Free Printable Neutral Milk Hotel Valentine's Day Cards

Hello, friends! I realized I needed to whip up a card for my valentine this week and I figured I would just go ahead and share the bounty with my fellow procrastinators! If y'all still need a card but are opposed to leaving the house then you can print any of these for free at home— yay!



Nick and I aren't too big on Valentine's Day (although honestly I do love extra hearts on everything and a silly excuse to tell all my friends how much they mean to me!). We avoid the restaurant thing and freezing February weather by picking up a pizza and watching Wayne's World (it's totally "our movie"). I actually really love that it's become our little yearly tradition.

Anyway, back to the cards! We got to see Neutral Milk Hotel live earlier this month (something I never thought I'd get to do!) and they were incredible. Live brass, a theremin, and Jeff Mangum encouraging the audience to leave their seats + crowd around the stage all made for a spectacular show. I can definitely add them to the "bands I've seen live and cried through the entire time" list. (Other honorable mentions include The Flaming Lips, Damien Rice, and Born Gold.)



Since the show, I've been waking up with these songs in my head so when I went to make a card I figured I'd let Jeff say it all for me. The only problem is I couldn't decide which lyrics to go with.... Since I'm the most indecisive person ever, naturally I just made them all into a series because damn if I ever know what I want.

I'm no graphic designer and some of these are taken out of context and/or morbid but I kind of love the effect. I'm a huge proponent of greeting cards for people who hate greeting cards, so maybe these will resonate with some of ya.

So if you'd like to use them, just click here and you can either print from that page or click the download arrow next to the printer icon and save them to your computer. Just cut on the gray line and you're good to go! I obviously suggest printing them on card stock for best quality, but you just do what works for you. I also think they'd be really pretty printed on vellum and then attached to a cream card, so if you're up for something creative then you should play around with them. Feel free to share this with your fellow Neutral Milk Hotel fans— Happy Valentine's Day and enjoy!

Ps. I promise the yellow is actually lovely in person— it just didn't photograph well + the colors in my photos have been getting washed out somewhere between my camera and my blog. . . [insert technology rant].

Pps. Confession: I might have a secret ambition to be a greeting card maker so you should hoard these free ones away before I get famous and take over the world.

Amazing Craft: Scale Model of DC Made From Paper

Since my love for all things paper runs deep, one of the best treasures I saw while visiting DC was this scale model of the city— made entirely from paper and cardboard! I love making 3D books and pop up cards and I even took a paper engineering workshop awhile back so seeing something like this in person was just so incredible to me.


You can find this 3D map in the Smithsonian Institution Building, but I think it's better known as The Castle— I'm sure you can guess why it's called that?! The beautiful architecture drew us in (along with the hope of air conditioning on that scorching day!) and Shannon and I stared in amazement at this beauty for quite sometime. They even had a separate tactile map of DC with Braille labels— so cool!


Maybe I'm the only person this obsessive about paper, or maybe I'm easily amused, or maybe I'm just really bad at Googling researching because I couldn't find any other pictures or info about this model anywhere! Well, besides this tiny blurb from the information website that simply states it exists.


I really wish I had known about the lack of information at the time. There was so much we were trying to see and do that day so I quickly snapped a few pictures and assumed I could just go home and read more about it later on the Internet. But lo and behold— that was not the case. In fact, I had such a hard time even finding any info on it that I was starting to think I had dreamed it all up! I had a total Dorothy moment— did I really fly to DC and ride a giant carousal with my best friend and see a tiny paper city?


But I had pictures to prove its magnificence! So then I thought maybe I had misremembered and it wasn't really made out of paper. Then what was it made of?! What if I told everyone the wrong story? So I did the most nerdy only thing I could think of— I email the Smithsonian to ask them for more details (I TOLD YOU— I LOVE PAPER!). They indeed confirmed that it is paper and cardboard on wood (thus proving my sanity, for now). But that, my friends, is literally all I know about this lovely map.

Maybe I missed a brochure? Maybe I missed a plaque? Maybe I should've gotten a tour guide? Maybe there is more info and I'm just an incompetent jerk? I don't even know who made this thing?! I definitely should've taken more pictures. But I'm still amazed by it and I couldn't not share it! Soooooo basically 1. Never assume you can just go home and read about things on the internet and 2. If you have any info about this cool thing then pass it along my way ;-)


Have you been to DC? Have you seen this tiny paper wonderland?! If you ever get the chance you should definitely see it— it's just so neat!

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Addams Family Horrorgami by Paper Dandy

How amazing is this paper cut model of The Addams Family house? As a lover of paprcraft, The Addams Family, and classic horror films, this is totally my kind of art! This kirigami house is just one of the incredible models made by Marc Hagan-Guirey for a series he calls Horrorgami— haunted houses from a single sheet of paper. This body of work includes 13 original kirigami buildings based on infamous haunted locations from cult movies. Click here to see the others. I was personally blown away to see The Overlook Hotel from The Shining and I can't wait to see the Beetlejuice one, too. Maybe one day he'll get bored enough to try Hogwarts. . . but that's just wishful thinking!