Not to freak anyone out here but...Valentine's Day is creeping up on us, and fast! I have been particularly excited for Valentine's Day this year because it gives me an excuse to buy an extremely sappy or humorous card; craft and indulge my sweet tooth. Not to mention, I've been so inspired by some of the recent DIY, recipe and gifting trends I've been spotting lately. So, I thought I would share some of my inspirations and tips of how to make Valentine's Day extra special this year for your special someone putting your procrastinating until-the-day-of routine to rest!

Inspiration Mood Board:

Florals/Plants: You can't go wrong with a fresh bouquet or favorite garden staple. It's even more meaningful if you put effort into creating your own bouquet from scratch or mixing and matching. It's a way to put thought into color, scent and texture. You can even take the florals out of the store-bought bag or wrap and create your own out of tissue paper or a bag customized for your loved one. DIY has never been so simple! If your loved one isn't a fan of flowers, then try something unique that they will love -- succulents and cactus make for beautiful gifts especially if they are placed in a lovely pot or vase.

Tips for Wrapping a Bouquet / By Martha Stewart

A sheet of decorative wrapping paper
Tissue paper
Scissors
Handpicked or store-bought bouquet
A small plastic bag
Rubber band

Step 1: Fold your wrapping paper so that you form a cone with a pointed end, and secure with tape. Be sure to cut off any excess paper so that your final shape looks like a large ice cream cone.

Step 2: Pick out a fun shade of tissue paper and tuck it along the inside edge of the paper cone.

Step 3: Take the flowers out of their original packaging. Trim the stems down so that your flowers will fit nicely inside of the paper cone.

Step 4: Place the ends of the flowers in the small plastic bag and secure with a rubber band. Then gently put the flowers inside of the paper cone and adjust the tissue paper so that it is perfectly wrapped around your bouquet.

These are some of my favorites. (Click to enlarge)

Crafting: There's truly nothing more meaningful than a gift from the heart that require a little bit of effort. That doesn't mean it has to be time consuming though!

Here are some of my favorite DIY Valentine's Day gifts sure to be a success:

Painted Votives/Candleholders:

Pick up a case of glass votives from your nearest floral wholesaler or local Target.
Scribble watery paint on the inside of clear glass candleholders and don’t try too hard…if you mess with them too much you’ll just make brown.
When they’re dry, plunk in a votive. Done!

DIY Travel Mugs

Photo / Craft by: Studio DIY — Photo / Craft by: Studio DIY

ink to DIY and specific how-to tutorial on Studio DIY's website.

DIY Mini Pinatas

– Card-stock Paper
– Hot glue & Glue Sticks
– Scissors
– School Glue
– A Pen or Pencil
– Tissue Paper (Various Colors)
– Newspaper or Magazine paper
– Paper Mache mixture (2 parts flour 1 part water)

Directions:

Step 1: Shaping the base of the piñatas

To make a Donut Piñata, Trace & cut a circle out of cardstock paper. Cut plenty of thin strips of paper. Hot glue a large strip of paper around the outer and inner circle. Next, wrap the circle with strips of paper gluing them together to form the round edge of a donut.

To make a Cloud Pinata: Follow the same process as the heart shaped pinata. The only difference is tracing and cutting out clouds out of paper instead of hearts.

To make a heart shaped piñata, you will need a few strips of paper and two heart shaped pieces of paper. Form the heart by hot gluing the strip of paper stock on the outer edge then hot glue the other heart pm top of the other. Stuffed the heart with pieces of newspaper to make the heart a little more firm when you paper mache.

Step 2: After you have the base of the pinatas, dip the strips of newspaper into the mixture and cover the entire base of the piñata.

Step 3: Cut out strips of tissue paper about 2 inches in width. Fold the strip of tissue paper and begin cutting very thin strips to about 1/2 inch of the edge. To make this process even faster, fold a few strips of tissue of paper together and cut them at the same time.

Step 4: Glue the strips of tissue paper into the base of the piñata one piece at a time overlapping on top of the next strip. Trim out the edges.

Step 5: Cover the edges of the heart piñata with a few layers of tissue paper strips and trim the edges as well. For the donut piñata: Fold one piece of tissue paper halfways and wrap around the donut, adding school glue to make it stick.

Cut out a donut circle out of tissue paper and glue it to the piñata. Cut out confetti out of tissue paper and glue them to the donut to form the sprinkles. Finally you are set to hang, decorate, and/or break your mini piñatas.

*Be sure to fill with your loved ones favorite candy or sweets for a delightful surprise upon breaking!

Cooking up some sweet treats: For my fellow sweet tooths out there...this is my personal favorite part of Valentine's Day, the sweets and treats! Here are some of my favorite recipes I can't wait to try out this Valentine's Day.

*Click on recipe link in the caption to view the full recipe!

Chocolate Shortbread Heart Cookies

Photo / Recipe by: Two Peas and their Pod

You Complete Me Heart Cookies

Conversation Heart Macaroons

Photo / Recipe: Sugar and Cloth — Photo / Recipe: Sugar and Cloth

Gifting: If you aren't into crafting and would prefer to pick out something special; here are some of my favorite trending "gifts for her" that she is sure to love. All under $50 too!