{Crafting Diva} How To: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book

Ah, Valentine's Day!  I really didn't become a fan of the day until I met Sean in 2005.  Since then, I enjoy going overboard with romantic gestures and gifts.  For our first Valentine's Day together, I made him a booklet called "100 Reasons Why I Love You".  And it actually contained 100 reasons.  I often kick myself for starting out our gifts together on such a high note because it has been very hard to beat that from year to year.

I know a lot of guys aren't the best gift givers, but Sean has always been pretty good at giving me lovely, thoughtful things for Valentine's Day.  I've surprised him with flowers and chocolate covered strawberries delivered to his work, but I lean more towards homemade tokens of love.  Framed photos, unique cards, handmade booklets, and today's special craft tutorial are just some of the things I have gifted to him through the years.  We typically stay home, make broth or cheese fondue (and sometimes dessert fondue), drink wine, and just spend time together.


Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

If you are looking for a fun and easily personalized gift for Valentine's Day, I present you with the idea of a coupon book.  Last year, I saw a Groupon for one you could personalize with stick figure clip art and a selection of mundane tasks or generalized concepts.  It was black and white and just looked too stark and plain.  Etsy also has some options to choose from if you feel like you have no creative bone in your body.

If you want to go the completely personalized route or try your hand at getting creative, I'm about to teach you how to make one yourself.  This isn't a hard project, but it does involve a lot of cutting.  The end result is really great though and my husband absolutely LOVED his gift!  He did actually end up hoarding a majority of the coupons for December, to use during his birthday month.  If you need to make rules or stipulations, you may want to put them in the booklet. lol




What You Will Need:
  •  Your Valentine "coupons" printed on photo paper or cardstock (See below for info)
  •  Scissors and/or paper trimmer
  •  Hole punch
  •  Assorted complimentary scrapbook paper of your choice. I used 6 double-sided 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper for an assortment of patterns.
  •  About 5 pieces of heavier cardstock in a complimentary color
  •  Embellishments for decoration: Stickers, rhinestones, flowers, vellum quotes, glitter paint, ribbon, washi tape, metal shapes, etc.  (Whatever floats your boat!)
  •  Any additional decorative paper
  •  Any photos you want to use to decorate with
  •  Adhesive one-inch tall lettering (I used a black foam 3-D lettering.)
  •  Album Ring
  •  Adhesive, such as Glue Dots (I use Elmer's Glue Dots and Recollections Double-Sided Mounting Tape).  Just make sure they aren't the re-positionable kind.
  •  Stickles or other glitter paint or glitter and glue
  •  Decorative scissors
  •  Small paint brush


How To: Make Your "Coupons"


Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Before you get into all the fun, creative stuff, you have to make your coupons!  Below, you will find a basic coupon jpg file that I made, one with lipstick and one without.  I have also included the lipstick file in case you want to use it differently.  Download these files and open them in Paint.Net, Pixlr, or whatever you use for editing photos.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book

For each coupon you want to include in your booklet (I made 10 coupons), you will make a separate coupon file and add your wording.  I used a font called "Written On His Hands", which you can download for FREE here.  Save the files on your computer.

To print: highlight all the coupon files, right click, and choose "Print".  In the window that pops up, uncheck the bottom box that says "Fit picture to frame" and choose the 4x6, 2 to a page option.  It should look something like this:

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Make sure you have your proper paper in the printer (I used a matte photo paper) and click print.  Now, cut them out!


Need ideas for what to write on the coupons?  I used: Home-Cooked Meal of Your Choice, Back Massage, Breakfast In Bed, Star Trek Movie Marathon, Date Night, Leg Massage and Foot Rub, Wild Card, and a few naughty ones.  Be creative and think of fun options that are really personalized to whomever you are gifting.  Think about fun things for the two of you to do together or small gestures that mean a lot.  It's a gift that keeps on giving the whole year, so you have plenty of options.



On To The Fun Stuff!


Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Lay out all your decorative papers and embellishments.  This helps give a good overview of what you have to work with.  Start with your patterned scrapbook paper.  The patterned paper measures about 7 1/4 inches by 4 1/8 inches.  Cut the rectangles slightly bigger with a paper trimmer so you have room to cut the edges with decorative scissors.  Once all the decorative paper is cut (enough pieces for your coupons), decide in what order you want the decorative pages and in what order you want the coupons to appear.  I started with simple coupons and ended them with a bang! lol  Affix your coupons to the center of the decorative paper with glue dots or mounting squares.  Mounting squares seem to be a big stronger and better suited for this task, but glue dots work good too.  You just may need to use more glue dots than squares.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Take your heavier cardstock and cut it into rectangles that measure roughly 7 3/4 inches by 4 3/4 inches.  For a ten coupon book like mine, you will need eight of these card stock pages.  Again, lay them out so you can visualize your book and begin assembling.  Put three of these cardstock pages aside (for special pages) and affix your coupon papers to the center of the cardstock in the order you want them.  All coupon pages are front and back, meaning a coupon page will go on each side of the cardstock.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Once these pages are done, punch holes in the top left corner of each page.  Make sure to punch the holes in the same place so everything lines up smoothly.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com



How To: Make Special Pages


The Cover

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

For the cover, I cut a piece of patterned paper the same size as the cardstock and attached the paper to the cardstock page. A strip of striped paper, cut with decorative scissors, is affixed to the edge.  Next, I cut a strip of the cardstock as tall as the lettering and affixed it to the page where I wanted my words to go.  Punch your hole in the page so you have a guideline and won't decorate over it.

Next, I added a piece of sparkly ribbon in a complimentary color and applied the lettering.  These foam letters have their own adhesive on the back. You will need to cut out each letter while it is attached to the plastic it comes on, so you can move the letters around and measure where they need to go.  After your letters have been applied, take your glitter glue (Stickles is my favorite because it is super sparkly, easy to apply, and dries flat) and decorate your lettering.  I squeezed out some Stickles on a piece of paper and applied it to my letters with a small paint brush.  After that, you can decorate your page with more glitter glue and let it dry. Once dry, apply rhinestones, stickers, or whatever else you want to.  You can check out all the extra photos to see what I did.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com


Inner Cover Page and Back Cover Page



Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Right inside the front of the booklet (and again in the back), I took the opportunity to add a few pictures and quotes about love.  These are definitely pages you can do whatever your heart desires, but I will tell you a bit about what I did for each page.  Each one was built from its own cardstock page base because I knew it was going to need time to dry.

For the inside cover page, I added some decorative metallic paper with glue dots and/or mounting squares.  Then I cute a couple rectangles of patterned paper for decoration and mounted those.  Whether you use vellum quotes from the craft store or print out your own at home, vellum can be tricky to adhere if you want it to look nice.  I focused on attaching it with glue dots underneath the picture page area, then used Stickles to go around the edges and keep them in place.  The big picture was cut with decorative scissors, with a line of glitter glue following that scalloped edge.  Make sure you punch your hole in the correct side before decorating with more glitter glue.  After the page dried, I also added a few rhinestones. 


Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

For the back cover, I put down a patterned piece of paper the same size as the cardstock page.  Punch your hole before you get started with picture placement and decoration.  I secured the pictures on the page, outlined them with glitter glue, and used glitter glue to affix the vellum to the page.  I also added a heart of glitter glue in the upper right corner and fanned out the glitter towards the inside of the heart.  (See below for a larger photo.)

Don't forget to decorate your actual pages!  For my Star Trek Movie Marathon coupon, I used some glitter paint to make the black border look a bit more like space. lol  I also added stickers, and rhinestones to all the other pages.  Just make it look pretty and not all plain.

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com


The Finished Product

Once your pages are dry, adhere the cover and inside cover to one another with mounting squares.  Decorate the very back with your name and the year or a little message of love.  Put all the pages together and slip the album ring through the holes.  Now prepare to wow the recipient with all your hard work!

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com
Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Crafting Diva: DIY Valentine's Day Coupon Book - DivineMrsDiva.com

Want a few more ideas for gifts?  Frame a photo or photos or make a collage with scrapbooking elements.  Make a booklet of all the reasons you love your significant other.  Buy a pre-made heart-shaped chipboard booklet at the craft store and decorate it with paper, pictures, and quotes of love.

Crafting Diva: Other DIY Valentine Ideas - DivineMrsDiva.com

I leave you with a little collage of Sean and I from all our Valentine's Days together:

Valentine's Days 2006 to 2014 - DivineMrsDiva.com


What do you and your sweetie enjoy for Valentine's Day?  Do you have any traditions?  What have been your favorite gifts to give and receive?  Feel free to share more gift ideas as well!



