Valentine Day – like it or loathe it – is almost here once again. While I have been busy not doing housework, I have been busy thinking of things to make for Valentine Day.

I know what you are thinking, she could easily do that with a vacuum cleaner in her hand but you’d be wrong.

The noise of the vacuum stops me thinking. It destroys my creativity. Well at least that is what I told my husband. He’s happy enough, he knows I will go dust- chasing when we can’t see the floor any more. Anyway, who said it was my job?

Valentine Day – What is It?

So, Valentine Day – what actually is it apart from being  a day when I wait in for the postman. I like to yell at him as he goes past my house and say things like, ‘Hey you – what have you done with all my cards, again, you thief!’

I looked at good old Wikipedia to get info about Valentine Day because believe it or not, despite the tons and tons of cards I have had in my lifetime (four), I don’t really have a clue what it’s about. Anyway, Wikipedia says it’s a feast.There is some sort of persecution situation involved as well. One story says St. Valentine of Rome was put in prison for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry. He also ministered to Christians who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. That must have been a big no-no because it led to his execution. Are you like me in that you are  having a little bit of trouble seeing where the romance comes in?

Ok, well there was some, believe it or not. While this dreadful ‘criminal’ was in prison waiting to be executed for actually marrying people, he healed the jailer’s daughter. Sorry, doesn’t say what she had but anyway, she was cured. And when poor old St. Valentine of Rome was about to executed, so the story goes, he sent her a letter signed ‘Your Valentine’. Ahhh. Sweet.

Somehow, St Valentine Day became some sort of official feast for the churches. Various denominations celebrate it on various days – not just on February 14th. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates St. Valentine’s Day in July – twice for some reason according to Wikipedia. And in Brazil, it is June 12th.

 

However, it did not become a romantic lovey-dovey  thing until the 18th century when Geoffrey Chaucer’s circle had a lot of ‘courtly love’ going on (so that’s what they called it). And then of course there was Hallmark  and Interflora, not to mention Thornton’s Chocolates who saw the sense in ‘making a day of it’. Here is the link if you want a sensible explanation wiki Valentine info . I like the bit under ‘Observances’ where it says, ‘sending greeting cards’ like it’s the law or something.

So this week, as the vacuum cleaner sat in the corner glaring at me, I was sitting at my desk thinking up some projects for inexpensive alternatives to Valentine Day cards.

Valentine Day Surprises without Spending Loads of Money

I made this out of scrap food packets:

I have to warn you, once the person has lifted the tag and thought ‘wow – I wonder who is that from’, it isn’t really that useful. However, if you use the right sort of card, i.e. very shiny and metallic, it does spin some nice reflections around the room  when you hang it up. It is rigid and feels like it’s made of very light wood. I had fun making it, not least because someone rang in the middle of it and my hand got stuck to the phone. I love PVA glue.

I also made this Valentine Day gift wrap from plain brown paper:

Brown paper is one of my favourite craft materials. The more you screw it up, the better it gets. You can’t say that about many things in life.

Then I made this cute little Valentine Day key-ring. Can’t wait to see if my husband actually uses it. I’m going to tell him I made it especially for his locker key at work – I’m sure the others guys will love it. No of course they wont tease him. Heavens, they aren’t children.

And lastly, I made a Valentine Day card from craft stuff I had lying around:

As my husband is getting the key-chain and I don’t want to spoil him too much, I may just sign this from George Clooney and stick through some random person’s door.

If you want to have a go at any of these projects, they are all listed on Guide Central – see below links:

The Gift Wrap – Guide Central

The Valentine Day card – Guide Central

The Guess Who ‘wooden’ tag – Guide Central and instructables

The key-ring – Guide Central

And if you want to see the 1inch circle designs I have in my Etsy shop (electronic downloads) click here Etsy.

Come back soon – I have a great project for the Chinese New Year on February 19th – if  I can get it done in time.