If you are like me and have been in a relationship for seven years, you start to run out of cute things to get your significant other for the holidays. Lucky for you, I am the queen of homemade gifts and have personally used these DIY gifts and can honestly say they were a hit. Sure, I have no idea what he did with some of them afterward, but they make you look pretty good in the moment.
1.) The Movie Ticket Frame
My man and I are frequent moviegoers, and over the years I have collected all the ticket stubs and put them in a little memory box. Well, one year I was trying to figure out a way to use them in a cute gift. So I got on Pinterest and saw that people were putting their movie tickets or whatever kind of tickets in a shadow box. Which is adorable, but I wanted to be a little more original. I printed out the cutest picture I could find of us and put it in the middle of the frame, then around the picture I taped all the movie tickets shaping the picture in chronical order, and that was it. I wrapped it in a cute bow and called it a day. And let me tell you, he loved it! It’s still hanging in his bedroom at home! And if you don’t like that you could also buy a shadow box and put all the tickets in there! So I highly recommend. I even recommend if you want it for yourself, because that shiz is cute.
2.) Reasons I Love You Book
This one is fun! All you have to do is purchase, or make, a little booklet (I used a 3.5×5 sketchbook) and you just fill it up with all the reason you love them! After the first ten pages, you have to get a little creative but it’s cute when you start to point out the little corks they have. On the cover, you could decorate it with sharpies and puffy paint combining your names or coming up with a cute title! People have also used playing cards to make this, and they just decorated each card and then tied them together!
3.) Slideshow
This one is a little more time consuming, but it’s a great gift and also a great way to preserve your memories in a creative way! Gather any digital photos you have with the person you are making this for and pick the top songs that remind you of them and put it into a slideshow! When I made this I tried to put all the pictures in chronicle order and I wrote little titles every 10 or so pictures, to preview what was coming. For example, you could put something like, Remember that time in Cape Cod…, and then pictures from Cape Cod would pop up. Adding the little messages make it a little more personal. When I did it I used Adobe Premiere Pro to make the slideshow, but you can use things like iMovie or Adobe Spark!
4.) Playlist
This sounds like something you would do in 2008, but it’s still pretty cute, especially if you just started going out! Just get on iTunes and start making a playlist of all the songs that remind you of him/her and play it for them on Valentine’s Day! Or you can sneak onto their Spotify and make the playlist on there, and it could be a cute little surprise when they see it!
5.) Will You Be My Valentine Box
If there is one thing every human has in common, it’s that we love food. Find an old shoe box or Amazon box and dazzle it up with everything lovey-dovey; paper hearts, glitter, whatever arts and craft things you have lying around. On the inside flaps of the box write in big letters “Will You Be My Valentine”, and then fill the box with a bunch of their favorite foods and come up with cute little sayings for each food! For example, if you put a bag of Reese’s pieces in there cut out a heart-shaped piece of paper and tape it to the bag. Then on the heart write something corny like I love you to pieces. Or if you put in a bag of goldfish you can write, Extra Cheesy, just like you. You could get really creative with the food you put in there and who doesn’t love edible gifts?
6.) Our Song Frame
Grab yourself an 8×10″ matted frame that holds a 4×6″ image (can be found at the dollar store), find your first photo together or the cutest, and place it in the middle. Then on the white matt surrounding it, you could write the lyrics to the song that reminds you of them, or you could list all the reasons you love them!
7.) Matching Mugs
I use this gift a lot, for every occasion. Get two white mugs (can also be found at the dollar store) and Sharpie oil-based pens (regular sharpie will wash off). Then decorate the mugs however you want! You could write their name on one and your name on the other. You could come up with corny sayings like you’re the peanut to my butter; you could do so many things with this! I like to put a sticker of the letter of their name and then use the Sharpie to dot all around the sticker. Then when you take the sticker off the whole cup will be decorated except for the letter. When you finish decorating the mug, preheat the oven to 350° and then put the mug in there for 30 minutes. This will prevent the marker from washing off.
8.) 12 Months of Dates
Plan out a bunch of coupon ideas for every month in the year! Start with February and makeup anything you want. February could say: Good for a full day of yeses. No matter what he/she asks you to do you have to say yes! And they get to pick which day of that month they use it for, but they have to choose wisely because it’s only good that one time. Then you continue to make up a new coupon for the following months, March could be: Dinners on me, and you take them out to dinner where ever they want to go and dinner is completely on you! This was a hit when I gave this gift to my boyfriend. I regretted some of the things I put, but he loved it. I designed them in Photoshop and put little pictures that represented what the coupon was for and printed them on photo paper to make them look legit. But you could just cut out stock paper and decorate it with a sharpie! Whatever works!
Regardless, whatever you do for them this Valentine’s Day I am positive they will love it! Because who doesn’t like a gift that was made by the person you love?!