If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend days on end searching for a unique Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetheart. Flowers, candy and teddy bears are boring. I want something unique. I want something romantic. And I want something inexpensive. Is that too much to ask? Well apparently it is, because every year it’s the same struggle. So, I want to share with you a DIY Valentine’s Day gift I came up with for my (now) husband, some 17 years ago. It’s still my most favorite Valentine’s Day gift of all time and now I am passing it onto you.
It all starts with the History of Valentine’s Day. My husband is a HUGE history buff, so for our first Valentine’s Day I thought it would be neat if I could come up with a gift that reflected the history of Valentine’s Day. So I did some research and this is what I found (you’ll want to copy this entire passage for the gift):
The History of Valentine’s Day
For eight hundred years prior to the establishment of Valentine’s Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating young men’s rite of passage to the god Lupercus.
One of the popular customs of this day featured a lottery in which girls wrote their name on a slip of paper and placed it in a jar. Each young man drew a slip of paper and the girl whose name was written on that slip of paper would be his sweetheart for that whole year.
In an effort to do away with the pagan festival and the god Lupercus, the Church looked for a suitable patron saint of love to take his place. They found an appropriate choice in Valentine, who, in AD 270 had been beheaded by Emperor Claudius.
Claudius had determined that married men made poor soldiers, so he banned marriage from his empire. But Valentine would secretly marry young couples that came to him. When Claudius found out about Valentine, he was jailed, then stoned and beheaded.
During the days that Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. His love for her and his great faith managed to miraculously heal her from her blindness before his death. Before he was taken to his death, he signed a farewell message to her, “From your Valentine”. The phrase has been used on this day ever since.
Materials you’ll need to create your DIY Valentines’s Day Gift
- An empty jar
- A folded slip of paper
- Decorative string or twine
- Paper for both the scroll and heart cut-outs
- Paper doily
Instructions:
- Write your name onto the slip of paper, fold it in half and place it in the jar.
- Copy the above passage (shown in teal), paste it into a word doc and print it onto a piece of colorful paper.
- Take printed passage, roll it into a scroll and secure it with your twine. Then tie the other end of the twine around the screw top portion of the jar.
- Cut 2 hearts out of some decorative paper, one large and one small. Place a doily onto the front of the jar, layering the large and small heart over it.
- Wrap the twine around the doily/hearts several times, then tie it off in the back.
Give your sweetheart a jar. On the inside will be a folded piece of paper with your name written on it. Attached to the outside will be a scroll of paper with the above passage copied onto it. Have him/her read the scroll first, then open the jar and voila, you just made the most romantic Valentine’s Day gift ever ❤
The image below is the actual gift I gave to my husband way back in 2002 B.C. (Before Crafting). I know, it’s a little underwhelming and plain. I remember searching far and wide for a jar, any jar, and it was so hard to find back then! Mason jars were not lining every shelf in every store imaginable. Online ordering was in its infancy. Hell, Amazon was only selling books back then! But my husband (boyfriend at the time) loved the gift, just the same.
I’d love to see your DIY Valentine’s Day gift creation! Share it on Facebook or Instagram and tag us @stencildiystudios.
Author: Nicole Bolin
Looking for another unique Valentine’s Day gift idea? Check out our Valentines Secret Message Arrow.
