Frugal Valentine Craft Ideas from our Readers

An easy gift Valentines Day gift to make:
Energizing Bath Salts
Ingredients:
2 cup Epsom salts
1 cup Sea salt
10 drops green food coloring, 5 drops blue
6 drops eucalyptus oil
10 drops rosemary oil
15 drops peppermint oil
In a large bowl mix salts first, then a the other ingredients. MIX VERY WELL! -- Janelle from AZ

Take a clay terracotta pot. Decorate it with hearts out of paint or paper or whatever you want on the outside. Take some floral foam and put inside pot.  Then you will make flowers, you can get die cuts from the craft store or make your own out of paper. Cut a small notch in the center of the flowers and stick a sucker through the center of the flowers and put into the foam and repeat till you have a beautiful flower sucker pot! You can even take green tissue paper and put between flowers.  Very fun & easy for Grandparents, aunts, uncles or whoever. -- Mandy from OR

Last year my daughters and I saw a craft activity on HGTV and adapted it for Valentines Day to make an adorable wall hanging.  It's a beautiful heart collage.  We started by drawing a large heart on the side of a box.  Then we gathered all of our old magazines and picked a color to use.  We first chose red.  Then we ripped out small pieces of anything red.  Each piece was no bigger than one or 1.5 inches square.  Each piece was glued on the heart, overlapping as necessary.  When we finished, we cut a small hole in the top of the heart, cut the heart out, and hung it by a ribbon on the wall.  It sounds a little messy, but the effect is just beautiful.  The melange of different shades of red is very interesting, and the activity, though messy, kept us busy for hours.  The girls just loved it (ages 6 and 3) and I had fun, too!  We ended up making smaller versions in purple, yellow, and blue.  We sent them as Valentines to relatives and got many comments! -- Chantelle from TX

I am putting together a Valentine's Day toolbox for my husband that will consist of his favorite candies along with little love notes mixed in it.  The card will be his favorite picture of me and our son. -- Adrianna from TX

For our first Valentine's Day together, I set up an inexpensive but stunning scene. Go to several local florists, and ask them to save their trimmed rose petals. (Most will do it gladly for free) They go through so many roses during Valentine's day, they will probably have a trash bag full for you. Arrange to pick them up on Valentines Day. Then, at the supermarket or dollar store, buy as many plain white candles for power outages as you want (about 10 cents each) Then, cover the house in rose petals and candles and fix his favorite dinner. He'll think you spent hundreds transforming your house into a movie scene (but you spent less than $10!) Swept him off his feet! -- Lara from TX

One year for Valentine's day I typed out our wedding vows in a nice font on our computer, (We wrote our own) then I took a few of our favorite wedding photos and framed them all together like a collage and gave it to my husband. -- Cindi from GA

A cute idea I use for Valentines Day is take the kids hand prints from red paint and then put them down on pink paper in the shape of a heart.  The left hand goes more toward the left and the right hand goes to the right--I've also done this with feet--which is easier with the little ones--they turn out pretty cute and it's a neat way to remember how small the kids once were. -- Shannon from MN

I am going to use this to make V-day favors for my daughters preschool.  Wash out & dry baby food bottles. I am going to use stage 2.  Spray paint the lids to be red. Fill with red M&M's , jelly beans or other candy. Decorate with heart stickers. Tie a while ribbon over the lid.  I think they look just great plus my daughter & I had fun making them -- Pallavi 

Use those leftover Christmas candy canes to make Valentines!  Invert 2 candy canes and make sure the crook of the canes touch each other - it makes a heart!  Not only is it pretty - it's delicious.  And kids love to make them! -- Gail from GA

Stuff a large canning jar with old lace scraps, red/heart fabric remnants, snips of old Valentine cards,  ribbons, potpourri, old jewelry, etc.  Then place a votive candle holder with a red, pink, white candle inside on the top; it rests on the top of the jar!  -- Amy, Fort Wayne, IN

Last year I bought plastic canvas hearts. I used red, white and pink yarn to make balloon weights. I went to are local party store and bought each one of my family members a heart shaped balloon and tied the plastic heart on as a weight. They still have them today. -- Rebecca from OH

Every Valentine's Day I give my husband a gift that doesn't cost me any money, but it means so much to both of us: a love journal.  On March 1st every year I start a new journal and I add a new entry on the first of each month throughout the year.  In it I write about any fun, exciting, or sweet memories from the past month.  I also include tickets or brochures from any events we attended, pictures of the two of us, and any other small mementos that will remind us of the great times we had together.   When we read through the journals we're amazed at how much we've forgotten.  We'll also go back to old journals throughout the year just to remind ourselves of all the fun times we had together and to spark ideas for future plans. -- Trix, 31, from ON

I bought a box of Andes mints for my husband but added Valentine themed wrappers around each one that included something I love about him, be it physical assets or his acts of thoughtfulness, etc... I repackaged these into another decorated container & labeled them "Compli-mints" -- Karen, 38, from MN

My husband is a cyclist and loves power-bars.  I bought heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut hearts out of the bars, put them on lollipop sticks, wrapped each one in plastic wrap and gave him the "bouquet".  The cutters can also be used to mold tiny pink-tinted rice krispie treats for my daughter. -- Caroline, 39, from CA

