It’s doesn’t cost a lot to say ‘I love you’

By Deb Holland, Journal staff | Tuesday, February 06, 2007

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Using a little imagination, you can make your Valentine’s Day more fun and a lot less expensive, says the publisher of the Web site livingonadime.com.

Tawra Kellam believes in providing friends or family with unique heartfelt gifts that take more creativity than time or money.

“It doesn’t take a lot to make the day extra special,” said Kellam, the mother of three.

Because Valentine’s Day is about celebrating love and honoring togetherness, you don’t have to break your budget to make it special.

Kellam suggests a red-themed day, starting in the morning by preparing heart-shaped pancakes or topping regular pancakes with hearts made from chocolate chips. You can even tint the pancake batter red with a little food coloring or flavor the batter with a dash of sugar-free Jell-O powder.

For dinner, serve such red-themed foods as tomato soup, toast with strawberry jelly or red Kool-Aid. Better yet, sit down to dinner by candlelight. Children and adults enjoy the atmosphere and sophistication that candlelight lends to a meal — even tomato soup.

Kellam said her mother always made a great but inexpensive Valentine’s Day treat for her and her siblings.

“She would take construction paper and cut a big heart out of it (about 8 by 10 inches), then she would staple the edges together and write our names and an ‘I love you,’ on the outside,” Kellam said. “Then, she would fill the heart with candy, purchased on clearance after Christmas. It was very inexpensive, but we loved it.”

Kellam suggests surprising your Valentine with any of these personal gifts:

- Show your love by making your special person a good old-fashioned Valentine. Use red construction paper, lace doilies, and crayons and cut out paper hearts just like you did when you were little. No one can resist a homemade Valentine, not even when you are an adult.

- Write a handwritten love letter

- Craft a coupon book of acts of kindness — such as “This coupon good for one back rub.”

- Leave a note or short story written using newspaper clippings and candy conversation hearts

- Compile a scrapbook of the lyrics of all the songs that remind you of your loved one.

- Do a Valentine’s treasure hunt. Leave little notes around with the last one leading back to the kitchen table with a homemade construction heart full of candy.

- Make heart-shaped Valentine’s cookies, or cut your children’s sandwiches into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Add a few Valentine’s chocolates, and write a note in red with a big heart on their napkin.

- Serve anything red for the day. Serve red Jell-O, pudding tinted red, red apples, toast with strawberry jelly, tomato soup, red applesauce, red Kool-aid, strawberry milk or red frosted cookies. Use powered food coloring, available at craft stores, to get the deepest shade of red. Leave sticks of red gum in Valentine’s Day cards.

- Make red heart-shaped cupcakes. Make cupcakes as usual, but place a marble (make sure it’s glass) down the side of the muffin tin between the muffin tin and each cupcake cup. This will make heart-shaped cupcakes.

Make your own Valentine’s Day coupons

This idea is for kids who want to make a special gift for their parents on Valentine’s Day — but coupons for gifts from the heart could work for all ages.

- Cut out hearts, about the size of your hand, from red, pink, or white construction paper.

- Write promises to your parents on the hearts, such as, “Good for one batch of cookies” or “Good for one poem written by me.”

- Staple the coupons together to make a booklet, adding a heart-shaped cover that reads, “I Love You Coupons.”

- Give them to your parents on Valentine’s Day.

— Source: Little Debbie snacks