I hear people say that Valentine’s Day is a holiday blown out of proportion by corporations to make you feel more compelled to buy their stuff. My boyfriend has been successfully thwarting these corporations throughout our years of togetherness by not getting me anything for Valentine’s Day. What a rebel, right? Yhup … really stickin’ it to the man.
Well, this year he — and the hundreds (I’m not going to be pessimistic and say “thousands”) — of other men like him have no excuse. These Valentine’s Day freebies are adorable and sophisticated. They’re not too cutesy, but they’re not Casanovia-level serious, either. Best of all, they are created from original watercolor artwork. Did I mention they’re free?
Ok, I’ll stop kidding myself — chances are, your guy won’t be spending the days leading up to Valentine’s Day Googling “Free Valentine’s Printables”. These are you for you, ladies. Stick one on the gift you’re giving your guy; put them on the gifts for your friends and family. And let me guide you through what I did to make some kick-butt Valentine’s gift tags:
Alright, so here’s a trick to give some unique texture and color to your tags: print them off on brown paper cut from a paper sack from the supermarket. To cut my paper, I just laid down a regular piece of 8.5″x11″ paper on top of the paper sack, then cut around it.
After I cut out the brown sack paper, I popped it in the printer and it worked like a charm:
See how vibrant the ink looks? Success! I then used an 8.5″x11″ piece of sketchbook paper to print out the tags in white:
I can’t leave well enough alone, so after I cut the Valentine’s out, I glued them onto larger, similarly-shaped materials. This includes: an page from an old book, a vintage map, regular yellow paper, and even fabric from a dainty handkerchief!
For Valentine’s Day this year, I am giving out chocolate bars. I wrapped them in assorted materials (brown paper, vintage map, wrapping paper) and added the tags.
Of course, you should feel free to present these tags in any way you wish. Print ’em out on plain white printer paper, cut them out, and call it good, if you’d like! Affix them to candy or a little gift, or just hand them out on their own. Either way, your guests will appreciate the attention to detail.
Here’s a high-quality .pdf file for your enjoyment: Valentines Day Printables
Happy Valentine’s Day!