Unique Valentine’s Day Card & Gift Ideas

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Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show your love and appreciation for everyone in your life. While you can offer romantic and sentimental gifts for your partner, you can also give a gift to your friends, family members, colleagues, and more. Since we all get caught up in our busy lives, Valentine’s Day is a great time to pause and show your gratitude to others. Valentine’s Day gifts don’t have to all be teddy bears, chocolates, and hearts. With your personal photos, you can easily make something as romantic or thoughtful as you want without getting too cheesy. This year, everyone can participate in Valentine’s Day with these unique Valentine’s cards and gift ideas.

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The Best Valentine’s Day Cards to Give This Year

Whether your loved ones have had a great year or struggled more than they deserved, your Valentine’s Day card is a great opportunity to lift their spirits. Instead of offering a cheesy card from the store, you can create the best Valentine’s card that’s fully custom and much more special than a generic card. With Shutterfly, you can create a unique card for everyone or also buy a pack of personalized cards to make it easier to send out your Valentine’s messages. Consider some of the following Valentine’s card ideas below that will match your loved one’s personality and style.

Monogrammed Valentine’s Card

Create a personalized, monogrammed Valentine’s card that your loved ones will love to display anywhere throughout the home. With Shutterfly, you can create a tri-fold or flat Valentine’s card with your friends’ or family’s initials. Simply choose the photos you’d like to use and decide how much space you need for your card. Inside, you can personalize your card with more text and different types of cardstock. You can also adjust your card trim to make it extra special. Your friends and family will especially love a Valentine photo card with photos of you together.

Red monogrammed Shutterfly Valentine's card with family photos

Sparkle and Shine Valentine’s Card

Gift a Valentine card that shows off all the sparkle and shine that the day has to offer! Shutterfly’s sparkle and shine cards include dazzling designs with confetti, glitter, and more. When customized with your couple’s photos, the cards help celebrate your unique love and joy. A glitter Valentine’s card will look great on display, whether you put it on the fridge or display it proudly on a fireplace mantel. Especially if you’ve had a more difficult past year, a sparkling Valentine’s Day card can help lift everyone’s spirits at least for a day.

Glitter Happy Valentine's card with couple photo

Photo Gallery Valentine’s Card

Surprise your loved ones with photos they’ve never seen before in a beautiful photo gallery card. Whether you have multiple photos from the same day or some of your favorite picks throughout the years, a photo Valentine’s Card lets you show off all your precious moments. If you’re sending a Valentine’s Day card to your friends, you can select some of the funniest photos you have of them to cause a big laugh on Valentine’s Day. They’ll love seeing the time you took to select the best photos, and they’ll be sure to display the card all month long.

Pink Valentine's card with photo gallery of kids photos

How to Write the Perfect Valentine’s Day Card

For most of us, writing messages in greeting cards is more difficult than picking out a gift. Luckily, all you need to do is write from the heart. We promise your loved ones will enjoy any Valentine’s card you’re offering, whether the message is short or long, loving or funny and anything else you decide to include. If you’re really struggling to put pen to paper, consider these five helpful tips for writing a Valentine’s card below. You might be surprised at how much you have to write when you’re done!

  1. Include your favorite memory with the recipient from the past year, whether it’s an inside joke, travel memory, or moment when they were truly there for you.
  2. Include a romantic quote if you’re writing for your significant other. Sometimes a saying about love can easily sum up everything you feel. 
  3. Write a funny joke to keep things light and fun! Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be all serious, especially if you’re giving cards to colleagues and friends. Search for funny messages online or try your hand at writing your own Valentine’s-themed joke. 
  4. Write down one thing about the recipient that you’re thankful for. It can be something they’ve helped you with in the past or something they do every day. 
  5. When in doubt, wish your loved ones a simple “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

After you have the perfect card, pair it with some of these sentimental Valentine’s Day gift ideas below. Just get ready for some misty eyes! A personalized card and gift show how much you care about your loved ones, and everyone enjoys feeling appreciated.

The Best Valentine’s Day Gifts for Her

Show the lovely ladies in your life how much you appreciate them with thoughtful Valentine’s Day gifts. Chocolates and flowers might be some of the most common Valentine’s Day ideas for her, but you can easily go above and beyond without breaking the bank. Shutterfly offers unique gifts for women that are fully customizable so you can include sweet messages along with the names of your sister, wife, girlfriend, mom, or anyone else you’d like to give a present to on Valentine’s Day.

Custom Jewelry

For many women, jewelry always makes a great Valentine’s day gift. With Shutterfly, you can go the extra step to create custom engraved jewelry for Valentine’s day that includes your anniversary date or initials. Choose between necklaces and bracelet cuffs in silver, gold, or rose gold, depending on her tastes. No matter who you’re shopping for, you can also choose your own unique message that summarizes your relationship together or your feelings for them.

Engraved bracelet cuffs in silver, gold and rose gold

Romantic Valentine’s Day Prints

A beautiful photo print as wall decor always makes for a romantic gift, especially if it’s from a special moment together. Surprise your wife or girlfriend by hanging a print in a special place at home, whether it’s in your bedroom or above the fireplace. You can choose from a variety of materials for your print depending on your preferences and what looks best in your house. Consider a metal print that you can showcase on your porch or a classic framed print that’ll look great on a gallery wall.

