Making Valentine's Day gifts yourself is a wonderful way to show someone special that you care and create something unique and meaningful. Fortunately, you don't need to be an expert crafter to make personalized gifts that anyone would be glad to receive. Below, you can find straightforward and romantic Valentine crafts for any skill level, including ideas for making homemade Valentines with kids.
Personalizing a gift with a favorite photo of you and your loved one creates a meaningful keepsake that's one of a kind. Plenty of companies can print your picture on a wide range of surfaces, including mugs, clothing and even jigsaws. However, it's quick and straightforward to apply photo prints to fabric from the comfort of your assisted living apartment if you have a printer.
Iron-on transfer paper works with most printers and ink types, but it's worth checking the product specs to ensure it's compatible. You can purchase transfer paper online and in many craft stores. Once you've found the correct paper, you can print your photo and place it face down on your chosen item, applying heat with an iron to the coated side. You can apply photo transfers to most fabric items, but remember that the image may fade with frequent washing. Therefore, you may be best off using things that don't require regular washing, such as plain fabric shopping bags.
Nothing creates a romantic atmosphere quite like flickering candles, and it's easy to make your own love-themed tealight holders by repurposing some clean, used jars. This craft creates a contemporary and reusable home decoration and reduces the amount of waste going to landfills.
To get started, you'll need some used mason or jam jars. Wash the jars thoroughly to remove any dirt or leftover food and dry them. Next, cut a shape from adhesive plastic film and stick it to the jar. Stand the jar upside down and cover the entire outer surface with spray paint in your beloved's favorite color. You should always use spray paint in a well-ventilated area and avoid inhaling the fumes. Allow the paint to dry completely, and then, peel off the film to reveal your design. Pop a battery-operated LED tealight inside before wrapping the gift.
This craft is quick and easy enough for beginner crafters, but there are plenty of ways to personalize your design. Heart or flower shapes are always popular Valentine symbols, but you may wish to consider using your loved one's initials. Alternatively, you could make a set of candleholders with different letters to spell out a romantic word or a message to the recipient.
If your Valentine loves watching birds in the Broadmoor Court assisted living community in Colorado Springs, a homemade bird feeder is a great way to show you care. Fortunately, fat cakes for birds are affordable and simple to make, and they're a great project for making homemade Valentine gifts with visiting grandchildren.
To make the fat cakes, you'll need a solid fat like suet or lard and some bird seed in proportions of 1 part fat to 2 parts seed. Melt the fat in a saucepan and stir in the seed. Check that the mixture is cool enough to handle before giving it to kids to mold, but don't let it set hard. You can then use heart-shaped cookie cutters to shape the mixture into romantic shapes, poking a hole in the top so that you can hang the feeder from a tree.
Place your fat cakes in the freezer to solidify them and then thread a pink or red ribbon through the hole. Store the gift wrapped bird feeders in the fridge to keep them fresh until you're ready to give them to the recipient.
Personalized artwork is a great way to brighten up your assisted living suite, and you don't need to be a master artist to achieve professional-looking results. One of the easiest ways to make gift-worthy artwork is using letter tiles.
You can purchase letter tiles from craft shops or use unwanted tiles from an old Scrabble game. First, you'll need to plan which words to use. Ideally, your words should share some letters so that you can arrange them like a crossword. You can choose any words that are meaningful to your Valentine, such as your family's names.
Next, cover a piece of card to create a pretty backdrop. You could use watercolor paints to create a bespoke effect, but old book pages or even patterned gift wrap work well if you're less handy with a paintbrush. Finally, hot glue your tiles to the backing card and place your artwork in a decorative frame.
