valentine’s day diy: sparks card & date night jar.

to wrap up my valentine’s day diy {just two days away, eek!}, i have two small projects to share.

first up is a card which is loosely based off of a card i have seen before in stores.

supplies:

• short matchstick
• cardstock or blank card
• thin wire
• marker or pen – i love the thin sharpies
• construction paper/paper/envelope
• washi tape – optional

i cut out a folding card from plain white cardstock. i put the fold on the top edge, but you could put it on the side edge too. then i laid down the matchstick where i wanted it on the card – a bit off-centered – & punched two tiny holes on both sides of the matchstick. then i thread a short piece of wire thru the holes, looping around the matchstick, & putting the ends thru the back of the card. i twisted the wire to secure the matchstick.

then i wrote out “sparks fly” on the outside of the card, & “when we’re together” in the inside. simple as that.

the last project i have to share is a fun valentine’s gift for aaron – a date night jar. we have been talking about the fact that two-and-a-half years into marriage that we don’t go on dates really anymore. at least not like we used to. so, i thought it would be fun to compile some ideas so that when we find ourselves looking for something fun to do, we could skip past the brainstorming & move right to the date!

there are lots of “date night jars” on pinterest so definitely search there if you want some more versions of this idea.

supplies:

• short glass jar – i used a mason jar
• fat popsicle sticks
• acrylic paint – i used festive red & pink 
• sharpie or marker
• felt
• twine or string

i started out by brainstorming & writing out all of my date ideas. i tried to make half of them free dates & half of them pay dates. i was with some girlfriends during this process which helped the idea-flowing tremendously, but i tried to think of all of those things that we always say we want to do or only do when out-of-town guests are visiting. then i painted the ends of the sticks {both sides} – red signifying the pay dates & pink the free ones.

then i put all of the sticks in the jar, painted side up. i traced a heart out of felt & tied it onto the jar with some string.

it’s not too late to whip up a fun something for your valentine! do you craft or buy for valentine’s day?

M