I admit to feeling a certain creative rush when I walk down the card-making supply aisle at the Paper Source or at Michael’s. There’s all those fun do-dads that scream “make something with me!” And sometimes I do. Yet there’s always part of me that flinches at the cost and environmental impact of all of that stuff.

So this Valentine’s Day I’ve decided on a simpler, less costly and ultimately greener approach. I challenged myself to see what I could do with a few pieces of cheap, children’s watercolor paper, a magenta Sharpie, a handful of Prismacolor colored pencils and a Q-tip. I drew some simple heart doodles and rendered them with the Prismacolors, layering the colors on top of one another. The magic is in the Q-tip, which blends the colors into a soft, smudgy look. Although I love the flexibility of designing in the digital age, I realized how much I’ve missed my Prismacolors and Q-tips.