Martha Stewart's top Valentine ideas for 2008

Are you ready for February 14th? If not, help is on its way: this year's round-up of Valentine's Day ideas from MarthaStewart.com has nifty crafts in several genres and adorable food ideas, all at several levels of difficulty.

The good people at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia have separated their tutorials into categories, with some overlap between them. A few of these projects might be suitable for last-minute scrambles, but you're going to want to tackle most of them as soon as you can.

Among the categories:

• Numerous Valentine card ideas: hand-stitched cards and envelopes, envelopes made from paper lace doilies, cards with attached flower seeds, heart-shaped string seals, "flowers" made from paper hearts, a small paper packet that both unfolds into a heart and holds other surprises, and more.
• Crafty hand-made Valentine gifts like heart-shaped soap with words stamped into the top, Victorian "Sailors' Valentines" (boxes decorated with a pattern of small sea-shells), and an easy heart bookmark made from two layers of paper. There's also a list of "green" gifts like a recycled wood picture frame and an organic cotton lace nightie. (Excluded from the categories, but still relevant, is this scarf stitched from wool felt hearts. You can make it from purchased wool felt, or recycle some old sweaters. )

Information about Valentine decor, recipes, and projects for children and family follows after the break!

Other categories at the site include:

• Valentine decor like a heart wreath made of cockscomb or roses, flower-trimmed place cards for the table, and a candle garden centerpiece. Few of these ideas are holiday-specific.
• Valentine food recipes are mostly for perfectly normal food in heart-shaped form, but I'm not surprised that someone would consider chocolate-strawberry ice cream sandwiches, in any form, more appropriate for this holiday than plain ones (though these are, indeed, shaped like hearts). There are also pleasant ideas for themed packaging, and another gallery of delicious Valentine treats.
• Kid-friendly Valentine concepts: among the things your child can slip into those envelopes on the front of their classmates' desks are heart-and-lollipop flowers and hand-stamped cards. Other ideas temporarily decorate a child's wardrobe with felt hearts, and remind us of the old "crayon shavings in waxed paper" faux stained-glass project.

You'll definitely find enough to keep you busy for the next week and a half and delight all your Valentines, young and old. If you try anything mentioned here, we would love to know how it turned out!

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