...the BEST homemade Valentine's Day Game EVER

I'm a pretty modest person. I think you can tell that already, can't you? Well, if not, you may want to avoid this next entry because it is going to be a little braggy. Because this is something I totally nailed. Like seriously AMAZING. Here, I'll even give you a picture of the finished product before you read the rest of the blog because that's how great it is.

HAHA!  Just a teaser - you don't get to see it all yet!

But it all started with my parents. They have been making one another Valentines forever. If I'm being 100% honest, I don't know what year they started this tradition but I know it goes back to when they were dating and they've being doing it for something like 40 years now.

Here they are, totally adorable in 2016

Instead of buying chocolates or jewelry or flowers (not that I dislike any of those things, at all *cough* Nicky if you're reading this please don't get the wrong idea), but instead of spending an absurd amount of money on a commercial gift, we make our Valentine (person) a Valentine (thing)! The Valentine can be pretty much anything, printed on paper, carved out of soap, welded with welding stuff, you name it. So last year we had been dating about 9 months, but it was pretty clear to me then that we'd be continuing this whole dating thing for a while yet, so with a little convincing from me we made one another our first Valentines. They were cute, and creative and if cute/creative/lovey-dovey things make you nauseated you might want to stop reading. Although it's probably already too late.

Our 2017 Valentines: Bamboo plant holder by Nicky & Wordsearch by Mattie
accompanied by candles, mini-cupcakes and pink champagne. 

So this year, I knew I needed to knock it out of the park, because well, every day Nicky is a great partner, kind, supportive and so on this commercially recognized day of love, I needed to show him how much I love crafting...err...I mean him. Obviously.

So ideas started and of course, I thought of all sorts of things but I really wanted to do something he'd enjoy, something that would combine things he loves with the nauseating holiday-love cuteness. Naturally, I thought of a game. See, Nicky loves games. All kinds of games, but boardgames I feel hold a special place in his heart. And I wanted to infiltrate that, so I started searching Pinterest for game ideas. And I was all about doing a customized Jenga or a Twister board like everyone else, but honestly, my heart wasn't in it, and on Valentines, shouldn't your heart–above everything else–be in it?! I say yes. So I had a dilemma, WHAT KIND OF GAME TO DO?! I always liked playing games, but outside of playing Cards Against or Boggle, I hadn't played much of anything as an adult until Nicky came along, but as a kid I loved playing unique or quirky games, and since we started dating I'm pleased to say I am becoming more and more of a game geek. Game nights have become a regular thing and while I'm ultimately always intimidated to learn a new game I sort of feel like maybe I'm not as incompetent as I thought. But the other truth is that I am a nanny, I work with small children and so the vast majority of games I play (and therefore can visualize) are games like Candyland and Monopoly Jr. (I didn't say I like these games, I just know them inside and out). I thought about the simplicity of Candyland and decided that a simple forward moving game board would work well. I could highlight some of the things we've done in the first two years of our relationship! (These are how brilliant ideas are born).

Setting up shop: before I started gluing I played around with the placement

So about two weeks ahead of the deadline my mom and I took a Sunday excursion to some of our favorite places to spend money we shouldn't: Michaels and Marshalls. (We like the Ms what can we say). It was at Marshalls we found the fabulous Le Creuset which was featured in my recent post about pork tenderloin). But it was at Michaels where I went crazy getting creative, and set out to assemble the necessary crafting supplies to make the BEST homemade Valentine's Day Game EVER.

I started by making a list of major events, places or things we've done, milestones as it were. First date, trips together, moving in, animal adoptions, etc. Then a color scheme. It was born out of traditional romantic pinkish hues, but I also took inspiration from some clearance sale washi tape because I do not pay full price for that kind of thing, and it worked out perfectly. I picked out some cardstock in matching texture and hues, then some stickers for embellishments, and then found the perfect wooden game pieces to decorate and a large cube to make a custom die. The Elmers glue company is my new bff (totally kidding) but they have pre-scored/folded poster boards now! This was a great win, since it gave my game board structural integrity but also did not require me to break out the xacto knife, which is probably a better thing for everyone since only this week I cut myself on the perforation of a box of parchment paper (man those things are deadly).  I used a large square punch to make each spot uniformed (you could probably do this by hand, but the punch was on clearance so don't judge). It was also a perfect excuse to buy fresh glitter glue, and some new glue sticks, you can never have enough glue sticks. So armed with my over-indulgent art supplies and a list of ideas it was time to hit the good ol' googs to find clipart and assemble a page of photos/images that I printed onto photo paper for quality and sheen, and then I had WAIT a whole 24 hours because Nicky came home and I needed to hide it until he was gone.

Thankfully his job planned a business trip that very week so I was able to bust this out by taking over the kitchen table and worked on it for more time than I would like to admit. But it was SO MUCH FUN. I went with 5 colors of paper and 7 squares of each color for a total of 35 spaces on my gameboard (I did that math in my head, aren't you proud?). I wasn't sure how best to mark a path, so I began with washi tape arrows to help me recall which direction things went and actually just kept them because they fit the theme and looked pretty darn cute. Alternatively I could have used more glitter glue. When in doubt, you can always use glitter glue. I cut the stickers from their sheet but kept backs on so I could move them until I had everything laid out and ready to go. I tried to get a good mix of "positive" spaces, "negative" spaces and "interactive" spaces, along with plenty of blank spaces so it didn't become the game that never ends. (We had some that made you lose a turn, some were you could roll again or move ahead, then other spaces required you do things, including sing a karaoke song and tell a memory from our first date). Because I only had 35 spaces to go, I didn't want a regular die where you could skip nearly a fifth of the board with one good role so I made my die custom and only with 1s, 2s and 3. (So the sides were actually 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, and 3).

I found cute wooden figures to customize (2 colors for two players) and used a variety of tapes on the die to make it more fun than just one color, because let's be honest, more is almost always better.

It really came together nicely, and I think the best part was the multi-media aspect. I knew I couldn't get it to look like a professional board game, glossy and uniform, but I knew I could go for something that was eye-catching and memorable. I think the hardest part was hiding it from him for the next 10 days until I could finally show off how incredibly talented I can be! After work on Valentine's Day I walked in the door to find my one in a gazillion human putting together an adorable flower arrangement for me! (Bonus Valentines love when you get flowers and the handmade one). We ordered our take-out for the night and while waiting we exchanged gifts. And oh my gosh, if this blog hasn't made you a little queasy with all the cuteness and love, this might just do it for you: both of our gifts had major game. I know, I know, that was both a really bad pun and also an incredible one, and you're not sure if you should groan or clap, so I'll do you a favor and let you do both. But in all seriousness, I totally did sort of freak out (in a good way) when I got mine, you see Nicky had collected our initial conversations from when we first started talking (we have one of those unique online meet-cutes, and by unique I mean completely commonplace now) and not once but TWICE are games mentioned. DESTINY? I think yes.

Hooray for HANDMADE Valentines!

So there you have it, thanks for following along, and if you decide to try your hand at making someone you love (or like a moderate amount) let me know how it goes. And next year, skip the store and go for something sentimental. 

✧✧✧