For Valentine's Day last year, on the 1st of February I gave my hubby a small box, that I had decorated, filled with 14 strips of vellum on which I had typed "Valentine sayings" and verses of love or encouragement that I had gathered. I instructed him to pull out and read one-a-day til Valentine's Day. He thought it was a nice way to start each morning and appreciated my gift. -- Susan, 51, from MS

One year I took a pack of Post It Notes, and wrote something that I would do for my husband on each page.  It was kind of like a coupon book.  One sheet might say, "Good for a 15 minute shoulder rub" or if you wanted to get more romantic, "Good for a relaxing, candle lit bubble bath, with me!"  Other idea for your child is to do the same thing only put things like, "Good for 30 minutes playing a board game with you," or "Good for an hour at the Arcade."  They can then redeem them when they want to. -- Lorie from KY

Paint a clay pot from a gardening store red. I usually use a 3" pot. After it dries decorate with stickers, glitter, etc. Glue a foam heart onto a popsicle stick. Write something on the heart (ex. "Be Mine"). Fill the pot with chocolates or any other candy, stick the popsicle stick in the center, and wrap with red plastic wrap. This can be given to moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, etc. -- Erin from CT

I have a daycare.  We buy the candy heart boxes (small) with the cellophane heart on the front.  After emptying the box, I take a picture of the children (individually) and paste their picture on the inside of the box.  This is their present to their parents on Valentine Day. -- Renee, 55, from MN

Paint a large piece of paper blue for "the ocean". Paint a heart about the size of an adult hand red. Glue the red heart onto the ocean. Add a small red construction paper heart as a tail, and one as a fin. Glue wiggly eyes on the big heart and add a smile with a black marker.  Title the painting with a black marker  "Out of all the fishies in the sea, you are my favorite! By (child's name)" Enjoy! -- Heide :-)

Hobby Lobby Craft store has clear plastic coffee cups for $.88 that your child can take out the insert and color.  Rather than color the pictures they supply have your child do and hand print (and write Hi!) and put a picture in the cup.  The picture and handprint would have to be removed to clean - but we have made several and it's a big hit. (I use the supply picture to measure out on plain white paper the size of the insert.) -- Ginger, 31, from NC

My children, ages 4 and 2, made collages for Valentine's cards this year. First I cut out construction paper cards using fancy-edged scissors. Then I set the kids loose with all sizes of heart shapes cut from fabric, felt, craft foam, construction paper, sequins, and stickers. One set of Valentines also got glitter. Try this with other materials for more interesting textures: sandpaper, paper bags, faux fur, whatever you have lying around! -- LCD

Hearts & Arrows
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Cut out hearts and arrows using red and white paper, leaving them big enough to write on. I made the hearts about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter, and the straight part of the arrows about 4 inches long by 1 inch wide. On each one, write something you love about your sweetie.

Place them all in a box, and add some foil-wrapped chocolates (like Hershey's Hugs or Kisses). I used one of those photo storage boxes with hearts all over it, but even better might be a heart-shaped box from chocolates...

Time in a Bottle
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I used to travel all the time for work, so time with my hubby was pretty rare. One day I heard the song "Time in a Bottle" (by JIm Croce) on the radio and got the idea for this gift.

I searched the web, found the lyrics to the song, and printed them out on some nice paper (adding a personal note on the bottom). I rolled it up, and tied it with ribbon. I found a tall bottle at the dollar store, and filled it with red, white & pink confetti (you can use a handpunch to make this). You could add jelly-beans or candies instead of the confetti, or some red & silver foil-wrapped chocolates.

My hubby isn't very creative/romantic in return, but he always seems to appreciate my efforts. Hope you like these ideas ! -- Tina, 39, from Ontario

Valentine craft tip: This works for just about any holiday when you want to send a card from your child to a loved one. Trace your child's hand on a blank card and write "Five Reasons Why I Love You" on the front. On the inside, list five reasons ("You make peanut butter sandwiches for me", "You let me ride up high on your shoulders", etc.). You can let your child color in the hand, or trace it on a piece of colored cardstock and glue it on the card. -- Marci, 41, from TN

For Valentine's Day or any time of the year give homemade "Favor" or "Coupon" tickets.  Ideas could be "This Coupon/Favor is good for One Foot Massage" or ...Car Wash or Favorite Homemade Dinner, A Chore like cleaning up dishes, folding laundry, etc...  Make these personal to the recipient's preferences.  Be creative or simple.  This doesn't cost anything & is a welcome gift.  I've made 5 or six ticket stubs & stapled them together.  My husband keeps them in his jewelry box for safe keeping.  We've done this for years.  From past experience, I suggest an expiration date & destroy the ticket after it's been redeemed!  Great for kids too, I gave my 5 yr. old son Logan a decorated sheet of paper "This ticket is good for one Logan Day".  We did whatever he wanted to do that day.  He loved it!!  And all he really wanted to do was stay home & play games & playdoh! -- Debbie, 34, from PA

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