Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas

As January draws to a close and we start looking forwards into 2020, one of the first events to catch our attention is Valentine’s Day which is now just a few short weeks away. Maybe we’re just incurable romantics, but we believe that a day where you let your loved one know just how much they mean to you is a day that’s well worth celebrating. 

It’s easy to feel a little cynical about the commercialisation of the whole day, with so much pressure to buy expensive gifts, eat out at fancy restaurants, give overblown bouquets of flowers and generally spend way too much money trying to demonstrate your affection. Instead, why not take a more mindful approach this year, thinking about how you can make your own homemade gift for your loved one, for someone you secretly admire, or just for a friend or family member?

In today’s blog post, we have a few creative ideas for Valentine’s Day gifts that are easy to make, and that will leave a lasting impression on the recipient. All you need is a few glass jars and some enthusiasm, so read on to find out more.

Sweet Treats

It might be tempting to dash into your local chocolate shop and grab a box of chocs from the shelf for your Valentine’s Day gift, but if you do that, your loved one will know that you spent almost no time at all thinking of what to get them, and approximately five minutes of your day actually buying the gift. You may even have had it gift-wrapped in store, which means that there will be absolutely no personal effort or care put into the gift at all.

Shake things up a little this year, and make your own homemade gift instead. Glass jars filled with carefully-selected, or even homemade, sweets or biscuits will be far more impressive on Valentine’s Day, when it will be obvious that you’ve spent time creating something especially for your loved one.

If the recipient has a favourite type of sweet or biscuit, fill those jars with exactly what will make them happy. There’s no need to go out and buy those things, either, unless you really want to. These days, there is a recipe online for virtually every conceivable thing, including DIY versions of brand-name items.

So if your loved one adores jaffa cakes, for example, use Google to find a recipe for ‘DIY jaffa cakes’. If their sweet tooth craves boiled sweets, find a recipe for ‘homemade pear drops’ or something similar. We even managed to find a DIY recipe for that quintessentially soppy sweet, Love Hearts, and these would be just perfect for Valentine’s Day. 

Decorating Those Jars

So you’ve filled your sweet jars with all sorts of heavenly treats and you’re pretty pleased with the gift so far. Now is the time to add some finishing touches to the jar, to make it extra special. First, consider the label. Having spent time and effort on the contents of these jars, don’t let yourself down with a plain old label. Instead, design a Valentine-themed label online and print it off using printable adhesive labels.

Alternatively, browse our selection of jar labels to find a suitable label that you can personalise with your own message. Once you’ve created your label and stuck it on carefully, it’s time to jazz up those sweet jars with a little bit of ribbon. A red ribbon is the obvious choice for Valentine’s Day, but you don’t need to limit yourself to red if you can find a ribbon that more accurately reflects the personality of the recipient. 

Hot Chocolate In A Jar

Another great idea for Valentine’s Day is to create a couple of glass jars filled with all the ingredients for a luxury hot chocolate drink. Think good-quality cocoa, grated chocolate, and demerara sugar, all layered into pretty jars, and then topped with plenty of mini marshmallows. This gift is perfect for giving to someone you are secretly interested in, since if you give them two jars, they may just invite you to share that luxury hot chocolate with them! 

Other Ideas Using Glass Jars

If sweet treats aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other cute Valentine’s Day gift ideas you can make, using glass jars. Why not carve some simple wooden hearts and place them in a glass jar, perhaps with a little glitter or some curled red ribbon? Or buy some seeds of romantic-sounding flowers, such as Love-in-a-mist, Forget-me-not, or Passion flower - pop the packs in the glass jar and decorate as described above. This idea gives the recipient a long-lasting reminder of your gift and your love.

Have you got any plans for making Valentine’s Day gifts this year? Why not share your ideas, or even some photos of your creations, with us? We adore seeing what our talented and creative friends and followers have made, so send us your photos, via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!