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Valentine’s Day message mazes

A Valentine message hidden in a grid of letters, with only one way to read it through.

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Your worksheet

Kind of maze
2 to 30 letters. Spaces and punctuation are fine; only the letters go in the grid. It stays on this device.
Squares across by squares down.
Difficulty

The other squares use letters that are not in the message, so the route never forks.

Letters
Border
Answer key
Raise this to put a different one on every page.
Up to 40 characters, printed on the sheet and its answer key. Leave it empty for the title shown.

Lists you save stay in this browser only, never sent to us. Unchecking it offers to forget them.

Your word maze

Valentine Message Maze

Letter maze · 6 × 8 · Easy

Spell I LOVE YOU over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

ILCWSHVOSDSTETNFTSYRMSMSOSWTHTUNTTBDIVEYRSLOAOUDSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Valentine Message Maze, Answer Key

Letter maze · 6 × 8 · Easy

Spell I LOVE YOU over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

ILCWSHVOSDSTETNFTSYRMSMSOSWTHTUNTTBDIVEYRSLOAOUDSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Or take one that is already made

Four mazes, each a two-page PDF: the maze, then the answer key with the path drawn in, on its own page.

Valentine message maze printable, little ones: I LOVE YOU, 6 by 8 grid, easyValentine message maze, little onesI LOVE YOU · 6 × 8 · EasyDownload PDF ↓Valentine message maze printable, everyday: BE MINE, 8 by 10 grid, mediumValentine message maze, everydayBE MINE · 8 × 10 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Valentine message maze printable, classroom: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, 10 by 12 grid, mediumValentine message maze, classroomHAPPY VALENTINES DAY · 10 × 12 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Valentine message maze printable, challenge: BE MY VALENTINE, 12 by 15 grid, hardValentine message maze, challengeBE MY VALENTINE · 12 × 15 · HardDownload PDF ↓

Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.

A message maze hides a Valentine greeting in a grid of letters. The message is printed at the top of the sheet, and the job is to find it: begin on START, step to a touching square with the next letter, and carry on until the whole greeting has led you to FINISH. Only one path through the grid does it, which makes the sheet a small puzzle and a card at the same time.

Little ones spells I LOVE YOU twice on a 6 by 8 grid, among letters that appear nowhere in the message. Everyday spells BE MINE five times on 8 by 10. Classroom spells HAPPY VALENTINES DAY three times on 10 by 12, long enough that the route covers 54 of the 120 squares. Challenge spells BE MY VALENTINE six times on 12 by 15, with every decoy one of the message’s own letters.

Typed messages work the same way. Put a name or a private message into the maker above and it builds a new maze around it, entirely on your device; the text never goes into the page address or off your device. Up to 30 letters fit, which is room for a name and a short line.

Making a message maze into a Valentine

Type a message into the maker, up to 30 letters, and choose a grid. The message prints in the instruction line at the top, so the person solving it knows what to look for, and the route through the letters is theirs to find. Write the name of the recipient on the Name line and it doubles as a card.

For a class exchange, five versions of the same message in one PDF means every child in a group of five gets a different grid. Easy suits the youngest, because none of the other squares holds a letter from the message. Turn the answer key off under Answer key if it is going inside a card.

Why only one path spells the Valentine message

On the Challenge sheet 15 squares beside the route hold the letter BE MY VALENTINE needs next, and eleven false trails start the message and stop. That is a lot of chances to go wrong, and still exactly one route reaches FINISH: every maze was checked by a search that tried them all.

The route is also laid so it never runs alongside an earlier part of itself with a letter that would let the solver skip ahead. Without that rule a long message with repeated letters, such as the three A squares in HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, could offer a shortcut, and the maze would have two answers.

Common questions

Is the Valentine message hidden from the person solving it?

No, the message is printed in the instruction line, and the puzzle is finding where it runs through the grid. That keeps the maze fair: a solver who knows what to spell can always find the one route, and the message is the reward on the way.

Does a typed Valentine message get saved anywhere?

Only if you ask. The maze is built in your browser, and the message is never put into the page address or sent to us. It is kept after you close the page only if you check Remember my lists on this device and save it, and then only in your own browser; otherwise the PDF you download is the only thing that holds it.

More questions about the Word Maze Maker