Craft the Ultimate Valentine's Surprise for Your Military Spouse

Going the Extra Mile for Your Service Member, Even When the Miles Between You are Extra Long

Full disclaimer: If I am being completely honest, this part of military life is one of my favorites.

Now let me clarify that being a military family is one of the hardest things a household could ever experience. I would even go one step further to express that the lingering unknown of when he’ll leave again, for how long, and what he’ll be missing is a constant dark cloud hovering over our day-to-day life. When we aren’t together we all feel the void and missing piece as we go about our days reminding ourselves that we’re one day closer toward being reunited. BUT when you accept that this is part of the job and acknowledge the jarring reality that you spend more holidays apart than together, having something to tangibly do, like diy-ing a care package, helps 1) get creative about sharing the love you have for each other, 2) pass the time, and 3) builds a connection regardless of the miles between you.

In our house, the extra-ness is just part of the family brand, and unapologetically we live for maximizing and mirroring our internal love through external acts, especially on days like this.

This year my husband and the father of our children deployed on yet another military deployment. And while this was his first time missing the holiday due to a physical deployment, he’s only been present for one Valentine’s Day in his entire military career. Since joining the Air Force over a decade ago, if it wasn’t a deployment, it was a TDY that requested his time and presence for training and qualification tasks. All that to say, I’ve had a lot of practice and use of my creativity when it comes to celebrating and maintaining our family bond.

Through the obstacles, distance, and hectic busy-ness that always surfaces, taking out the time to handcraft a care package for him has proven to be just as helpful and impactful to our children and myself as it’s been for him.

So if you’re looking for kid friendly ideas to make, create, and place inside your Valentine’s Day care package for your military spouse, you’ve come to the right place!

Without further ado, here is the breakdown of how we crafted and DIY-ed this hug-in-a-box for our special service member and how you can too!

Step One: Decorate the Box

During deployment prep, I went onto the USPS website and requested that they deliver enough mailing supplies to my house that would last me the entire deployment.

High-five to the U.S. Postal Service for making their military care kit so accessible and easy to order. The entire process took me less than 10 minutes and within a couple of days all the supplies were waiting for me on our front door step.

As a Type-A busy body who constantly carries a full plate of responsibilities, I wanted ZERO excuses. And with two littles at home while running a business and maintaining our household, the more I could prepare and plan ahead of time the better. The fact that this is a free option and doesn’t cost anything but the space in our home to store the items was a huge bonus in having all the supplies on hand.

And when it was time to prep this box for overseas, I was determined to leave no corner, edge, or side unturned. You could say I wanted the box to scream HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY the moment he broke through the tape, sealing the corners of his gift.

With that in mind, I immediately took light pink construction paper and glued cut-out strips onto the interior flaps of the box.

After the construction paper dried, we used various colors of paint to place thumbprints all over the flaps. We made sure to do them in various directions and even included some fingerprints, like our pinkies, to create a variety of print sizes.

Once the paint dried, I took a Sharpie and turned the thumbprints into “thumb-bodies.” This consisted of drawing legs and arms, and then choosing to add hair, beanies, and faces on some of them too!

As you can see from the very first picture, I used my Canva account to create a label that said, “Always remember thumb-body loves you!” I printed off the 4 by 6 inch label on my Dymo 4XL label maker and placed it on the top flap.

I also glued an envelope to the bottom flap as well. We all wrote down specific things we love about him on heart shaped paper and placed them inside. To close the envelope, I used Washi Tape so it would secure it but would also allow for easy access.

Step Two: Fill the Box

One of my favorite gifts inside this care package included a personalized 8x11” calendar from Shutterfly.

I went in and added specific holidays, extracurricular activities, events, and appointments that we knew would be going on and was already on the calendar to the individual dates and pages. I even added pictures on those days corresponding to the person or people the special day was about.

