Valentine’s Day Gift: Date Night (& Free Printable)

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Date Night Ideas Gift graphic #2

31 Days of Love

Alisha from Makeovers & Motherhood shares her 31 Days of Love post today, with a great Valentines Gift for HIM…. a wonderful way to keep your relationship going!

Every year about this time, I start brainstorming what I’m going to get my husband for Valentine’s Day. Chocolate… again? Yes, he loves it, but in my hubby’s words “it’s highly overdone.” So about 4 years ago, I started searching for “Valentine gifts for a man” and I found it!!! The gift that lasts all year and is something we can do together… A DATE NIGHT BOX!!! Yippee… he’s going to take me out! Hooray… what a fun way to plan our date nights!

The site I found suggested purchasing kid’s Valentine cards and writing a date night idea on each one. Cute! I thoughtfully tapped my Sharpie on the table as I was trying to come up with 52 dates. 52 dates! That’s alot of brainstorming! Then there were the little “To” and “From” spots on each Valentine. My perfectionist personality couldn’t stand leaving those spots blank and just writing our names was unoriginal. So, I got even more creative and correlated our titles with our date night activity:

  • Date night of your choice
    TO: Mr. Adventurous FROM: One who promises to have a good time… regardless!
  • Museum Tour
    TO: A guy who likes to learn FROM: The gal who just likes to get out of the house
  • Campfire
    TO: My hot hubby FROM: Your smokin’ hot wife!

Ok, now that I’m blushing…

I put the Valentines in a little plastic tub and taped a bow on top! It wasn’t very “purdy”, but it was inexpensive, thoughtful and fun! And the best part… HE LOVED IT! It was the best present I could’ve given him! He was thrilled with my creativeness in our date themes and immediately pulled one out for the following week!

Fast forward two years later. We moved from Indiana to the Chicagoland area. As I was unpacking boxes in our storage room, I found our Date Night Box and sat it off to the side. When my husband came in and saw the box, his response was almost the same as when he initially received it and… he immediately pulled out another card and stuck it on our message board!

So what I’m telling you is, this is man approved gift gives beyond just Valentine’s Day. So… I prettied up the gift and have made it super simple for you to personalize for your special someone!

Date Night Ideas Gift supplies

Valentine’s Day Gift for Him: Supplies

  • Container — I found this cute plastic bucket with a lid in the baking/party section of Hobby Lobby for $3.99
  • Scrapbook paper — not knowing how much I would need, I purchased 2 of each color. However, I ended up just using 1 sheet of each color. This may vary depending on the size of your container. (I chose a transparent paper for my first layer. Since my container is plastic, I wanted a more transparent look to the container when he opens it rather than a solid band of color. Just something to consider.)
  • Double-sided tape
  • Ribbon — I chose a burlap scrapbook ribbon. It was just the perfect width for the double-sided tape.
  • Scissors (and if you have it, a cutting board)
  • Printer (if you want to use my pre-made date night ideas) or Valentine cards
  • Pencil 

Date Night Ideas Gift adhering paper

Valentine’s Day Gift for Him: How to Create It

Decide how wide you want your first band of scrapbook paper. You will probably need to piece the band together to cover your container so consider which direction you want to cut the paper before you actually cut it.

Tape your papers together to make one long band before you adhere it to your container. This way you can make sure your papers are cut the same size and so you can piece together your paper’s design better.

Do a practice wrap of your paper. This will help you figure out where to place the seams so that they are less conspicuous.

Apply double-sided tape as close as possible to all edges of your paper.

Adhere the band of paper to the container starting with the paper seam. Smooth the paper as you wrap it to make sure there are no wrinkles/bubbles.

Repeat using the second band of paper.

Before applying tape to your ribbon, wrap the ribbon around the container. Start the ribbon in the very front & center of the container. The ribbon should be long enough to wrap the entire circumference of the container once and seam it in the front. (Do not overlap the ends.) Cut ribbon.

Adhere the ribbon to the container. To keep the ribbon straight and centered around the middle of the container, apply tape to the starting end of the ribbon. Then wrap a couple inches and apply another small piece of tape. I repeated this all the way to the end of the ribbon.

Print the Date Night Ideas label, cut it, and adhere it over the ends of the ribbon so it is centered on the container.

Date Night Ideas Gift label

For the lid: Trace the lid on the remaining piece of your second layer of scrapbook paper. Apply tape and adhere to lid.

For the date ideas, I have 40 date themed cards for you to print, fold and fill the container with. I even included a blank page of cards for you to personalize for your special guy.

Printable: Date ideas theme cards

After creating this fanicified Date Night Ideas Gift, I got my hubby’s feed back by asking him a gazillion questions… “Does it look manly?” “What would you think if I gave this to you?” “Do you still like the idea as much as you did originally?”

My final question to my good-sport of a hubby, “Can you think of anything else you’d rather have or would like better for a Valentine’s Day gift?”

He smiled and said, “Yah, not having to plan the Valentine’s Day date!”

So, ladies, maybe your first date night theme should be the Valentine date itself!
Alisha

What do you get your husband for Valentine’s Day or how do you celebrate?

Alisha Carlson pic -- squareAlisha is the makeover mom of three boys, wife, and a DIY project addict.  When she’s not playing queen of the castle, she is often having playdates with friends, dance parties in the grocery store, and enjoying a large glass of wine or a margarita with her hubby!  Alisha blogs at Makeovers & Motherhood where she shares parenting stories, mom & kid activities, and tips to makeover your heart.  Plus, ideas to makeover, manage and decorate your home.  Read more at Makeovers & Motherhood or find her on Facebook.

 

Other posts you may enjoy from  Makeovers & Motherhood:

Finding Balance - a juggling actShowing Your Spouse Gratitude Top 13 of 2013

Finding Balance: a juggling act 
Showing Your Spouse Gratitude
Makeovers & Motherhood’s Top 13 of 2013