Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Budget Valentine Gift

Since my birthday is exactly 1 week before Valentine's Day (more on my A-MAZING day later), the hubs and I usually decide to go pretty low key for Valentine's Day.  In fact, we try to have date nights quite often, so the "Hallmark holiday" as the hubs calls it never ranks too high on our holiday list.

However, let me say ladies - he treats me great and is constantly doing sweet things all year round, so don't picture a neanderthal grunting at me that he wants to stay in.  Ok, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, we decided to celebrate Vday with dinner and a movie.  The hubs let me pick something out of one of our many cookbooks, and he was the master chef.  What a great treat.  While I love cooking, it's nice to be pampered and waited on too sometimes.  We also saw Dear John.  Has anyone seen it yet?  While it's definitely no Notebook, I'd say it's worth seeing.  Different than I imagined. 

On to the gifting...

I wanted to keep within a small budget and I managed to do it.  Total cost of the gift?  $1.50.  Sweet!  This this amount and some creativity I created what I dubbed The Memory Box.

I went thrifting to find an antique wooden recipe box.  While I didn't find a wooden one, I did find a metal one with rust that had seen better days.  That was ok, because I planned a little makeover for it. 


First, I painted the rusty metal box a crisp white to have a base color.  I then found cute scapbook paper at Michael's and used a coupon to save a whopping $.50.  Am I the only one that will.not.buy without a coupon?

With a little Modge Podge and patience, I covered the box in the paper.  To tell you the truth, I'm not a Modge Podge expert.  I usually use either too much or too little...I mean, how can you mess up watered down elmers glue?  I'll work thru my issues on another day.


I know you are wondering what I put in the memory box.  Using this website, I created card catalog cards of special dates and memories we've shared.  Of course, I did the obvious choices like our first date and the day we got engaged, but my favorite are the kookie entries that mean something only to us.  





I simply saved and printed each card and put them into the box, then tied it with a pretty bow and paired it all with a homemade card. 


My favorite part is the excitement that I'll feel at the end of a wonderful day with the knowledge that we'll get to write an entry together.  I think it'll also be fun to read thru with our future kiddos recreating the days of our courting and earliest memories. 

Linking to:

Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
DIY Day @ ASPTL
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

2 comments:

  1. love this! my husband and i are exchanging gifts a little late (like you we are not too concerned with the day itself - but just like opportunity to make each other something sweet) but my first plan fell through. the card catalog website is genius! and i even have an old recipe box holder. i am either doing this today or saving it for next year for sure.

    found through get your craft on.

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  2. I love this! I don't want to be old and not remember. Super cute and just the right price!

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