Fruit Basket

I took this Valentine to my husband at work. He enjoyed sharing the fruit with his co workers.


This is what the card says:

I love you ”berry” much.
You’re one “peach” of a guy.
You are absolutely “grape”.
You’re the “apple” of my eye.

You’re one in a “melon”.
In the “lime”light you should be.
I am “nuts” about you.
Oh “Honeydew” you love me?

You and I are quite a “pear”.
I’ve gone “bananas” over you.
You’re “plum” perfect in every way.
“Orange” you glad our love is true?
Copyright by Christine Strong -February 2001

Key To My Heart

This Valentine is pretty simple. Even though it is pretty plain and straight forward, I like it because, the person you give it to can take the key off the Valentine and carry it on their key chain as a continual reminder of your love for them. I bought the key at an antique store. Antique keys come in all sizes. So if you are planning on them carrying it with them, choose a small one so it isn't bothersome.

I thought of a poem you could add to this valentine:

Treasure this old key,
And never from it part.
A reminder that you’ve unlocked
The love that’s in my heart.
©Christine Strong February 2009

All Boxed Up

At Christmas, my son's friend made him 100 little boxes like this to reply to his invitation to the dance. She made them out of Christmas paper. Needless to say, I was quite impressed. Now that I know how easy they are, I'm still pretty impressed. But they are super easy to make and are really cute. You can make 2 boxes and 2 lids out of one 12x12 inch piece of paper. A 6x6 inch piece of paper makes a box that is 2x2x1 inch. It will fit about 6 Hershey Kisses. Or you could fill it with anything you want. You can make to bottom white with a decorated lid. Or you can make the bottom and the lid match or make them out of coordinating papers. You could make them in graduated sizes and put one inside the other or stack them up. I cut the paper for the bottom box 1/4 inch smaller than the paper for the lid and I used a small piece of double faced tape to make the points stick on the bottom. You can find instructions on how to make them here

Gourmet Food Stores

If there is a specialty or gourmet food store near you, check it out for Valentine ideas. My favorite is PirateO's in Draper, Utah. They carry some unususal candy bars from Europe and really cute foil wrapped Chocolate. These candies make great Candygrams. Because they are not the typical American candy, they are much more fun than the normal Candygrams. Items change from time to time so you may need to stop by often.

My pictures aren't great and are a little hard to read, so, here is what they say:

Don't Be A "FLAKE" Be My Valentine

Take "TIME OUT" To Be My Valentine

I "LOVE" You

You Are The "TOPIC" Of My Affection

We've Been Struck By Cupid's "AERO"

You Make My Head "TWIRL"

Have You "HERD"? I'll Be "UDDERLY" "MOOVED" If You'll Be My Valentine. (Chocolate Cow)

Aargh, You've Stolen Me Heart, Matey (Chocolate Pirate)

Of All The Fishes In The Sea, I'm So Glad That You Caught Me (Chocolate Fish)

Happy Valentines From Your Favorite Chick (Chocolate Fish)

I Don't Mean To Bug You, But, Will You Be My Valentine? (Chocolate Lady Bug)

Rah! _____ Loves_____, _____ Loves ______, Rah (Chocolate Parrot)

Some Bunny Loves You (Chocolate Bunny)

My Love For You Is UN"Bear"able (Chocolate Teddy Bear)

I'm Plane Crazy About You, Valentine (Chocolate Air Plane)

There Snowbody Quite Like You (Chocolate Snowman)

Pirate Hat

Next to Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentines Day my family's favorite holiday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19). Every year my hubby and I, and any kids we cah coerce into coming along, dress like pirates and go to several neighbors homes and tell pirate jokes (clean ones) and give them a package of Chips Ahoy cookies (Pirate's favorite cookies) and a bottle of Ginger Ale. We do all this while talking in our best pirate voices, of course. I know you are wondering what this has to do with Valentine's Day. But today I found the best Valentine for my husband. It is a really beautiful pirate hat (it was at a going out of business sale at a costume shop by me). I know, it's probably not the greatest idea to share because most men really wouldn't want one and it really has nothing to do with the day at hand. But my poor husband has had to settle for a crummy bandana for the past several years. He will be absolutely thrilled!!

My point is, anything can be made in to a valentine. Whatever means something to you or your husband can make a great valentine. Just use your imagination. Be creative. Have fun.




By the way, I'm making a card that says, "Arrgh, You've stolen me heart, Matey".

Oh, and what ever you do, don't tell my husband. I don't want to ruin the surprise!!!!

hot pads

My friend made a set of these for me for Valentine's Day a few years ago. I, in turn made some for each of my sisters. They are my favorite hot pads. They are the greatest shape and work perfectly. I use them all the time. Not just around Valentine's Day.

Find the pattern here

I found some instructions on how to make them on a blog. She gave me permission to include her instructions here.

Pillow Cases

I made these pillow cases for my bed this morning. Some of my kids made similar pillow cases in their beginning sewing class. That can give you an idea of how easy they were to make. It took me about an hour (maybe an hour and a half including the applique). I made king size pillow cases and it took 1 yard of the print and 10 inches of the red for each.

I used the following instructions ,and then appliqued the letters on the sides.

I think I'll put them on my pillows sometime around the first of February.

Stud Muffin

Some of my husband's favorite Valentines are the ones that he can share at work.

My friend, Barbara made a valentine for our Valentine exchange using a muffin sitting on a 2x4.


She included a poem that says:

Any which way you cut it
Measure it however you can
You have certainly nailed it
As my lovin' STUD MUFFIN man!