Framed photo print of wedding day with love embellishment

Custom Candles for Relaxation

Do the women in your life seem like they’re always on the go? A personalized candle might be just what they need to feel appreciated and enjoy some downtime to relax. If you’re offering Valentine’s Day gifts to friends, you can add fun photos of their pets. Moms will love photos of the kids printed on a candle so they can look at their greatest joys while they’re relaxing. Add a sweet, simple message to the candle or a simple “Happy Valentine’s Day!” to make it the perfect gift for her.

Always and forever custom photo candle with couple photos

The Best Valentine’s Day Gifts for Him

We can’t forget that Valentine’s Day goes both ways! The men in your life will love a special gift along with a thoughtful Valentine’s card. before choosing the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, think about their hobbies and anything that can help make their work life or personal life easier. With Shutterfly, you don’t have to pick between sentimental and useful. Anything he might need can also be personalized to show off your favorite photos together. Consider some of the Valentine’s Day ideas for him below that are useful, creative, and fun.

Personalized Notebook for Work or Home

These days, we’re all busier than we wish to be. Help the guys in your life stay organized this Valentine’s Day with a personalized notebook. The sentimental gift can include your favorite photos together, or some of his favorite travel photos for inspiration at work or home. Personalized notebooks are great gifts for husbands, fathers, friends, and more. For the creatives in your life, they may especially enjoy having a special place to jot notes, ideas, and sketches.

Start each day with a grateful heart personalized photo notebook

Custom Phone Case

For a gift that’s functional and sentimental, create a customized iPhone case or Samsung case with personal photos. Get creative by adding photos from your engagement, photos of the kids, photos of your fur babies, or photos of his favorite destinations. Paired with a sweet Valentine card, you’ll make his Valentine’s Day!

Romantic photo iphone cases with couple photos and kids photos

Photo Coffee Mug

For the man who runs on coffee, create a sweet personalized coffee mug that he can use whenever he needs a pick me up. Choose a classic ceramic mug he’ll enjoy at home, a tall latte mug he can use for homemade espresso drinks, or a travel mug he can take with him anywhere. For Valentine’s Day, he’ll love photos of the two of you together with sweet messages about love and partnership.

Photo coffee mugs for travel and home on pink background

Photo Book Ideas for Valentine’s Day Gifts

One of the best Valentine’s Day gift ideas is a personalized photo book that anyone will enjoy. Especially if you’re looking for last-minute Valentine’s gifts, Shutterfly’s photo books are easy to make and create a beautiful sentimental present in no time. Instead of the usual chocolates and flowers, just pick some of your favorite memories that you’ve kept as photos and upload them online to create a custom book. Whether you’re creating for your spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend, parents, or anyone else, they’ll treasure a photo book they can flip through for years to come.

Wedding Photo Book

Looking for the perfect Valetine gift for your spouse? Whether you’ve been married one year or 55 years, a wedding photo book is a touching way to show you still cherish your wedding day together. Shuttterfly’s wedding photo books include themes that can match your ceremony style, making everything look more cohesive and beautiful to put on display. Have fun looking through your wedding photos and organizing the photo book layout to show your favorite moments from the day. With a custom photo book, you can follow the timeline of your wedding from getting ready to enjoying the reception.

Wedding photo book with images from wedding day

Kids Photo Book

If you have kids with your spouse or partner, they’ll love a photo book with some of the best photos of the children. Whether you have professional portraits together or funny candid photos, you can create a special kids photo book in just minutes. Choose a photo book style that matches your home decor so you can put it on display and leave it out for guests to flip through. On Valentine’s Day, your partner will love seeing the special book, and the kids will love flipping through it as well! To make it even more special, get the kids involved with your Valentine’s Day present and have them choose their favorite photos.

Mom with three kids in bed playing around

Pets Photo Book

Our fur babies are just like family, and Valentine’s Day is a great day to surprise your loved ones with a special pet photo book. With Shutterfly’s everyday styles, you can customize a photo album with your cutest and funniest pet photos. A pet photo book can be a great Valentine’s gift for your best friend, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time with their pet too. Another great idea is creating a pet photo book for someone who’s lovable pet recently passed away. Though a memorial pet photo book may cause some tears to shed, it’s a beautiful way to show them how strong love is between pets and animals this Valentine’s Day.

Man with dog laying down on couch

Travel Photo Book

Even if you haven’t done a lot of traveling the past year, chances are you have plenty of travel memories just sitting on your phone or laptop. Take the time to upload them to a special travel photo book this year as a touching Valentine’s present. Your loved one will appreciate the time you take to pull out your best moments, whether you’ve traveled abroad or taken small weekend trips together. You can create a travel photo book for one specific trip, or put together a book that contains memories from your favorite trips together.

Adventure waits travel photo book with family photos

Year in Review Photo Book

Instead of letting your photos pile up on your phone, put your favorite memories from the past year in a beautiful year in review photo book. For Valentine’s Day, you can pull out some of your favorite date memories or special moments together that you captured on camera. A year in review photo book can be a great first Valentine gift for a boyfriend or girlfriend to show how much you’ve enjoyed your time together. Create an Instagram photo book with some of your favorite social media posts and bring your images to life.

Variety of year in review photo books with photos of family and kids

Wrapping Up

Valentine’s Day should be about sharing love through special Valentine’s gifts, loving Valentine’s cards, and plenty of time spent with your family and friends. This year, take the guesswork out of gift-giving and choose a special present that the recipients can use for years to come. When you offer a thoughtful gift along with a Valentine’s card with a sweet message, you’ll ensure a great Valentine’s Day for everyone.

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