Valentine's Day Treat Bags

Every year Kamille and I try to make our own Valentine's Day project and tiny gift to hand out to her friends instead of just sending the premade Valentine's Cards.  This year we are making White Chocolate Chex Mix and she is in love with Owls so I made owl themed treat bag labels.  I like to put candy into the pretzel bag sized bags, so these labels are designed for those bags. 

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I bought the little owl graphics from an etsy shop Printables By Rhonda.  Here is the shop.  Then, I just used my photo editor to design the little cards.  In preschool we don't write to on the cards because they are just too hard to pass out that way.  So, they only have a from line so that my daughter can practice her name.

For the white chocolate chex, the ingredients are really simple - chex and candy melts.  It takes about 6 cups of chex for 1 pound of candy melts.  I also added Valentine's Day sprinkles.

 Melt the chocolate according to the directions on the package.

 Stir in the chex until coated.  Spread on a greased cookie sheet or wax paper and add sprinkles.

Once it dried, I mixed in marshmallows and sweethearts.  I put everything into the pretzel bags.

Valentine's Day Tarts

I was actually inspired by a post you probably saw on our blog, Lisa's jack-o-lantern pop tarts to create this Valentine's Day version.

I started with some strawberry jam and premade pie dough. 

Then, I used a big heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out an even amount of hearts.  You may need to roll the scraps out to get another heart out of one pie crust. 

 Next, I piled a big scoop of jam into the middle of 1/2 of the hearts.

Then, I layered another heart on top and crimped the sides with a fork. 

 Finally, I put them onto a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet and baked them for 10-12 minutes at 425.

 They are sooo good.  I'm eating one with some coffee right now =).

Valentine's Day Candy Buttons

I was looking through my new Taste of Home and I saw a sheet of candy buttons on one of the pages.  I used to love those things as a kid.  With Valentine's Day coming up, I decided to make up some sheets of my own candy buttons.

Candy dots are so great for kids.  They are fun to make and inexpensive.  You start with a batch of royal icing.  I use the meringue powder recipe for royal icing.  I would make a 1/2 batch because a full recipe will make more royal icing than you could eat in a lifetime. 

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:

4 cups (440 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar

3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, lemon, almond)

1/2 - 3/4 cup (120 - 180 ml) warm water

Note: Food Coloring (I use Gel Pastes that can be found at cake decorating and party stores or else on-line)

You can also make royal icing with egg whites. 

First, I removed 1/3 of the icing and put it into a sandwich bag.  I left it white.

Next, I tinted the remaining icing light pink and removed 1/2 of what was left and put it into a plastic sandwich bag or piping bag.

Finally, I mixed more red food coloring into the rest of the batch and made a dark pink icing.  I added that into a plastic sandwich bag. 

You can also use piping bag fitted with a small writing tip.  I used heavy duty sandwich ziplock bags.  That way you can close the bag and the kids don't get it all over the place. 

Cut the tips off of the bag.  

To make the heart shapes I traced around a cookie cutter on a piece of paper.  Then, I cut pieces of PARCHMENT paper and place 1 piece of parchment over the outline.   

 Pipe the dots on over the outline and then fill the inside of the heart in.  After you let the dots set up for a couple of minutes, you can poke down the spikes.

 If you want a more traditional look, you can cut strips of parchment and pipe rows of buttons.

 I put them on a cookie sheet and dry them out on the counter or in the oven (off) for several hours to dry.

 This is a great fine motor skills projects for kids.  My three-year-old made some candy worms. 

Another idea for working on the fine motor skills is to print out shapes, letter, or numbers and layer the parchment over the top. 

Valentines Wall Hanging

A while back I had ordered a charm pack of Moda Valentine's day fabrics and had intended to make place mats out of it. However, I was in the mood for something new and Valentine's related to add some color to our living room. And this is what I ended up with after just and hour or so.

I took some left over yardage of light blue felt from some Christmas ornaments that I had made and cut into two 24" x 24" squares. Then i made three different sized heart shaped templates out of scrap paper and proceeded to cut the largest and smallest hearts out of assorted pink and red felt. The middle heart is where the charm squares came into play. I actually cut the heart first making the biggest heart that I could out of 9 charm squares (mine where 5" squares). Then I made the template for the small and large square to my desired size.