For each month, I chose a theme and placed images that represented that theme as the main picture for that calendar month. For example, during the month of our wedding anniversary, I placed images of just the two of us. Whereas in a month like June, I placed pictures of our little boy because it was his birthday month.

I knew I wanted to include the littles’ hand or feet prints within the theme. So, I decided to create a heart shaped piece of art out of their feet prints to include in the package. I made sure to use white cardstock, with their sweet feet prints overlapping on the heels, and finally cut them out in the shape of a heart.

Also, I realized I never took an up close, individual picture of the socks, so let me show you! Do you see my face on the white folded item in the bottom right hand corner in the picture above? If so, that is in fact socks with my face on them hahahahaha! I still giggle about them, and we all love them so much!

Sidenote: The socks were a fairly new product at the time that this blog post was written, so business choices were limited. Now there are TONS of businesses who do this with incredibly more accurate and higher quality feel and design. So feel free to Google and figure out which company you’d like to personalize your face, your children’s face, or even your pet’s face with. They are so worth it!!

Another one of my favorite items in this box were these handcrafted, handwritten, and quite literally handmade cards with their hands on them. Ahh, they make my mama heart so sappy. We simply used red cardstock to create the size of the card we wanted. Then, I helped cut out white rectangles for each little to write their dad a letter and picture. Finally, I traced their hand on printer paper, cut it out, and after I glued down the hand (minus the middle and ring fingers) I glued the middle and ring fingers to resemble the universal sign language saying of “I love you.”

Next up, my hearts…literally.

Okay, so you know how when you’re pregnant and the nurses have the ability to record your baby’s heartbeat in a sound device like this so you can keep it as a memento? Well, I snagged these off of Amazon and had each little record a message to him that he could play every night before bed or whenever he missed the sound of their voice. I only wish I would have thought of this before he left, so I could have had him do the same thing for the littles.

Then, we have these adorable keychain keepsakes. Disclaimer: This craft is totally beginner friendly.

For the sake of love and care packages, trying new things is always open for discussion. I thought it would be super cute and sweet for us to carry out the “thumb-body” theme and make thumbprint heart keychains out of clay! This turned out to be way easier than I thought it would, and I even took a toothpick and wrote the initial of who’s thumbprint it was and the year we made it on the back. I placed the keychains in the pink tissue paper inside of a small Tupperware container. This allowed for them to act as a gift of their own and not get lost or separated inside the box with the other items. I also had some little tags and doilies, so I taped one on the lid of the container as an added touch!

Last but not least, I added in some treats that I knew would make him smile. As a bonus detail, I added string and tags to the snacks as a way to make everything look even more cohesive. If I remember correctly, I purchased the tags and string in a mini kit at Target aka my favorite store for all the things.

And boy, do I wish I had a still image of his reaction to this gift. The response from this Valentine’s Day care package was a resounding success at the very least. His genuine reaction, love, and appreciation of the box filled all our cups up and established the momentum to keep up this monthly tradition.

And to my surprise, when he came home every piece of art and memento was still in perfect condition for us to keep forever and ever. It’s a time that I know we’ll never forget.

If you have any questions AT ALL, please do not hesitate to comment below. I will answer as soon as possible, and just know that I am so incredibly grateful and thankful for the opportunity to help you celebrate and love on your loved one.

The results, gratitude, and memory recollections even years later far outweigh any time, effort, or energy that is being used in the moment to make these little labors of love. If you need a sign or a little nudge of encouragement, hear me when I say that these care packages are worth it for everyone involved.

And here’s my one big ask of you!

If you found this blog post to be helpful, can you please take a screenshot to share on your Instagram stories and tag me at @organizemylifeofficial so I can see it and share it too? It would make my absolute day!! You have no Earthly idea!

Thank you for being here and choosing to be a part of the OML family. It means the absolute world, and you showing up for it all encourages me to keep doing the same for you!

Until next time.

-xoxo, your organized, streamlined, and sentimental bestie — em