Budget-Friendly DIY Valentine’s Day

This Valentine’s Day, don’t spend money on cliche roses and boxes of chocolates. For a fraction of the price you can make your own gifts, foods and fun decor. Here are a few ideas for a Budget-Friendly DIY Valentine’s Day.

Gift Ideas

Love Coupons: You can find love coupons at the store for $12 or more. But you can make your own for a few bucks by using scrapbook paper, embellishments, stamps and markers. Take a hint from Ed Young and make a coupon to spend Valentine’s Day in bed. His book “Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse” details a challenge of spending a week in bed together and encourages more sex. Pastor Young said in an interview with Stephen Colbert that sex is the “Super Glue of marriage.”

Valentine-Gram: This simple and cheap Valentine’s Day gift idea turns an ordinary brown bag into a fun valentine-gram.

Directions: Take a brown paper bag and stamp or write any sentiment you wish. I prefer “Be Mine” with hearts. Once you’ve done that, fill the bag with candies, treats, lip balm or anything else you wish to put in the bag. Fold the bag so it closes and use a small hole punch to punch two holes on the middle of the fold. Use bakers twine or red ribbon to tie the bag shut.

Love Card Deck: There are a million reasons why you love your significant other, but you can express to them 52 reasons by using a deck of cards. This fun romantic gift will be a card scrapbook of sorts, and once he plays cards with his buddies he can read your reasons of love at the same time. This project is free if you already have a deck of cards!

Directions: Write 52 things you love about your man think about trips, special events, pets, favorite gifts. Use a fine tip Sharpie pen and write one reason one one card. Repeat this process until you have written on every card. For an extra personal touch print out a few small photos of you guys and tape them to the box.

Sweet Treats

Valentine S’more Bites: These little bite-size S’mores will transform the traditional campfire classic into a little piece of Valentine’s heaven. These delicious treats will have you wondering why you never made them this way before.

Recipe Courtesy of SomewhatSimple.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• Dipping chocolate
• Heart shaped marshmallows
• Heart shaped cookie cutter
• Sprinkles

Directions:

Mix melted butter and graham cracker crumbs together. Spread them evenly onto a foil lined 9″X13″ pan, press down firmly and place into the freezer for an hour. Use a mini heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out graham cracker hearts. Next, dip the very bottom of the marshmallows into melted dipping chocolate and place them on top of the cut-out graham cracker crusts. Once cool dip the whole thing back into the dipping chocolate, place on wax paper and top with sprinkles.

Holiday Decor

Love Wreath: This fun and simple wreath only costs a few dollars to make and will be a fun and romantic addition to any space. All you need is a heart-shaped foam wreath (any size will do, it just depends on how big you want your wreath), a paperback book (or vintage sheet music, magazines or vintage books), glue gun and glue sticks, and some distressing ink. Idea courtesy of Makelyhome.com.

Directions: Tear out some pages and distress the edges with some distress ink. I like to use an ink with a vintage, rustic brown color but you can use any color you choose. Next, roll your paper into any method of your choosing. . . cone, ribbon, circle, or any other way you like to fold the pages (You can see paper-folding tutorials and a variety of ways to roll the paper).

After rolling the page, apply some glue at the end of the roll and glue it to the wreath, make sure all the distressed edges are facing up. Apply pages around the whole wreath in one layer. Once you’ve completed your shape, flip the wreath over. That will now become the bottom layer. Continue rolling pages for your wreath and fold a little tab on the bottom edge and apply glue to the tab. Always finish one layer before moving to the next.

Once you reach the inside of the wreath glue pages to the inside and place as many pages as you wish. Once you’re done you might need to go back and fill in some sections. Use a piece of ribbon and attach it to the back of your wreath for hanging.