While my wife an I were dating, I found out that she liked to sew plastic canvas for a hobby, so I took an interest in doing it and she taught me how. 

Then, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a book that had Warner Brother's patterns in it and made her a plastic canvas creation.  Since the Tasmanian Devil is her favorite character, I made a Valentine's Day Taz.  

He was holding a box of "chocolates" and a bouquet of roses.  Since I didn't want her to know about it before hand, I bought my own needle, canvas, yarn, silk flowers, and book of patterns all  for under $20.  The real investment in the project was time.  I probably spent close to 50 hours sewing it and putting it together.

When I presented it to her, I did go over the $20.  Since it was a wall hanging, on Valentine's Day, I knocked on her door with Taz hanging on the zipper of my jacket.  In Taz's right hand was a heart shaped box of chocolates, so in my right hand was a heart shaped box of chocolates.  In Taz's left hand was a bouquet of 6 red roses, so in my left hand was a bouquet of 6 red roses.  Those two additional gifts put me slightly over $20, but the real gift was Taz.  Doing plastic canvas herself, she knew how long it took for me to make it for her.

She hung it in her room almost immediately.  In the 4 years since then, we have moved 3 times and each time, the first item to get unpacked and hung up is Taz.     

More $20 Romantic Gift Ideas