Gifts for Mom (or your Wife) on Valentine’s Day

Somehow or another Valentine’s Day is almost here. We’re all busy and the quest for a great gift may have gotten away from us. There is still time to get your bride, best friend, possible bride, girlfriend or special girl something that they’ll love and think of you when they look at it.

Valentine’s Day Ornaments

Isn’t a Valentine’s Day ornament simply a Christmas tree ornament in February? Shhhhh, don’t question such things and just roll with it, this is a cool, and easy to make keep sake that mom will love. As a bonus the kids can help make them, which keeps them busy for a little bit.

I originally found the directions on All Recipes. Just mix 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 1.5 cups of water. Once they’re shaped the way you’d like simply toss them in the oven at 300 for 30 minutes.  The complete recipe has the full details on how to make em just right.

Be careful about how thick you make the designs. I made ours too thick and had to bake them for about an hour in order for them to harden. They also puffed up during the baking process. We opened the oven several times and squashed them down a bit with a spatula.

The benefit to making hand prints with this mixture instead of plaster is that flour is cleaner and easier to make a hand print. I made ours on the first try with a wiggling 1 year old and an enthusiastic 3 year old. As the young one is too young to help paint I simply painted his blue. Our 3 YO wanted to help paint, so he did it until he said he was done.

Tips: when the flour is still wet poke the hole for the ribbon to hang them. Also give them a coat of polyurethane after they’ve cooled down. This will give them a nice reflective quality and add just a bit of strength to them.

Wall Photos on Canvas

This is low hanging, classic gift fruit. Take a good picture, email to an organization that puts them on canvas and you’ve got a great gift for mom.

Tips: Get a bigger print than you think you’ll need. As a gift,we received this print from Printcopia and it arrived in a couple of days. This print is 8 x 10 and, while great, would look even better if it were bigger.

Bonus tip: Subscribe to the emails of printing companies and like them or follow them on social media. Quite often they’ll have BOGO specials, free shipping or something else that will easily merit you interacting with them on social media.

The Classic Plaster Cast of Baby Feet

Last year we did this and it’s still hanging loud and proud in our kitchen. The biggest difference between working with plaster and with flour is that the plaster is heavier and has a more permanent feel. Plaster is also messier and more difficult to work with, but has a certain quality that really makes it stand out.

The Gift Card

Gift cards are great. That is all.

Have them tell you/Ask

The upside to you asking what they’d like for Valentine’s Day is that they might tell you specifically what they want. Sometimes they might just tell you what they’d like. Either way it’s a win and means that the gift you give them is one that they actually want and not the telescoping pole saw you think they’d like for gardening.
What gifts am I missing? Are there any go-to gifts that you do that this dad can learn from?