I just wrote a little something for the folks of ezine, offering some original alternatives to classic long stemmed roses as a Valentine’s Day gift. I referred to the many paper craft ideas featured here on the blog, such as stamping and stenciling with roses & hearts. As well, I hinted to some ideas that don’t cost time and do say ‘I love you’. 

REALLY COOL &  REALLY ROMANTIC VALENTINE ‘GIFT’ IDEA

1. Sing the Song of Love: Honeysuckle Rose

This is my personal all-time favorite gift to receive: a song of love. 

Learning the lyrics and learning to sing is not easy, and performing in front of your sweetheart can be nerve-wrecking.  You can start learning now and sing it next year. In the meantime, you can just buy something that say love, roses and originality.

COOL

  2. Gorgeous Betsy Johnson Rose Baby Doll

Betsey Johnson Chiffon Empire Babydoll Angel Sleeve In a nice large size, not too skimpy but actually fitting a real woman. Its very beautiful and flattering

3.  Adesso’s Latest Lamp: Contemporary Red with Black Roses

Adesso 6512-08 Roses Table Lamp, Red Really cool. Also in chic black, but red is more romantic. Pre-order it.

ROMANTIC

4.Beautiful Rose Artwork

Such as this lovely champagne-colored rose bouquet in a Vase painted by Van Gogh over a century ago. Get this one, or … make your own. Click the image/this link to learn more about Van Gogh’s artwork here

5. Handmade Origami Roses

Complete instructions on how to make them. It’s easy and not as much work as it looks.

Useful to help decorate and personalize a store-bought present.

6.  Coral Rose & Pear drop Pearls

Red Coral Rose Cultured Pearl Tail Silver Pendant w. Silver Chain Necklace I think this is quite lovely and apparently it’s quite sparkly.  It’s sweet. However, if you want diamonds with that, check this first:

7. Romantic Tiffany Lamp with Roses

31 Inch H Cabbage Rose Table Lamp Table Lamps Love this Tiffany table lamp.

FOR GREEN GIRLS

8. English Rose Garden Bench

DC America SLP2660BRSP, Rose Resin Back Park Bench, Cast Iron legs, Rust-free Resin Back, and Hardwood Slats, Rust Resistant Bronze Finish Great for gals with gardens. Great match to …

9. Garden Rose Bush

Morden Sunrise Rose Bush Did you know you can make great jam / marmelade from rose pedals? Just got some made by a friend. Is this an Italian thing or do we do this in North America also? New to me, but sure is delicious. Great joy to receive a rose bush… It would be to me.

Those are some not so obvious Valentine Roses gift ideas.  Truth is, all you need is a kiss.

Valentine Day Crafts for Kids

Yep. You get to create your own book of love….

That is: you can use it as a Valentines Book with love verses, lovely Baby Album for photos, or Affirmation Book with notes.

No matter how you’ll use it, I ‘m sharing with you the ‘how to’ for a craft a lovely scrapbook project!

I started working with the original idea from scrapbooking supplier Kaisercraft and this is what I’ve come up with.

I’ve told Twitter readers  (follow me here: twitter.com/freecraft) that I’d been working on some Love Books for Valentines Day. This is true, but actually, this particularly love book that I’m showing you here, I’m making for myself. I’m going to use it to put my affirmations in. It will be a pretty display item for my desk, keeping my affirmations both handy and private. And, as my affirmations change from time to time, I can easily unlace the book and put new affirmation sheets in.

a Love Book

Download Free Templates for Scrapbooking

Your Handmade Valentines

To download my Free LOVE Letters Template in modified Bauhause93 click this link or the image on the left. 

Bauhaus93 is a modern font and you’ll see that it will allow you to create a contemporary version of the romantic Love Book below.  (Not every man would like to get a flower covered love note….)

The template letters are approximately 3.5 inch high. This leaves you with the option to either double it in size so that you could include photos on the inside pages. Or you could leave it as is as a stand-alone message of love.

Scrapbooking How To Create Your Love Book

How to Scrapbooking   Layouts Ideas |  Free Scrapbooking Layouts

1. Cut out the LOVE letters from our template. Glue letters onto thick recycled cardboard and cut cardboard to size.

2.  Cover each letter with fancy paper in the indicated coordinating colored papers.

You could use gorgeous scrapbooking paper, which would lead to the most sophisticated results (see image below). You could use recycled paper for a free and environmentally project.  Or plain colored craft paper. If you’d use the latter, I recommend you devise a love-themed or Valentine themed stamped pattern on each of our color craft pages. This will unify your design and create interesting detail. 

