Love Is In the Air

I love gift giving, which is why I love the holidays. Valentine's Day is no different. Like all of our holidays, gift giving is the commercial arm of the day. It's so easy to get caught up in all of the craziness of the commercial aspects of the holidays. Like the rest of you, I dive head first into the craziness.

I actually took a step back this year and did not decorate like I usually do. The only hint of Valentine's Day in the house is our Valentine's Day Door Wreath (check out tutorial here) and some mirror clings. O loves the mirror clings. In fact they have become aN educational tool. We practice our colors with these cute little conversational hearts.

So back to the gift giving. I love to give gifts. It's so much fun finding just the right gift for that special person or making that extra special something. I don't know about you, but Pinterest has definitely brought out the gift giving in me. There are so many ideas. The options of why and what to make, buy and give are endless. Sometimes, I go cross eyed as I scan my feed and surf from board to board.

Here is a glimpse of our Valentine's Day gifts this year. It's not too late to make your special someone a special little something.

I had the most fun making the Mister's gift- 12 Months of Pre-Planned Date Nights.

Head over to The Thinking Closet for this awesome printable.
What you'll need:
Glue
Card stock
Scrapbook paper
Hole punch
Binder ring
Creative date night/day ideas

Need to satisfy your sweet tooth? I love Rice Krispie Treats, always have. I originally bought these with O's class in mind. Then they asked us not to send in anything for Valentine's Day, they would be making treats in the class room. So I decided to send them to the office for the Mister's co-workers. I cheated and bought ready made Rice Krispie treats. They were on sale and I can't pass up a great deal.

Heart Krispie Treats
What you'll need:
Rice Krispie treats (store bought or home made, we don't judge around here)
Cookie cutter
Melting Chocolate (or chocolate morsels)
Sprinkles

I love doing for the teachers. I'll admit, I thought about not doing for the teachers this time. I was a little bummed that they were down playing Valentine's Day in the classroom. I understand that they are only 3 year olds and majority of the work will fall on the teachers, but it's still fun for the kids, which ultimately is what it's about. Then I remembered how much I love giving and the fact that I had already bought everything for their gifts... and this is what we did....drum roll...

Candy Mason Jars!

Candy Mason Jars

What you'll need:

Mason Jar

Candy

Vinyl cut out (I ordered mine from Thoughts in Vinyl)

Mod Podge

Scrapbook paper

Next on our list were the grandparents. I always do picture cards for them. I love making them and they love displaying them. Just so happens we had Valentine's Day pictures taken of the boys so we had some awesome pictures to use. I usually make our cards through Snapfish, Shutterfly, York Photo or who ever has the best deal. This time I used TREAT, by Shutterfly and am very happy with the outcome. The price was comparable to the other sites or what I would pay to buy a card at the store. The quality was fantastic. They actually have card buying programs you can purchase for better pricing. I still have to look into this. Here is a glimpse of what our cards look like.

The Grandparents got lots of goodies. We also made pictures frames and root beer float treat baskets.

Picture Fames

What you'll need: 

Wood frames (purchased at Michaels)

Paint

Mod Podge

Scrapbook paper

Stickers and other embellishments

Valentine, You Float My Boat! 

These were fun root beer float baskets we put together. 

What you'll need:

Dr. Brown's root beer

Red tumbler cups

Fun paper straws 

Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream. 

Check out thirty handmade days to get download the adorable tag.

As you can see, we've been busy making fun gifts to show our love and appreciation. It's not too late to do something special for that special someone.

Happy Valentine's Day! For those of you who celebrate Cupid's Curse, I get it, I was there once. Grab a bottle of wine and call up the girls. Nothing wrong with a girls night. 

PS. One of my favorite things is finding little love notes my husband hides around the house. He usually does this when he goes aways. I'll open a cabinet to grab a cup and there I'll find a sticky with a special message. It's the little things that keeps a relationship strong.