Although the day of love has come and gone, it’s never to show your girlfriends a little loving! In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, here is a list of 7 of the easiest, and cutest DIY gifts and crafts for your besties! What could be better than a thoughtful, straight from your heart, handmade gift for all of those wonderful people in your life? Lets celebrate the crazy things they do for and with us!
1. Valentine Heart Attack
Materials:
· Box
· Scissors
· Hearts and lots of them!
· Pop-up hearts for the sides
Procedure:
Is as easy as it looks! Put the as many hearts as you want into the box and decorate the box however you please. Let your imagination go wild! These are great for loved ones living far away or even in town.Who doesn’t love getting snail mail?!
2. Felt Fortune Cookies
Perfect small gift!!! You can customize a fortune specific to the person or fill with candy to finish it off.
Materials:
· Felt squares (you can also recycle a felted wool sweater)
· Scissors
· Sewing needle
· Thread or embroidery floss Circle templates (yogurt lids work well)
· Scrap paper to make fortunes
Procedure:
Trace a circle onto your felt using a template. Cut out the circle. Fold the felt circle in half – it’ll look like a small taco! Stitch the outside edge, leaving a 1/2-inch opening on each side. (You could also use a glue gun.) Bend the open edges together to make the classic fortune cookie shape! Stitch into place. Cut your paper into strips, write a fortune, and slide it into a cookie. Try gifting the cookies in Chinese takeout boxes!
3. Valentine’s Day Candy Jars
Materials:
• 5 Glass Jars
• Scrapbook Paper
• Candy Hearts
• M&M’s
• Hershey Kisses
• Ribbon
• Scrapbooking Letter Stickers
Procedure:
Fill jars with assorted candy. Write out Valentine’s message with red marker on pink construction paper. Cut with scrapbooking scissors to make look pretty then place over the candy inside the jar. Outline the size of the jar lid on the back of the scrapbook paper. Then cut out tops for the lids based on your outline. Cut with scrapbook scissor to look pretty, then glue on.
Note: Glue sticks do not work!!
Tie whatever bow you can manage to muster up. Stick on letter stickers so you know whose is whose!
4. Hearts Card
Materials:
· Cardstock
· Glue
· Satin ribbon
· Red floss
Procedure:
Fold cardstock in half.
Glue two paper pieces to front of card. Wrap wide satin ribbon around front of card, covering paper seam. Overlap ends and glue. Wrap sheer ribbon over satin. Tie a knot in the center of card. Trim ribbon ends. Stack red and white heart buttons.
Tie with floss in a bow on top. Trim floss ends. Glue over ribbon knot on card. Tie floss in 4 small red hearts, knotting on top. Trim floss ends. Glue to ribbon above and below stacked hearts.
5. Paper Flower Wreath
Think tissue paper is only destined for gift boxes? Think again.
Materials:
· Scissor
· Tissue paper
· Floral wire
· Styrofoam wreath
· Hot glue gun
Cut tissue paper into 8”x 5” rectangles. Placing the lighter colors on top, stack 4-6 pieces of tissue paper on top of one another. Make ½” to 1” accordion fold creasing with each fold.
Fold floral wire and put over center of folded tissue and twist.
With scissors, trim ends of tissue into rounded or pointy shapes. Separate layers one at a time. Hot glue tissue flowers onto Styrofoam wreath.
6. Glitter Jars
Materials:
· Jars
· Glue
· Glitter (tons of it!)
· Small brush
Procedure:
Paint various designs on the inside of the jar with the glue. I chose to paint large hearts, stripes, and a solid gold for my three jars. Polka dots would also be cute! Pour a bit of glitter into the jar to coat where you’ve painted on the glue, then tap the jar upside down onto a piece of paper a few times to remove the excess. If you’re using various colors of glitter on one jar, do one color at a time and allow the glue to dry thoroughly before you start another color. This keeps the colors from mixing!
After you’ve finished the designs and the glue has dried, coat the entire inside of the jar with a thick layer of glue and allow to dry for at least 24 hours. This forms a “seal” over the glitter and keeps it from flaking off.
Fill the jars with your favorite Valentine’s treats! Note: Kind of obvious, but even though the glitter won’t flake off I’d still recommend only using treats that are individually packaged.
7. DIY Vday Cards
Show off your crafty side and send a card that’s actually made from home.
Materials:
· Pipe cleaners
· Thick paper stock
· Buttons
· Hot glue gun
· Pinking shears
Procedure:
Love Card
Form shape of each letter with the pipe cleaners. Glue onto the paper.
Using the pinking shears, create a decorative edge.
Heart Card
Place buttons on card stock making the shape of a heart.
Secure buttons to the paper with glue.
Happy Valentines Day!!!! And Galentines Day!!!