Creative Homemade Valentine Gifts

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to let those you love know how much you appreciate them. Flowers and chocolates can be expensive and show little thought and imagination. Impress the ones you love with these heartfelt, homemade gifts. Your personal touch and effort will add to these gifts and make them extra special and unforgettable.

Bath Products

Don't overpay for bath products at the mall. You might be surprised at how easy and inexpensive it is to make your own bath products right at home. When you cleverly package them in jars or unique bottles, your loved ones will know you took time to think of every detail. Here are a couple of recipes for easy bath products.

Bath Salts

3 cups Epsom salts

2 cups baking soda

1 cup table salt

Food coloring

Essential oil

Mix the Epsom salt, baking soda and table salt together in mixing bowl. If desired, add food coloring to get the desired color. Add essential oils a few drops at a time until you get the desired strength of smell. If your salts have a little stronger smell, you won't need to use as much for each use and they will last longer.

Foaming Honey Foot Soak

½ cup honey

½ cup liquid soap

1 TB vanilla extract

1 TB sweet almond oil

Mix all the ingredients and pour into a half pint jar or small bottle. Add a little of this mixture to a spa foot bath for a truly relaxing and delicious smelling experience.

Personalized Photo Frame

There are many ways to personalize a photo frame, but is a great idea for a fun Valentine's frame. Cut words and headlines from magazines that have to do with love. The frame will look better if they are all in black and white. Find one phrase or word in red print and cut it out. First cover the entire frame using a section of the magazine that contains a lot of small print. This will mostly be covered up, so it really doesn't matter so much what the small print says, but, if it goes along with the "love" theme, all the better. Attach the paper with a decoupage medium like Mod Podge. Let it dry completely, and then add the "love" words and phrases around the frame, on top of your first layer. If you have one word in red print, add it where it will stand out. Once that is dry, cover the whole thing with a coat of decoupage medium and allow it to dry completely. Add a photo of you and your loved one and it will make a perfect Valentine's Day gift.

Photo Scrapbook

A scrapbook is a personal and heartfelt gift that will be treasured. You can scrapbook pictures from one event like a trip or special date. You can also choose to scrapbook pictures from the previous year, or from your entire relationship. Find a smaller scrapbook if you have a smaller amount of time to devote to assembling your photos. There are scrapbooks available in all sizes, and even packs of paper that are coordinated and can be used through out the entire scrapbook to create a unified theme. Don't forget to add a lot of your thoughts and feelings by journaling through out the scrapbook.

Baked Goods

Find a heart shaped cake pan and a recipe for the most decadent chocolate cake you can find. Or make heart shaped cupcakes the same way you'd make regular cupcakes, but after filling the paper cups half way full of batter, slip a marble or wadded up piece of tin foil in between the paper cup and wall of the muffin tin. This will hold the paper in at a point to create the top of the heart and the cupcakes will come out heart shaped! Heart shaped cookies can be a big hit and don't have to take up too much time. Many bakeries will sell unfrosted sugar cookies and you can decorate them at home with a delicious home made butter cream frosting and candy decorations.

A homemade gift is a gift from the heart. Your loved ones will recognize the time and thought that went into creating these wonderful Valentine gifts.