While looking for interesting, non-syrupy sweet Valentine’s Day crafts to make, I found a lot more than I thought. I had so many finds left over after making the first round-up, that I decided to put up a second one. I’ve always thought that handmade gifts are the nicest ones to give and receive, so it’s my hope that you’ll find some inspiration in these lists to make something nice for a loved one.

I Heart Wall Art

Most Valentine’s Day decorations are quite cheap and cheesy, so if you’re hosting a V-Day get together, it can be difficult to find a tasteful way to decorate your place. I love this idea by Secret Pie Shoppe to cut hearts out of sheet music and tape them to the wall.

P.S. I want to know how I can get my hands on one of those awesome armchairs!

Anatomical Knit Heart

If you’re not really into pink and red Valentine hearts, why not knit up a tongue-in-cheek anatomical heart instead? This one was skillfully made by Craftster PrettyCranium, but she warns that the finishing instructions in the pattern are a bit confusing. If you’re interested in making one of your own, you can buy the pattern on the VogueKnitting website here.

Nerd Love

Got a crush on a web design nerd? Give them one of these cards from Pop+Shorty, and they’re sure to notice you. As a web design nerd myself, I absolutely love it both for it’s cute nerdiness and it’s simple modern design. Not sure if this card is actually handmade or not, but I love it so much I had to include it in the round-up anyway!

Marshmallows in Love

This adorable card features an original illustration by Etsy seller SweetAndKindOf, based out of New York. If loving marshmallows this much is wrong, then I don’t want to be right!

Heartwarmers

Show someone you care by crocheting them one of these pocket ricewarmers. You can get a free pattern here. When you’re done, fill it with rice and heat it in the microwave to keep you or a loved one warm in the cold.

Touch-Activated Pulsating Card

What’s more appropriate on Valentine’s Day than a card that is touch-activated? Touching the spot on the bottom causes the LED’s to light up—I love it! Get full instructions on how to make your very own (including a video tutorial) on the DIY Life website.

Made With Love

I’m not so great at cake decorating (I guess it takes a steadier hand than mine) so I was happy to find free instructions on the CraftZine blog for making these easy cupcake toppers. They take almost no materials, skill, or effort, and the resulting cupcakes still look nice.

LoveBot

Learn how to make your own LoveBot with free instructions from the Sew Green blog. It’s made of secondhand felted sweaters, so it’s good for the environment, too.

You’re the Peanut Butter to my Jam

Who thought a sandwich could be so cute? I always suspected there was something going on between PB and J, and now this confirms it. A nice bit of embroidery work by Craftster magpienight.

Print-Your-Own Bags

I found these two free downloadable bag designs from Twig&Thistle, to giftwrap your handmade goodies. Get the brown paper bag design here, and the white paper bag design here.

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is coming. But there’s no reason to settle for icky-cute hearts and cherubs and pink lace all over everything (yuck!). For this love-themed round-up, I searched high and low across the world wide interwebs for V-Day crafts that won’t give you diabetes. In fact, I found so many awesome things that this will be the first of two Valentine’s Day round-ups, so stay tuned!

Why You Should Be Mine

These cards from Fooka Designs are a bit like those notes kids pass around in school (Do you like me? Check yes or no.) but for really anal types. Give one of these to the lawyer or accountant in your life, and you’re sure to win them over with your romantic thoroughness (just make sure you initial it five times and get it notarized).

Screen Printed Animal Puns

Silly puns have been a Valentine card tradition for many years, but most of them are not as cute and well-executed as these cards by Westmama. They’re a great alternative to the cheap and cheesy cards available at every store this time of year.

Love Yetis

In spite of being kind of ugly and decidedly strange, I find these five-inch-tall Love Yetis to be inexplicably cute. If you have anyone in your life who is a bit offbeat and has an unusual sense of humour, give them one of these to make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Twig Heart

Hhead into the forest and gather some twigs to earn some Girl Scout cred by making this woven twig heart designed by Sweet Paul.

Heart-Shaped Pouch

If you’re comfortable with the idea of sewing a zipper into a tight curve (not for the faint of heart*) head over to The Purl Bee to learn how to make your own heart-shaped pouch. Make one and fill it up with chocolate—it’s a great environmentally-friendly alternative to the elaborate and disposable chocolate packaging that’s so common this time of year.


*Pun not intended

Bite Me Pillow

We’re all familiar with those chalky candy hearts with no discernible flavour. The worst/best part of them are those cheesy sayings—I can’t help but wonder whose job it is to write them. I love Dominitrix’ take on it with this wonderfully sarcastic Bite Me pillow. If you enjoy well-crafted sarcasm as much as I do, you’ll have lots of fun coming up with alternate sayings to stitch onto it.

Olive You

If your sweetie isn’t really into pink hearts and cherubs, knit him or her this cute jar of olives from Cut Out + Keep to show that you really get them.

Melted Heart Crayon

This melted heart crayon is a nice Valentine’s Day gift to make and give to kids, while getting rid of old broken crayons at the same time. Best of all, you can download a free PDF on the same web page of cards to print out and attach the crayons to.

Let Me Count the Ways

I love this sweater with a binary heart knit into it. I’m not sure what all the zeroes and ones really mean, but after all the effort and detail that goes into making something like this, I’m sure the recipient would agree that it means “I love you”.