You could pick stamps that depict either love or items that say something about the person who the Love Book is for.  E.g. flowers and gardening tool stamps for the garden lover, candy stamps for a girly girl, or little poodle stamps for the pet lover.

3. I recommend you cut paper pieces that roughly cover each letter and then glue the paper pieces onto the paper. Now trim your edges with an exacto knife.

4.  Use a brown, tan, or even gold ink pad to lightly smear the edges of each letter, creating an aged and unifying effect.

5. Stack all pages. With a ruler, mark 5 holes to punch on the left of the ‘L’.  Punch holes into each of the letters at the exact same location.

6. Fill your album with photos, drawings, poem verses or other romantic items.

7. Lace up your letters in one long silk ribbon of complimentary color to your love book, or more bohemian, use 5 different pieces of scrap ribbon to do the lacing trick.

8. Finish off detailing your love book with scrapbooking elements, again of matching colors. Use embellishments that further the theme of the papers you’ve chosen.

For example: for a romantic scrapbooking look, use pastel colored papers, Rhine stones,  pearl hearts, silk flowers and similar. For a modern look, use slightly bolder colors, solid craft circles, coils and bold heart harm.

Leave me a message to share your handmade art book or valentines.

While the idea is to recycle, you might still want to browse scrapbooking supplies, and particularly scrapbooking kits, as they often hold great ideas of what yarns, charms and details to look for in your own craft room.

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Need to whip up an easy Valentine greeting card, or clean and simple stamped note cards?  Good. What I want to show to day is how easy it is to make lovely cards with minimal tools.

Easy Valentine Craft

These rubber stamped cards with hearts, squares & rectangles will do the trick for you. They cost less than 1/2 a minute to stamp. Fold your card, sign it with a personal message of love, and put it in an envelop. Done within 1 minute flat for a great-looking Valentine friendship and love greeting card.

If you are a neat stamper, your Valentines will look more store-bought, modern and graphic. If you are a messy stamper (like me), take advantage of all your bloopers and transform your basic idea into something more artsy, incorporating all accidental ink spots.

The latter is more time consuming (i.e.. not 1 but 3-4 minutes to make), but it will be more unique and special to receive. And you don’t waste any of your craft resources.

Craft Materials

With just two of those little inexpensive ink pads, scissors for a heart cut-out from a cookie bag & a glitter pen, I’ve created a range of Valentine Cards.  You can use  card stock or as I’ve used here, copy paper.

I think that one day, I’m going to write a book ‘101 crafts you can do with simple copy paper’ as I so often use it to make models or develop ideas, and often don’t even feel the need to transfer it to other higher quality papers or materials, as the copy paper version is ‘just fine’ or even ‘great’.

To make Valentine’s cards you should probably not use recycled paper unless you glue two papers together so that only their clean backs are showing.

Valentine Cards,

Easy as pie:

Good for adults

Great for teenagers

and lovely for kids.

Valentine Card Making Instructions

How-To Make this Valentine’s Card Fold your copy paper twice, into a 4.25” by 5.5” card Cut a heart out of thin cardboard (cereal box, or cook bag tag, or similar, but make sure there’s no grease on it) Rub your heart very lightly onto an ink pad and place it onto your card Press a larger ink pad over it to create a slightly more saturated imprint surrounding to the heart. Take a thin marker or as I used an glitter pen and stipple the inside of the heart.	How-To Make this Valentine’s Card Fold your copy paper twice, into a 4.25” by 5.5” card Press a small square ink pad onto your card to create slightly saturated imprints of little diamonds.   With a marker or glitter pen, stipple diagonal lines through the hearts so as to create an argyle pattern. Finish it off with a row of tiny heart prints.	How-To Make this Valentine’s Card Fold your copy paper twice, into a 4.25” by 5.5” card Cut a heart out of thin cardboard (cereal box, or cook bag tag, or similar, but make sure there’s no grease on it) Rub your heart very lightly onto an orange ink pad and place it onto your card Press a small square ink pad over your heart to create slightly more saturated imprints surrounding to the heart. Take a thin marker or glitter pen and stipple the inside of the heart.

Hearts Valentines Card Making Techniques

Don’t just stop with copying my designs. Make your own!!

