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Thoughtful DIY Valentine’s Day Gifts for Your Loved One

Last Minute DIY Valentine's Day Gifts

My favorite gifts aren’t the ones that cost the most or are the biggest. They are always they ones that have the most thought behind them. It could be something as little as a picture in a frame or a fitting greeting card. I also love making homemade gifts for loved ones. If you are stilling trying to decide what to get your loved one, or if you want to add a personal gift made with love, here are my favorite from me and other awesome bloggers.

 

52 Things I Love About You – Deck of Cards or Album

52 Reasons I Love You List

A few years ago I made my husband this ’52 Things I Love About You’ Deck of Cards. He truly loved it. You can get the template I used from Peppermint Creative for FREE. For each card, there is a reason why I love my husband. You can also do just a little book or put all the reasons on pieces of paper in a nice jar. See more tips and a list of over 100 ‘Things I Love About You’ ideas from me and my readers.

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How to Make an Ornament Out of a Photo

How to Make a Homemade Photo Ornament

Two years ago I attempted to start a tradition at Christmas. Each year I want to make a new ornament capturing my kids (See the photo ornament I made the first year here). I say attempted because last year I failed. But I had a good excuse… We moved into our new house on Dec 8th and had to unpack, decorate, host 3 holiday parties AND I was eight months pregnant. It was pretty stressful and the ornament was the last thing on my mind. So this year I plan on making two, one with a photo from last year and a new one for this year.  This is the ornament I just made for last year with a photo from Dec 2011.

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DIY: Decorative Votive Holders from Tissue Paper

Tissue Paper Votive Holder

I have always heard that tissue paper could give create a stained glass look, but I wasn’t too sure until I tried it out myself. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! This is cheap to make using scrap tissue paper and votive holders that you can get for a dollar or less.

NEED:Votive Holder With Tissue Paper

  • Tissue Paper
  • Elmer’s Glue
  • Votive Holder
  • Large Paint Brush (sponge brush works great)
  • Permanent Marker (optional)

HOW TO:

  1. Cut tissue paper into 1″ or smaller squares
  2. Brush a thin layer of glue on about half the votive holder
  3. Randomly place the tissue paper onto the votive holder (on the bottom and top, I let the tissue paper hang off and trimmed when I was complete)
  4. Brush more glue on as you work your way around
  5. After you have covered the holder, brush glue over the whole thing
  6. When glue dries, decorate with permanent marker (optional)

What do you think? I was very impressed how it turned out. It doesn’t even look like tissue paper. I am going to try this on a larger scale when I can get to the store to get a hurricane candle holder.

 

Homemade Photo Ornament

My favorite gifts to give family members are ones that are homemade and personalized. Last year I wanted to start a tradition of giving the Grandmas a different homemade ornament with a picture of my sons on it. This is the first one I did (I hope they don’t expect them to get more elaborate each year).

Homemade Photo Ornament(Click to image to enlarge)

Unfortunately, Nifty Mom was non-existent last year so it never crossed my mind to take step-by-step pictures. It was a little more difficult than I would have liked it to be, but it was worth it.

NEED:

  • Glass Ornament (sold at craft stores)
  • Ribbon (ribbon with wire works best)
  • Super Glue (only thing I could get to hold good)
  • White Glitter
  • 2 Photos cut to fit in the ornament, mine are approx 1.5″ squares
    • I used 1 photo and 1 small scrapbook paper and made snowmen out of my sons’ thumbprints

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Cut two pieces of ribbon a few inches long and glue them side-by-side in the middle of the back of one picture. Glue the other picture on top of the ribbon. Place under a heavy book to hold the two together for a few minutes to allow the glue to dry completely.
  2. Detach the metal top of the ornament and temporarily remove the wire loop attachment. Pull the ribbon from attached to the pictures up through the holes on the metal top piece (the holes on mine were too small, so I used a screw to widen them). Replace the wire attachment.
  3. (this is the most difficult part) Roll the picture vertically and put it into the ornament. Once in, I used a pen to stick in there and flatten the picture out as best as possible.
  4. Using a paper funnel, pour some white glitter in ornament.
  5. Adjust the two ribbons on the top of the ornament so the picture is center and tie. Cut the extra off and put a small amount of super glue over the knot to secure.
  6. Add an ornament hook or ribbon on the loop to hang.

Please let me know if you have any questions! I hope yours comes out even better than mine did!

 

‘52 Things I Love About You’ Ideas & Tips

Over the summer I posted ‘52 Things I Love About You’ Deck of Cards Album, a gift I made for my husband for our wedding anniversary. Lately, I have people asking how to come up with 52 reasons I love my husband. So I created a list of over 50 to get you started or if you are running out of ideas.

It took me a while to write down 52 things. Trust me, I love my husband, but coming up with 52 reasons written in such few words was not easy. My best advice is to think about little things, be specific. Some times one thing can be broken into 2 or 3. For example, don’t just say, “You are a great dad to our kids”. You can also break it down into the little things he does with the kids: Read bedtime stories, always wants to hold them, the way he looks at them, etc. Also be creative and personal. Put something silly he does all the time or even something that mildly irritates you. Make it personal!

100+ Ideas & Tips for 'Reason I Love You' Gifts
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‘52 Things I Love About You’ Deck of Cards Album

Last week was my husband & I’s Anniversary and I made him this amazing deck of cards I just had to share with everyone.

I came across this idea online a few months ago and knew I had to give it a shot. It was on an awesome blog, Peppermint Creative. Mine didn’t turn out quite as good as hers, but I was happy and so was the Hubby! On each playing card, you put a different reason you love the person. You can download the template to make the 52 different cards. It was fun coming up with different things to write on each one and it is a great personal gift.

After many requests from my readers, I created ‘52 Things I Love About You’ Ideas & Tips if you need some assistance on coming up with 52 different reason. Please let me know if there is anything further I can help you with.

Visit Peppermint Creative for the step-by-step instructions and to download the templates!