Create an Acrostic Poem for Your Valentine

Here lately I’ve been perusing Pinterest looking for diy valentine ideas. There so many cute and clever projects floating around out there!  I have always enjoyed making little love bugs or fluffy tutus, but they’ve outgrown such things. Now that they are into their teens I needed an idea that would say “you are special, we love you” without being too cutsie and juvenile. But still, I wasn’t finding just the thing I wanted for my not-so-young children.

So I put on my creative thinking cap and decided, why not just tell them! So I began listing out qualities I admire and descriptive words for each child and turned them into an acrostic using their name. An acrostic is a poem or word puzzle in which certain letters in each line form a word. I chose to use my child’s name, printed vertically and then plugged in a different characteristic for each letter.

The finished product could be framed or glued into a card or decoupaged onto a plague, or just posted on a bulletin board. If you’d like to make a Valentine Acrostic for someone special, here’s how:

Choose the word or name you want to use. Some ideas would be a name, a special place (where you met?) a word for the special occasion (BABY, LOVE or Valentine, maybe?) or character quality.

Next brainstorm a list of adjectives, character qualities, feelings, etc that fit with your them or describe that word you are using. A thesaurus is helpful!

Now list that main word vertically, as I did using my daughter’s name. (I did this with pencil and scrap paper first.)

Using your list of descriptive words, start plugging them in however you wish, using a letter in each line as a gauge of where you place it and how you spell it out.

Choose your medium. Now we are getting to the part I really enjoy. The making and creating! This would be an impressive gift just by typing and printing it out, using different fonts on your computer and printer. You could use colored printer paper. Or you can do it all free hand, giving the creation a very personal touch.

I chose to use alphabet stamps and acrylic craft paint I had on hand to spell my daughter’s name vertically. I pressed each letter stamp into a red paint then pressed in a vertical pattern on my paper. Then I used a fine-tip marker to outline each letter and to spell out character qualities that remind me of her. It’s simple and rustic, cost me nothing, but it will put a smile on her face and that is priceless!

I hope you’ll give this little project a try, for Valentine’s Day or any time you are needing a way to share special thought about someone you care about. These stamps and markers are similar to the ones I used:

This project was fun, simple and took only a few minutes. I hope you’ll give it a try! For more Valentine inspiration and ideas, join me and my fellow Homeschool Crew Mates – just click on the image below!