Sorry this is so long, but it's well worth it!  I promise-especially the ribbon idea.

A Unique Valentine's Day Gift
by Melanie Farkas

Five dollars or less! If money is tight or it's all going to something really romantic like getting out of debt, here are some cheap Valentine gift ideas to help you still surprise your true love. Even guys like these gifts!
- Find a favorite comic strip. White out the words or names and put in your own message. You could even find a used book of funnies and put your names all through it.
- This one takes a little planning. Give a card that says, "Whenever you see a pink (lavender, red, whatever color you
like) ribbon, remember how much I love you." Beforehand, drive or walk along the route to your lover's school or work and tie big bows with the correct color ribbon on each post, stop sign, bridge overpass, etc. Be sure to remove them later!
- Make heart-shaped cookies and decorate with your own candy heart messages.
- Get a friend to take a sexy picture of you and have it framed for your spouse.
- Make a giant "Hershey's" Kiss by using a funnel as a mold and filling it with melted chocolate. Wrap the chocolate in a piece of foil, using a long strip of paper for your note and leaving the end of it coming out the top of the foil.
- Buy a dollar store photo album and create a little book entitled "101 Reasons I Love You." Make it really personal
with memories of things he or she has done or said. Another idea is to buy a box of crayons and write one reason on each crayon.
- Purchase several balloons that are transparent. Before blowing them up, fill each one with love notes, confetti,
flower petals, etc. After you have tied them off, attach them to each other or to small sticks and gather as a bouquet.
- Make a personalized scratch and win card for them. Take a heavy piece of paper and draw hearts on it. Using a permanent marker, write something you will do as a prize in each heart. Color over the top of each heart with red crayon until the crayon is really thick and you can't see the words anymore. The rules are, only one out of three hearts can be scratched.
- Create a compilation tape or CD of all your favorite love songs and put it in the car, ready to play when the engine
goes on.
- Take a light solid colored pillowcase (you probably have one in the closet) and on one end write or sew special messages like "Sweet Dreams," "True Love" or "I love you." Use your computer to print pictures of you both on iron transfer paper. Then iron the transfer pictures in the center of the pillowcase.
- Out of sturdy paper, cut out paper hearts in red, pink, and purple. One guy I heard of cut out 200, so get busy with those scissors! Slip the pointy end of each heart between the prongs of a plastic fork. When your lover is asleep or away, stake the forks all over their front yard. If you want to really get serious, write a message on each heart so everyone can see how you feel.
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