Another friend adapted it by making a box out of 2x4's and filling it with lots of minature muffins. We then delivered them to the office for everyone to enjoy.

wall lettering

Another cute thing, that my neighbor did was made a vinyl lettering for the wall. this is simple and can be custom made to say anything you want. There are plenty of places on line, or at boutiques that you can order these things. they go up easily and come off without a problem but will stay as long as you leave them there. My husband loves this because he sees it all the time and it reminds him of how much I love him.

Pillows

One of the things that I did last year for my husband was made him throw pillows for our bed. I stitched cute sayings on some of them. and others I just made, like a red heart and a soft fuzzy red squishy pillow. To do this all I did was find sayings that I liked, then typed them up on my computer in a cute font (see fonts on the side bar for places to download cute fonts) and then traced them on to muslin in pencil and stitched over it. then I created pillow covers with them. Very easy, but time consuming. My husband really likes them, but not so much on the bed, so he moved them out to our front room where they are displayed nicely on our couch.

Magazines

It seems that in February every magazine published has really cute Valentine ideas. Many have websites that have even more available. Check your favorite magazines either at the store or on line. They have tons of crafts for adults as well as children. There are recipes galore. Take a minute to browse through the links to some of my favorites in the column at the left.

Fonts

It's fun to make your own valentines on the computer. If you can find the Broderbund CreatACard software or Broderbund Printshop, they help you make great cards. However, CreatACard is out of production so if you don't have it, and you want it you'll have to find it on eBay or someplace. It was one of my favorite programs, so it makes me kind of sad that they don't make it anymore. Hallmark also makes a card program. It's not as verstile, but it still works.
Another thing that will make your Valentines more fun, is cute Valentine Fonts. There are a lot of them available for free on the internet. Just type "free fonts" in your search engine. Look for Valentines, Hearts or Love in the search box at the site and see what you come up with. I have put links to some of my favorites in the column on the left. You'll have to click on them to see what they look like. If you click on the "heartbreaker " it will take you to a site that has a lot of other fonts on it, too. Mix them up. Color them. Fonts are just a lot of fun!

Lunch time treats

Kids love getting Valentines in their lunch. If your child packs a lunch to school, it's easy to put a little Valentine in with the lunch. You can also put it somewhere in their backpack where it will be easily found. If neither of those options work, They can be given as after school snacks. These are a few ideas that can used for lunches for kids:

Orange --Orange you glad I picked you for my Valentine.
Ham sandwich cut in a heart --You know how to ham it up.
Cheese sandwich cut in a heart --I know it's cheesy, but I want you for a Valentine
Carrot Sticks-- If you “carrot” all, you’ll be my valentine.
Pretzels --I’m all tied up in knots over you.
Potato Chips --You're a Chip of the Old Block, Valentine.
Apple --You're the apple of my eye.
Banana --I'm bananas over you.
nuts --I'm nuts about you.

It's Never Too Early

It is never too early to begin looking for things to use as Valentines. Just Friday, I found some great Hershey's Kisses that were at a Christmas clearance sale. They are wrapped in black and the little paper tag says "Naughty". There were silver ones that said "Nice" too. I haven't decided yet what to do with them. But I think they will be great for something and if I hadn't been looking for Valentines already I would have passed them by. There are also great things available at Halloween. Once I found eye ball chocolate balls. I put them in a cellophane bag with a cute bow and a note that said "I only have eyes for you". Again, if I hadn't been looking for Valentines, they would have been left on the shelf. You can make a Valentine out of just about anything.
Christmas clearance sales are a great time to buy Candy Kisses, Rollos, Reese's Peanutbutter Cups and all the candy that is wrapped in foil. Just separate it by colors, Red & Silver, and Green & Gold. Use the Red and Silver (and possibly the gold) pieces for Valentines. Save the Green and Gold to use on St. Patrick's Day in March.
Another great resourse, if you are thinking way ahead, is yard sales. I have found a lot of cute baskets (heart shaped) and candles and heart shaped soap at yard sales. I even found a heart shaped paper lamp. They are not neccessarily things I would choose to decorate with all the time, but they are great and cheap for Valentines. My only problem with yard sales is that after you have the stuff, you have to store it until Valentine's Day. Then I sometimes have a hard time remembering what I have or where it is. Now I have a Rubbermaid container in my storage room that has Valentine stuff init. That makes it a little easier. If you have limited space, storage might be a problem.

Neighborhood Activity

When I was little, it was common for children to secretly put valentine's on their friends doorstep, ring the bell and run (I know that shows that I'm an old woman). That no longer seems to be a custom. But none the less, it was a lot of fun and I think it is kind of unfortunate that it is no longer continued. In that spirit, for a couple of years, my neighborhood did a Valentine cupid. Each family that wanted to participate was assigned another family. During the week before Valentine's Day, they deliver treats or small Valentine presents three times to the assigned family. Families with small children love this. My kids loved it when they were small. It teaches them to be kind (sometimes to people they don't even know well). And they love being on the recieving end as well.
We delivered the following poem when making the assignments to the families.


Valentine’s Day is coming.
It’s just around the bend.
A time to show each other
We’re glad that we are friends.

The cupid is a symbol
of the love that we all share,
A reminder to each one of us
to show someone we care.

For someone else’s family,
The cupid you will be.
It makes you feel so good inside
as you will plainly see.

We’ve given you a family
to provide for in this game.
And in return, someone else
will do for you the same.

Three times within the week
before this cheerful holiday,
sneak something fun onto their porch
then quickly run away.

The game is rather simple
and so much fun to do.
Enjoy yourself and share some love.
Happy Valentine’s to you!

You have been assigned the _________________family.
Address______________________
Phone________________________
©Copyright by Christine Strong - January 2001