When planning designs, experiment with color and form. Try complementing pinks with neutrals or greens;  or use pale-colored ink on dark paper.

Combine shapes in either un-expected or symmetrical  ways to create either fun or elegant effects. A silhouetted heart surrounded by  color blocks, for example, suits the space as nicely as hearts in rows.

The examples I have here are very suitable as a fast classroom project.   Using the techniques I’m showing you here, you CAN actually make a card for each kid in the class (or for all your friends at least) and still go to bed in time.

Valentine Card Making Tips & Ideas

Tip 1: Whiles you can stamp the valentines out ‘in bulk’, each greeting card will retains its uniqueness, each is printed individually just like mono-prints. Therefore, this does not have to be a last minute rush card. It can easily be THE card for your boyfriend or best friend.

Tip 2: The intensity and choice of colors set the mood: red and orange are good for friends and beloved colleagues with friendly notes inside’ the more pastel-toned and loving they are for engaged or newly married couples and other very romantic types.

Idea 1: Hand sign it on the inside with your finger print, which you can trace around with another heart shape. Options: leave as is, add glitter, or draw details with a thin pink/red/orange pen or marker.

Idea 2: if you want to get real creative, cut out a romantic scene using the paper shapes. Put the shapes directly onto the cards and stamp over and around it. I can think of grassy scenes with flowers, hearts, birds, blossoming trees and butterflies. Or whatever you fancy, really.

Valentine Craft Ideas

Easy to Make Valentine’s Cards in Photoshop
Handmade Valentine Card for friends
Valentine Day Crafts: How to make 2 different candy boxes ~ video tutorials
Other Valentine Craft Ideas

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Yesterday I posted two crochet craft ideas for Martin Luther King Day.  But, when I went to bed last night, in my mind’s eye, I saw this adorable paper garland with letters of just a 1/4 inch height.

I could barely sleep as I wanted to try it right away, but I waited till this morning to make one, just to inspire my husband.

(I still owe you a really good picture, but these will have to suffice for now).

The set tiny letter papers could also be place on a desk or counter, but I prefer to glue them on a string to hang them as a garland across the top of his computer at work. Craft for work, fancy that!

What a great little loving thing-o to add to his lunch – that is, if you prepare lunches, which I don’t. So, I just gave mine to him directly. However, it is not often that we have crafts for dads for the office. This craft project is a good one.

Anyhow, I am completely in love with this tiny garland, which can be made with the most minimal supplies: a strip of office paper, a glue-stick, alphabet stamps and a piece of sewing thread.

Now, I want to make tons of tiny inspirational garlands for myself and my friends.  With all sorts of inspirational quotes: famous quotes, affirmations, classic card greetings such as Happy Birthday, Get Well, Merry Christmas, Be My Valentine, I love You and more interesting loving phrases which I’ll keep for a later Valentine article.

Imagine getting one of these garlands in an envelop for Valentines.  Nice hey?

How to Make a Tiny Paper Quote Garland

• Just stamp the letters on scrap office paper.
• Use the picture where the letter pieces stand on the desk as a guide of how to put the letters on and how to leave some extra paper on the top.
• Cut out the letter strips
• Fold letter paper pieces over, so that they look like the ones in the picture.
• Put glue on the back of the letter pieces
• Place letter pieces over a piece of thread and press the sides together with your fingers to secure.
• To hang your garland, use either two pieces of sticky tape, two needles, and/or make some tiny knots.

Kids Craft

This was such a delightfully simple project to make…

Took all of 10 minutes, and half of that was to find the letter stamps in the alphabet box as they were not put back in alphabetical order (I’m not that neat). As well, only the most minimal of craft supplies are needed.

For Teachers: to file with your other great Martin Luther King art lesson plans. Great as a kids craft to do on Martin Luther King Day itself, on January 18. Craft for children of all ages, and of course anyone else young at heart.

Get The Craft Supplies

I used a alphabet and number set. This set that I am showing here is an excellent set, which will lasts you and and which will bring smiles rather than curses…

If you are a stenciling fan, well, you may prefer to work with alphabet stencil sets. This is a set with the alphabet in 4 sizes, and this is a link for alphabet stencils in all sizes and in 3 different font: Helvetica, Stencil Roman, and Brush (very nice). Pick the ones you want.

Glue, office paper, sticky tape can be best bought at your local office supply stores.

