Loveland seeks verses, designs for 2025 valentine remailing

LOVELAND — The Loveland Chamber of Commerce and Visit Loveland have begun seeking entries for verses and card designs for their 79th annual Valentine remailing.

Loveland receives around 100,000 Valentines annually from all 50 states and 110 countries through its remailing program, in which envelopes are postmarked with a verse, also known as a cachet, that’s new each year. Sponsors and volunteers handstamp the collector’s stamp and postmark onto each individual Valentine that comes through the city’s post office.

This year, the deadline for submitting verses and card designs is 5 p.m. Nov. 8.

The card verse requirements are one four-line verse or two four-line verses, for eight lines maximum. “City of Loveland” or “Sweetheart City” must be referenced in a line of the verse, which should focus on romantic, sentimental or humorous content. All entries must be typed or neatly printed.

The card design should accommodate a finished folded size of 4 5⁄8 by 6 1⁄4 inches. There are no color restrictions other than it must be able to be printed on a four-color press. Only original art will be accepted, since copyrights will be checked. The design theme should carry throughout the card, which can be single- or multi-folded. Rough drafts can be submitted, but camera-ready art is required for printing at the entrant’s cost. All types of artwork can be accepted as long as its quality can be maintained when printed through a digital press.

The cachet verse must have a maximum of four lines, again with “city of Loveland” or “Sweetheart City” referenced in a line of the verse. The cachet design must be 3 by 1 1⁄4 inches, and the year must be somewhere in the design along with “Loveland CO.”

As examples, the 2024 Valentine card, designed by Tiffany Villavicencio, owner of Mountain Wave Marketing, featured a landscape photo of the Rocky Mountains and Devil’s Backbone. The card verse was created by Brenda S. Glover:

In any season – spring, summer, winter, fall – 

The Sweetheart City has feelings for all. 

And especially in February, we wish to say, 

“Joy, happiness and love to you on Valentine’s Day.”

The 2024 collector’s envelope artwork, designed by Corry McDowell, included the following verse written by Jeani Bork:

We are on our annual mission 

Promoting love, as is our tradition. 

Love is our message – Hearts are our brand. 

Happy Valentine’s Day from the City of LOVEland.

Each entry must be submitted separately with name, daytime and evening phone numbers, complete address and email address. Each person can submit multiple entries for all contests, as long as  each separate entry includes name, phone number, complete address and email address.

Entries can be dropped off or mailed to 5400 Stone Creek Circle, Suite 200, Loveland, CO 80538, or emailed to info@loveland.org. Questions can be directed to (970) 744-4791.

The chosen designs and verses will be incorporated into the card and cachet, which will be unveiled in January. The Valentine card is sold throughout Northern Colorado through select retailers and will be available for sale immediately after it is unveiled. The chosen cachet design and verse will be used to produce the official cachet that is stamped on all outgoing Valentines that come through the program, which kicks off on Jan. 7.

The cachet verse appears inside the cachet design. The completed cachet is reproduced on rubber stamps and used to hand-stamp the envelope of each Valentine card remailed from Loveland. It is also printed on the envelope of the 2025 official Loveland Valentine card.

Winners of the card and cachet contests are awarded cash prizes and become part of Loveland’s history.

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