.

Zaarly is a marketplace where you can ask for anything, set the price, and keep the community rooted by building local economy and helping each other out.

Follow Matthew on Dribbble and Twitter.

First up, why don't you tell the community a bit about who you are, what you do, how long you have been doing it. 

I'm the Creative Director at Zaarly, a place that's bringing business back to neighborhoods again, because life is better when you talk face to face, when you're not just a number. I've been drinking this kool aid for a little less than a year. Before that I owned Squared Eye for about 4 years. Before that I worked at a thrift store.

Love is most often associated with the color red. Be that by conditioning of incessant advertising or that we are drawn to it by nature. Secondary to red is of course pink, in almost any level of saturation.

Red is one of those colors that possesses the strongest Ying and Yang of its theoretical definitions. Between love and hate, rebirth and death, the human relationship in any combination, could literally be summed up in the meaning of the color Red. Pink has what I would describe as a temperamental scale, more based on softness versus loudness than the extreme left or right end of the spectrum.

"Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love." - paper-leaf.com // COLOR THEORY poster freebie

As we know, colors can generate a wide variety of emotions. Red might be the most diverse and along with pink, a tag-along little sister, many other colors in tow can lend a visual message of love a great big pop!

Falling in Love by Etsy artist,  DJEMBE & CANVAS

"Cranes represent longevity and grace. The flocks ascend our champagne symphony, where love is blessed upon those who simply believe." - posted by artist at the listing

The artist gave us a wonderfully light feeling with this palette and the birds adding further motion. I also like how the painting balances the realities of "love" with a little bit of darkness in the bottom right corner. What do you think of this palette and representation of falling in love?

With the launch of our design content marketplace, CreativeMarket.com coming soon we thought it would be fun to take a look at the most popular design elements in movie posters from 2011. After all, it's the carefully & creatively designed marketing materials for the movies are what get us to the theater.
(honestly, the best selling designs at the movie theater these days are the concessions stands... $6 for a bottle of water?!) The designers capture our attention, but the real success of a blockbuster movie will be determined by the quality of the film itself (not including #4 on the list below)... Let's take a look.

What Will 2012 Bring?

What movie are you most excited about for 2012? What design elements do you think will dominate this year?

Stenciled walls are becoming quite the trend right now. And for good reason, it adds an awesome pop to the  room.  I have been dying to stencil a wall for a while now, the problem is, the process looks very daunting and frankly, a little tedious. Finally, I decided to go for it and stencil the main wall in my living room to give the rather drab room, a big pop.

Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

After looking through tons of color palettes and patterns, I set out to find the perfect gray and decided on a Moroccan pattern similar to the bedroom below. I bought the "Wall Stencil Marrakech Trellis" from CuttingEdgeStencils for about $50.

Poster design is a really fun, inexpensive and unique way to explore your creative side. From the 1,000's of fonts, variety of poster sizes, and layouts, sometimes, it's difficult to know where to start!

Once you master your design techniques visit Next Day Flyers for fast poster printing at great prices.

Today we are interviewing Jessica Sprague, design guru and owner of JessicaSprague.com. In February, Jessica is heading off a four week Poster Design course. She is also giving away not one, but TWO seats to this really awesome class! I couldn't be more excited about the class after taking Jessica's Subway Art class. I'm a busy mom, so I don't have a whole lot of time to join in a live class, which is why I love Jessica's classes- they are self-paced and available forever!

Follow Jessica: Twitter & Facebook

Can you tell us about yourself, how long have you been designing? Teaching? Do you have a job outside of JS.com?

In my former life I was a web & user interface designer for a software company, so I've been designing in some form or another for about 14 years. I started teaching digital scrapbooking, Photoshop, and graphic design in 2007 when I opened  JessicaSprague.com. Since then it is my full-time job, and I love it!

What three (or less) singular colors do you most identify with, why?

My favorite color is green - I love it in almost all of its shades from lime to olive. It's the color of growth and regeneration, of calm energy, of prosperity, learning, balance, and harmony.

If you had to describe yourself [currently] as a five color palette, what colors would they be? Could you provide me with HEX codes so I can create a JS palette for you? :)

I feel like I am a blue, two greens, and a red, coupled with a dark grey. Hex: aed835, d9ea65, 81c9c0, a90c19, a90c19

The greens I've already described. The blue is an ocean representing responsibility, stability, trustworthiness. The red represents fire and emotion, and the dark grey brings some gravity, but also represents the dark that balances the lighter, fresher colors.

If you could be a shape, what shape would you be? (i.e. a polygon = triangle, hexagon etc...)

I would be a 5-pointed star. :)

For those of you following Leatrice Eisemen's training schedule, her 4-Day Color Training Program is off to a start this very morning in Burbank, CA. LindaHolt and ModernMuse (aka Michelle Stroescu), the two COLOURlovers who won full and half scholarship for the class back in November are excitedly enjoying their first day of learning and meeting Leatrice.

To tide you all over until we get to do a followup with both Linda and Michelle about the class experience, Leatrice kindly took the time to answer the intriguing questions each winner had asked at the time of receiving the announcement that they had won.

Q & A From LindaHolt

Linda: I would love to know what the process is and what goes into choosing the Color of The Year? 

Leatrice: I literally travel the world looking for clues.  If I see a color that I think is ascending in importance, I make special note of it and then look for evidence in it gaining momentum.  Fashion is always a good indicator, but it is not the only design area that must be examined.  There are so much creative design areas that must be considered including graphics, the world of art, product design, home furnishings and so on .  Another very important part of the choice is tapping into the “zeitgeist ‘ of the world around us and the emotional message that the color imparts.  For example, with the that big gray elephant  (the economy) still looming large and the concern that is being felt internationally, we would not want to choose a color that could be a “downer’.  Instead we listen to people’s aspirations and try to give them a color that, at least symbolically, satisfies and encourages their needs and hopes.

Winter weddings are fabulous in their own right, and seeing as we are now in the thick of these winter months, you brides are some of the luckiest there are. Sure you don't get sunshine and hot days, but you get the chance of snow and creating a darn right cozy spot.

Sparkles, snow, candles and blankets adorn these weddings to create a romantic space during these cold months. Oh and the color palettes, I can't get enough of these color palettes.

Source: Bridge, Pears

For ceremony spaces, a cozy fireplace is the perfect backdrop to tie the knot. Details such as cotton and candles are perfect details to add to this space. Sparkly accessories are a fun way to add a little festive decor to any spot. And you can't go wrong with a little bit of sparkle every now and again.

Source: Ceremony Spot, Cotton