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Handmade Gifts for HIM
(Dad, Sons, Grandpa, Uncles & Friends)

Many of the gifts for mom could dub as gifts for men also. Just choose your colors right: strong blues, greens, browns, yellows and black. Man prefer straight lined patterns over curly romantic designs, so just choose what they’ll like. As well, consider their hobbies and embellish to reflect who they are. If dad likes boats and the beach, consider going with marine blue & white, and feature boat-themed ornaments and doodles.

Pictures : will be posted when handmade projects are completed	100% Handmade Craft Gift : step-by-step tutorials will be posted when my projects are completed.	Matching Companion Gift Christmas gift ideas of good stuff I would not mind getting…
For Cool Boys & Men	Cool screenprinted grunge T-shirt	7 For All Mankind jeans
For Dads	Argyle Sock Knitting Pattern	Rockport Shoes
For Husbands	Handmade Bookmarks	a great Bestselling Book or ANY Kindle, but particularly Kindle Keyboard w built-in Wi-Fi
For Best Sons	CD Jewel box Desk Calendar or DIY Perpetual Journal Calendar	(Gift Certificate for) His Favorite CD
For Grandpa	Hot water bottle cover to keep feet toasty at night. Click here for your free water bottle cable knitting pattern	Bedside Lamp for reading at night
For Smaller Boys	Monkey Perpetual Kid Calendar Get your free pattern here: cp.c-ij.com/…/2031/09_craft0010/index.html	Curious George books & toys or … almost as good: Monkey Pajamas

What are YOU making for the Holidays?

Comment below with helpful ideas, please. I need more inspiration! Email me pictures of your 100% handmade & recycled Christmas gifts, ok?! And don’t forget to enter my handmade Christmas Gifts ‘contest’/round-up. Chance to win a unique personalized Valentine card design, made just for you.

Handmade Gifts for HER

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My friend was cleaning her closets the other day, and asked if I was interested in her old house-shaped letter box. It looked … a bit dated, a bit odd-shaped, a bit bland as it was plain wood, and … I did not know what to do with it. Mentally, I was running my ‘Do I want to own this?’-test & ‘No clutter in the house’-mantra.

So, at first I said ‘No, thank you’. When I closed the door behind me, I politely said ‘I’ll think about it’. I started to like the fact that it was a bit odd, bland & an opportunity to recycle.

Then, on my way home this wonderful advent calendar idea popped into my mind. When I got home, I called her and said ‘Yes, I take it’.

Before I begin anything these days, I usually scour the web and look for other interesting design ideas to either spark or enhance my own creative mind.

There are some amazingly creative, beautiful designs of advent calendars: with boxes, and birds, garlands, envelops, … you name it. Here are some the best ideas and designs for handmade advent calendars for Christmas, according to my taste.

If you, like me, are making your own homemade advent calendar, I’m sure you’ll find a pattern you’ll like here. Many of the source-blogs have printables and instructions on how to make Christmas advent calendars. Visiting any or all of them will help you figure out how to make your advent calendar.

btw. The first two are most practical as the wooden letter box I received is most akin to these. Albeit that mine has less than 24 boxes, so a dose of extra creativity is required…..

This Felt Santa Advent Calendar is actually for sale. It looks so lovely handmade however. (It’s supplied by The Land of Nods, who has everything for your kid’s room, A-ZZZ.). For a limited time, they also offer Free Shipping on Holiday Decor. Check out their beautiful website.	(the company store)
(bhg)	(marthastuwart)
(canadianfamily)	(skiptomyloo) free bird template
the red thread	(http://www.jordanferney.com)
(allsorts)	(Frills in the Hills)
(LovelandMisc)
(Heartlinen)	… just kidding… (Made-In-England.org)

Stay tuned for what I’ll be coming up with.

DIY TUTORIALS & CRAFT PARTIES

If you have a fun DIY or craft tutorial, be sure to enter it in our weekly DIY/Craft TUTORIAL linky party, so our readers can find you and your great projects also.

Here is the current party, but if you happen to come across our site beyond July 21, you can just visit homepage of Fine Craft Guild and find the latest linky party there.

Meanwhile, this DIY tutorial here is featured in a number of wonderful craft parties. Click the link to learn more about them.

Copyright , Fine Craft Guild .com. All Rights Reserved. Amazing/Eco Home Decorating & Craft ideas and tutorials, for you.