A Magnetic Attraction

Learn how to make this LED valentine on Instructables. Give your sweetie one half, then attach both together to make the LEDs light up.

As you have probably figured out by now, I love making nerdy stuff. I also love looking at nerdy crafts that other people have made as a great source of inspiration. So with that in mind, I give you this 100% nerdy round-up of geek crafts.

Space Invaders Cutting Board

From Captain Sideburns (you gotta love the name!) comes this fantastic and well-executed Space Invaders cutting board, made of precisely-cut cubes of high quality wood, glued together with FDA-approved food safe glue. Check out his blog for the instructions.

NES Controller Coffee Table

This kicks so much butt on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. This coffee table made by Ultra Awesome is not only an impressively accurate representation of the classic NES controller blown up to giant proportions, but it actually functions as an NES controller! If you want to nerd up your own living room with one of these (and who could blame you) you can get started here.

Lego Halloween Costume

Check out CraftZine for the instructions to make this awesome/adorable/slightly strange Lego costume made of a box and plastic food containers. All you’ll need to do is find a kid to bully into wearing this thing…

Giant Super Mario Quilt

This one might just put my Mario Sweater Vest to shame. This is well over 6 feet of geeky goodness in the form of a crocheted quilt. Me like!

Underpants Gnome

I’m a huge fan of South Park, so I was so happy when I saw this cute crocheted Underpants Gnome. Based on the cuteness, you’d never guess that he’d want to pilfer all of your underpants. But it’s always the cute ones you have to look out for…

Cross-Stitched Super Mario Map

Another Mario-themed entry, this elaborately detailed Super Mario map made by the Cross Stitch Ninja is so impressive it almost takes my breath away. Even more impressive is that the Ninja made two others: Super Mario 3 World 1 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

“Apple” Pie

I love visual puns, even more so if it’s also a dessert! Bonus points for the incredibly intricate latticework inside the apple. Find out how to make your very own here.

VHS Toaster

Finally something useful to do with those obsolete VHS players. As a bonus, now you can actually encourage your toddler to stick bread into your VCR! Learn how to make one with this tutorial from Instructables.

Where the Wild Things Are Amigurumi

I can’t get over how beautiful these crocheted characters from Where the Wild Things Are…are. Just look at how carefully the different textures of yarn were chosen and combined, and not a single detail overlooked.

jQuery Pumpkin

Finally, for you fellow coding nerds, is this pumpkin featuring a jQuery pun. See one more here, featuring yet another deliciously nerdy coding pun!

With the weather outside being horrendous and snowy at worst, and damp and slushy at best, it’s a good time of year to get cozy in front of the fireplace and occupy yourself with making something. To help you while away those inevitable snow days, I scoured the internets in search of cute and funny things you can make in an afternoon (or two).

Jumping Frog

From the CraftZine blog comes this tutorial for making an adorable and slightly ridiculous jumping frog out of some paper and a paper clip. MacGyver would definitely approve. What better way to spend a snowy afternoon than by making a flock of spring-loaded frogs and racing them across the room?

Embroidered Logs

These embroidered logs from Design*Sponge would make any living room feel outdoorsy and cozy. A great project to get your power tools out for.

Recycled Hurricane Lamp Cover

Check out this tutorial for a great way to use up old paper towel tubes. This would look great alongside the embroidered logs above, or as a cluster of three different-sized ones on a mantelpiece. I found it on the talented Patricia Zapata’s blog, which you should definitely take a look at—you’ll find a lot more inspiring crafty stuff.

Crocheted Master Shake & Meatwad

Learn how to make this crocheted Master Shake doll from Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Instructables. Get the free pattern here. And while you’re at it, make a friend for him with this free pattern for a crocheted Meatwad.

Nerdy Perler Bead Coasters

Get your nerd on with this tutorial I found on the Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins blog. You’ll learn how to take a screenshot of your favourite video game character and turn it into a usable coaster.

Jell-O Fruit

Fill some hollowed-out orange, lime, and lemon peels with Jell-O with these instructions from the NotMartha blog. She says she loves food shaped like other food, and I would have to agree! It looks like so much fun, especially the weird orange slices filled with blue Jell-O.

Knitted Nautili

Fill your house with some cute creepy-crawlies with this free pattern to knit three nautili (or is it nautiluses?) from Knitty. Why not make a bunch of them and hang them from a mobile for an adorable under the sea-themed baby’s room?

Embroidered LED Froggie

Embroidery gets geeky with this tutorial from Sternlab, where you can learn how to combine LEDs into your crafts. You can also buy LED sewing kits from the online store. Why do I have a sudden urge to make a light-up Disco Stu jacket?

Paper Colbert and Paper Conan

Create your very own paper Colbert or Conan O’Brien with four free templates from CubeeCraft.

A Tiny Gingerbread House

To round out this cabin fever round-up, a tutorial for an actual cabin. Well, sort of. It’s an adorable tiny gingerbread house that can perch on a mug of hot chocolate. A great way to warm up on a cold day! This one also came from the
Not Martha blog, and she gives you ideas for lots of different rooftop decorations (my favourite is the crushed candy cane).