9 comments

  1. This is really cute. However, the manpanion and I don't do Valentine's day. We've occasionally exchanged gifts around that time, but they were not intended as Valentine's gifts, just "hey I saw this and got it for you."


    I'm totally non-romantic, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This makes me want to revisit the Grand Canyon. I've only been twice since I was old enough to appreciate it and each time has been a very different experience. Like you, I would *not* be one of the people climbing out on ledges for selfies - no matter how awesome they'd be, so not worth the risk!

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  3. This is so heartfelt and sweet, Hailey! I've seen similar coupon books on Pinterest, but you really took the time to make yours look hand-made, special, and representative of you and Sean. Kyle made me a daily calendar several years ago. Each day stated something he loved about me, shared a favorite memory, or gave me a ticket to cash-in. It was so special and made me smile everyday.

    I hear you on busting out the big guns with gifts early on. I'm definitely guilty of that, too. I feel like I set very high expectations for myself, and I feel like I need to out-do myself year-after-year.

    We don't have any specific Valentine's Day traditions, but we always celebrate somehow. We usually do dinner in and dress up and make something fancy. Or we'll go out for fine dining. This year we're staying in. I bought Kyle a box of goodies from D'Artagnan for Christmas, so we have foie gras and truffle butter to cook. We'll probably go pick out a special bottle of wine to drink with dinner, prepare the meal together, and then get dressed up and eat at the dining table.

    I also love that you included the collage of you and Sean over the years, from one Valentine's Day to the next. I'm going to have to do that, too! I wonder how many Valentine's Days I'll find pictures from. There are 10! I've been much better about organizing photos the past couple of years, but 2004-2010 could be pretty dicey!

    <3 Liz
    www.withwonderandwhimsy.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. So I read this when I got the email notification of you publishing it, but all I could think to say was, "My stomach hurts from looking at those drop-offs!" How is it that I get vertigo and feel dizzy just from these photos? They're not even that bad! I really had to control myself on some of our clifftop hikes in Scotland so I wouldn't have a panic attack. These photos alone freak me out! I like to think that in-person I'd be able to suck it up and walk the trail because those views are so spectacular. Nothing else in the world like it. It's just incredible.


    I'm so glad you and Sean took a day trip out to do that. You'll remember it forever. That's how Kyle and I feel about our hikes of Dunnottar Castle in Scotland.



    Isn't it unreal to think that those views are several miles away? It's just crazy. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon since I was a little girl, but I'd love to see it again. These pictures definitely take me there and have all of the exhilaration (and terror? lol) I remember.


    <3 Liz
    www.withwonderandwhimsy.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am glad you are one of the smart ones! It was a really lovely experience for us and I have been recommending it to everyone I know. I would go again in a heart beat! I really do want to go and stay for a weekend or something. I think it would be fantastic!

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  6. It is so unreal and awe-inspiring and amazingly gorgeous. It is hard to fathom the magnitude of it all. Putting the size of it into perspective, even being right there, is just insane.

    I am glad we did it too. It will definitely be one of those adventures, like watching the sunset from the top of Haleakala in Maui, that we remember forever.

    I think your fear is completely justified. lol It is a real fear. People fall off the edge and die. BUT, unless you are being really dumb, you are pretty safe. At that part where the edge was about 3 feet away, the path was about 6 feet wide or so which puts you at a safe distance. It was scarier with the wind whipping around, I think. It is totally worth it though. I think you would suck it up in person. :-)

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  7. Well, certainly the act of exchanging thoughtful gifts is important. I am probably dramatically romantic, which can sometimes make me disappointed if someone else doesn't present as grand a gesture to me. LOL It is a blessing and a curse.

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  8. It is nice to hear I am not the only one who overdid it early on. lol It really is hard to come up with better and better things. I love the daily calendar idea. That is pretty spectacular! I guess this year is our 10th V-Day together, but I may start on Feb 15th on that daily calendar.

    Out of our 9 Valentine's Days together, we have been out to eat maybe 3 of them. I think we will stay in this year. We haven't done fondue in a while but we also have some steaks we maybe cook up. And this local winery has a muscat that is amazing. We bought a bottle at the Chocolate Fest this past weekend, so I imagine we will break that out. :-)

    I can't wait to see all the photos you dig up!!

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  9. I used to get all butthurt about Valentine's Day...then I decided it wasn't worth the emotional energy. Lol.

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