The gifts that keep on giving

Imagine Sally Dent making her rounds as jewelry department head at Hobby Lobby, 1275 S. College Mall Rd., on Feb. 13. One by one she sees men of all ages enter the store and become immediately drawn to Hobby Lobby's Valentine's Day display, which sits at the front of the store. There are the typical gifts: the flowers, the teddy bears, the culinary treats and the perfume. \n"A lot of guys will head over to our floral department and will try to pick out what gift goes with what flower," Dent says.\nBut now and then she sees men aimlessly roaming the store trying to create a gift unlike any sold in a standard department store. One man is looking to make a collage. Another, a painting. \nDent says projects like these are "quick second projects" that don't cost a lot of money.\n"They don't want to do the same standard thing," she says. "I don't know if they actually care more, or if it's their first Valentine's and they don't want to get dumped."\nWhether attempting to avoid the pain of a break-up, or take the relationship to the mythical "next level," there are plenty of Valentine's Day gifts both men and women can give that defy convention and show their significant other the relationship is not just a "fling." \nOne inexpensive gift is writing that special someone a poem. Shakespeare and Robert Frost don't have to be the only ones able to make magic with quill and scroll. The Internet can give anyone, including Vanilla Ice, the ability to rhyme words.\nOne Web site, www.rhymezone.com, has 88 rhymes for the word love and 13 words for baby. \nJust imagine: "I want you to know what I feel is love. I think that you were sent from above. On this day, you should know, baby. I would still be with you if you gave me rabies." The possibilities are endless.\nBut why stop there? Take that poem to the next level with some music or rhythm. Web sites like www.chordfind.com can teach people without any musical talent basic guitar chords to help write a song. Now, anyone can be Celine Dion or Neil Diamond. \nThe Internet can teach people many other talents, like massage. The Web Site www.aboutmassage.com provides a list of techniques one can use to alleviate stress on joints and pressure points.\nAdd a few candles, some scented oil and voila, a romantic massage.\nPlus, massages are appropriate any day of the year, making this a gift that keeps on giving.\nBut if one lacks lyrical talent or hand-eye coordination, arts and crafts stores contain a plethora of inexpensive options for Valentine's Day. \nImmortalizing memories in a photo album or a collage provides a certain amount of sentimentalism which is appropriate for Valentine's Day. \nA nice photo album can cost as little as $5 and poster board can be purchased for less than $1.\nOr one could make their elementary school teacher proud and make a Valentine's Day card out of construction paper at minimal costs.\n"It shows that they are definitely more creative," Dent says about creating a valentine.\nWhile photo albums, collages and cards are nice in their own right, elements of the three can be combined to create a scrapbook or a scrapbook page as a Valentine's Day gift. \nScrapbook pages can commemorate first dates, special occasions or even the most boring times.\n"People generally scrapbook the day to day events, but people start out with the very big events," says Sharon Follendorf, owner of Bloomin' Scrapbooks & Stamps, 223 S. Pete Ellis Dr.\nBut don't fear, even the most inexperienced person can create a sentimental scrapbook.\n"You can tell as soon as they walk in that they're clueless," Follendorf says. "They walk in the door with a dazed look in their eyes." \nFor such occasions, Bloomin' Scrapbooks & Stamps offers scrapbooking classes with schedules available online at www.bloominscrapbooks.com.\nBut if one does not have enough time to take a class or two, Follendorf says she can assist people when they walk in the store. For best results one should bring in pictures that would be appropriate for a Valentine's Day gift. Follendorf says this helps them "color-coordinate."\nThe amount of time or money spent on a scrapbook page depends on the person creating it.\n"It's a creative aspect, like painting," Follendorf says. "It could take one person 10 minutes; it could take one person six hours."\nBut that shouldn't deter people from scrapbooking.\n"It's more personal, and it's longer lasting," she says. "The flowers will fade, the candy will be eaten, but the scrapbook will last forever."\nFreshmen Megan Traxinger and Erin Perryman can appreciate the thought of a handmade Valentine's Day gift even more than expensive jewelry or clothes.\n"If you just get a typical present, you think, 'Oh, great. I got what everybody else got'," Traxinger says.\nPerryman suggests making a gift is as beneficial for the giver as it is the recipient. \n"It's like a shared relationship," she says. "It's a shared bond they would have."\nPerryman says a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift is a CD full of sentimental songs to both members of the relationship. \nSometimes being creative can pleasantly surprise the recipient of a gift. That was the case for sophomore Andrew Maitlen. \n"It kind of caught me off guard because usually the guys go more all out on Valentine's Day," Maitlen says in reference to a collage box he received.\nBut being creative on Valentine's Day has its risks if people fail to devote the appropriate amount of time and effort to a creative gift. Would one rather receive a failed creative gift or a stand-by like jewelry or chocolate?\n"That's tough," Traxinger says.\n"If they failed miserably, probably the jewelry," Perryman says.\nBut Maitlen disagrees.\n"That just sucks, but you kind of laugh it up," he says. "I guess it makes a nice story. It's more the stuff that screws up that keeps a relationship going than the stuff that goes right"