With Valentine’s Day just around the corner NOW is the time to start planning your DIY Valentine’s Day gifts for your special someone, the children in your life, and your BFF. Don’t give in to the temptation to throw money at the gift “problem”. Here are some romantic DIY valentine’s crafts to make using herbs, essential oils, and other natural ingredients, that will show your admiration and let your recipients enjoy their good health with gratitude. All while you stick to your financial goals for the year. You can do this.
I’ve made it easy for you by breaking down the homemade valentine’s gifts into what you can make in 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 3 weeks. The gifts that will take you 3 weeks are gifts that need time to meld. It doesn’t mean 3 weeks of hands on time. Honest. Even the longer to make gifts can be made in less than 1 hour of hands on time. Don’t you love that! Oh, and no hot glue gun or glitter necessary so the whole family can participate in crafting.
Plus you have the satisfaction of making something beautiful with your own hands. But first some wisdom from C.S. Lewis to set you in the right frame of mind.
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
The whole concept of “love” is transcendent. That makes it elusive to define and to understand. We can surely understand what it is NOT. We’ve all experienced NOT being loved or feeling UN-loved. But understanding what love actually IS goes beyond us.
Do you remember the cartoon “Love Is” by Kim Grove Casli (It was a sketch of two mostly naked, vulnerable people, demonstrating kindness toward one another, and then underneath the sketch were words “Love is (blank)”? The comic was popular because it filled that conflict that we all have of trying to define what love is. As if somehow in defining it we could grasp its true meaning. And if we were actually able to grasp its meaning, it might come to us and reside within our hearts forever.
The Bible says that “God is love.” That His very nature is love. It suggests that by walking in love and kindness toward God and toward our fellow man, our brothers, our neighbours, even those who hate us, we can transcend the bad things we see in the world. This overcoming evil with good brings light into the dark places. This is the essence of the Gospel message, that God, who is love itself, came down in the form of the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), to forgive us for our evil deeds, our lies, our hatred, our desire for revenge toward those who have hurt us. And in this forgiveness comes the love that we have yearned for from the day we were conceived in our mother’s wombs.
“Love is Kind”
We can express love to each other through kindness. If I tell you, “I love you.” You’d say to me, “Yeah, sure you do. You don’t even know me.” But if I am kind toward you, you will begin to believe it. If I do kind things for you, day in and day out, you’ll either believe I love you or you’ll believe I “owe it to you”.
So here’s the first truth. No one is owed kindness. Every act of kindness is a gift. It’s not an exchange. It’s not that I make you dinner so you do the dishes. If that’s the way your household runs, that’s good. But it isn’t necessarily kindness.
Why am I saying this? Because too often the kindness in our lives and too often the love is ignored. If we understood the truth that we are not entitled to kindness or love, we’d be happier when we actually received it. Gratitude makes us happy.
Every day is a gift. Every kindness is a gift. When we give kindness we are giving a precious gift.
A second truth about kindness
We can’t give when we are empty. But we can actually fill up our own “love bucket” through gratitude. Then, when our own love bucket is full, we have the kindness to give.
So before we go any further and I give you the recipes for these DIY kindness gifts, I’d love it if you scrolled down to the comments and told me how full your love bucket is on a scale of 1 to 5. With 5 being all the way full and 1 is pretty close to empty. And then I’d love it if you told me just 1 thing you are grateful for right now.
I’ll wait right here for you….
Great now that you are back, here are 25 valentine’s day ideas for very easy DIY gifts that express Kindness and Love. As you are making up the recipes, be sure to save a few for yourself, too. Fill up your love bucket and at least 2 other people’s love buckets with these recipes.
To make these recipes you’ll need ingredients you might already have in the kitchen, some herbs or spices, and optionally some essential oils. What you won’t need is the kitschy cliché craft items you usually find in homemade gifts. You won’t need paper straws, rose-colored glasses, mod podge, heart magnets, pom-poms, markers or a sharpie, so close your craft cupboards and save yourself that trip to Michaels. Mason jars will give you containers to package these valentine’s day crafts in. Fabric scraps can help you decorate the packaging, but are optional. So if you are ready to make a beautiful mess, let’s get started.
15 DIY Valentines Gifts that can be made in 15 minutes or less
These gifts are easy to make using materials and ingredients you might already have in your home. Many of these gifts can be put together in 5 minutes or less, making them perfect for hostess gifts, office gifts, and BFF “Thinking of You” gifts. Let the crafting begin!
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DIY Beard Kit
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DIY Orange Scrub That’s Perfect for Gifts
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DIY Coffee Scrub for Smoother Skin
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Bath Salts with Dead Sea Salt
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Foot Massage Lotion Bar
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Lotion Bars for an Herbal Massage
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12 DIY Valentine gifts that can be made in under 1 hour
These gifts take just a little more time than the last group of DIY Valentines Day gifts, but most can be completed in an hour of hands on time. But they are lovely and complex gifts that you’ll be proud to share.
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DIY Lavender Eye Pillow for Headache Relief
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5 More DIY Valentine’s gifts to make over the next 3 weeks
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Give the Gift of Your Time with More DIY Gift Inspiration
- Save money!
- Avoid the malls!
- Forget the hours of online browsing!
- Exit the Matrix
You can craft the perfect gift for each person on your list in less time than it takes to stand in line at Costco or find a parking spot in the Mall lot. And you’ll be learning important herbal remedy making skills while you craft.
Grab the DIY Herbal Gifts Bundle now and get the instructions to craft 57 thoughtful herbal gifts for year round gifting, using basic ingredients like organic soap base, olive oil, herbs, and wax. There are gifts for everyone on your list and for every special occasion. Cut yourself loose from the matrix and craft meaningful and healthful gifts yourself. You’ll save money and create a lasting legacy of self reliance and simple living skills. Plus your loved ones will benefit from the priceless gift of your time.
Learn more here.
