Homemade Valentine Ideas

by Lisa

I am all for being frugal by making, instead of buying, whatever I can. Unfortunately, there are some things which just scream out in my head to be given to certain people on certain occasions, which I cannot make from scratch. At those times, I try to budget to account for needing the store-bought item, but plan to transform it myself into something beyond the pre-boxed. This makes it special, personal, and personalized, without the sense of a need to either pay for expensive customization services or to purchase yet more things as well, to make the overall gift feel more complete. Homemade valentine ideas like these, which use finished, purchased items as a material in a self-made creation, can have stunning results, going beyond both what you could make by yourself, and what anyone else could have manufactured for you.

One such idea is to transform a digital picture frame into a keepsake box. Choose a digital picture frame with an outer edge made from wood, and which runs on batteries and has an on/off switch. (As much as I hate to say it, Black Friday is usually a good time to find a selection of this kind of thing at good discounts.) Since this represents the largest monetary investment towards the gift, be certain either that you can return or exchange it if necessary, or that you have done enough online browsing beforehand to be confident that craft stores will sell you a plain wooden box or open-topped mini-crate of approximately the same size. Or, purchase that craft supply first, after browsing frame availability to check those sizes.

Remove hinge hardware and the lid from said box or crate if such are present, and then paint or finish the box to coordinate with the frame, and let dry. If you want the box to be padded on the inside, cut sheets of cardstock to be the size of the inner surface of the bottom and sides. The bottom has to be an individual panel. You can measure out a template to allow you to cover the sides with one, neatly-pressed-around panel with only one seam, if you prefer that to doing it with four individual panels. Sandwich thin sheets of quilt batting (go for a baby blanket sized package, so you’re getting the least amount over what you actually need) between the cardstock and a chosen fabric, and glue the edges of the fabric over the back of the cardstock. Once that dries, add some glue around the perimeter and middle of each side of the box, and press the side-padding panel or panels firmly in place. Once those have dried in place, you can add a dab of glue to the bottom surface of the inside, and then press the bottom-padding into place. Finish assembly of the item by taking the original hinges (if it was a hinged box) or purchased hinges (from craft or hardware store), and very carefully attaching the digital picture frame as a new lid to the box. This is why you wanted one with a wooden frame.

Uploading photos to the frame is probably an obvious step, but not the only option. Remember that the frame will consider any image of compatible file extension, of the right size, to be a photo. That frees you to be creative with a scanner to create composite, collaged images. For example, a photo taken on your first date could be visible in the corner, layered over it, the ticket stubs saved from the movie. Consider alternating photos with digital images of text, saved in photo-sized format, as well. You could scan in hand-written notes of memories or just loving thoughts. There are also websites which allow you to create a saved font from your own handwriting, which is a neat option for those who prefer the personalization of handwriting to generic fonts, but who like the thought of a little more consistency and polish to such things that are going to be preserved for posterity.