Next, I simply stitched the charm square heart to the largest felt heart. And then the smallest felt heart on top of those two. Lastly, I stitched down the whole applique on the blue background with a satin stitch. I just eye balled everything as far as spacing went alternating pink and red appliques. 

When I had all of my hearts appliqued down on the back ground, I added three lengths of ribbon (folded in half to make tabs) evenly spaced at the top of the project and pointed inwards toward the bottom of the project.  Next, I placed the backing fabric (the other 24"x24" piece of felt) on top of the appliqued piece (right sides together). I stitched around all sides with a 1/4" seam allowance leaving a 3" opening for turning. Then I just simply turned the wall handing right side out and top stitched making sure to catch the 3" opening.

Voila!

A simple, easy, and inexpensive wall hanging was created. This would be a great way to use up all of your fabric scraps!

Happy Sewing!!

Chocolate Dipped Oreos Tutorial for Valentine's Day

I love oreo cookies so I have been waiting for a time to make these chocolate dipped oreos.  This batch is going off to my uncle.  I know he will enjoy them because I have personally caught him hiding in the pantry eating cookies behind my aunt's back. 

My this little project you need oreo or another favorite sandwich cookie of your choice, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and I also used pink candy melts, non-pariels or other sprinkles, and conversation hearts.

Follow the directions on the chocolates to melt.  You want them really warm, but be careful not to burn the chocolate.  You should use a heavy bowl, not a plastic container.  You are more likely to burn the chocolate if you melt it in plastic. 

 I use a regular fork to dip my cookies.  There is a tool for dipping that you could buy, but why waste money?  Dip the cookie so that it is totally covered top and bottom.

 Gently tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove some of the excess chocolate and smooth out the candy.  If you wanted to make lollipops for a school party, you would stick the sucker stick into the middle of the cookie before you dip it and then use the stick to dip the cookie. 

For this batch, I used non-pariels on some of the cookies, sprinkled on immediately after dipping.  I also drizzled melted chocolate in contrasting colors and made some chocolate hearts to put on the top of some of the cookies. 

 Place each cookie on wax paper, parchment, silpat, or a lightly greased (with butter) cookie sheet.  They set up quickly, especially if you put them in the freezer (which will help them pop off if they get stuck).  Notice how I didn't care if the bottoms were not perfect.  Once the cookies are set, you can remove the extra chocolate.  It just snaps off.  If you are really concerned, you can clean them up with a knife. 

Finally, I put them in a cupcake box.  They come in a 3 pack at Michael's for about $3.99.  The little box hold 12 cookies.  I tied it with some curly ribbon.  If I was making lollipops, I would wrap each one in a plastic candy bag and tie it closed with a bow.

5 Fun Tutorials For Using Cupcake Liners

Aunt Peaches shares an awesome tutorial for making this Ruffled Lotus Lantern.

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Paper Crave has this great tutorial for a cute cupcake tree. This would make a sweet addition to any Valentines decor:)

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The Lovely Paper Blog has a nice tutorial for making these adorable flowers!

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The Single Nester has a super easy tutorial for how to make this heart shaped wreath.

Craft Gossip shows us how to make these yummy little treats that use a cupcake liner as the base! 

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Happy Sewing!!

Valentine's Day Handmade Gift Round Up

It's always good to have your ducks in a row when it comes to handmade holiday gifts.
If your like me you'll need the extra month to get some of these super great handmade Valentine's Day gift ideas done in time!

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This cute little wrapped paper chocolate bar from Stinkin' Cute Stuff would make an excellent Valentine's gift for anyone.  

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I love this idea from Alpha Mom! You could could do these up as a surprise for your little ones or have them help and send them off you Grandma. What a fun way to use up all of that scrap paper!

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These are just too adorable! I think I might wear one;)

The Purl Bee provides a wonderful tutorial on how to make some of these Rose Barrettes!

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Who wouldn't love this yummy jar of cookies! Found this idea over at Squidoo.

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Catching Fire Flies offers a bunch of really affordable and fun ways for the whole family to share on Valentine's Day.

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Catching Fire Flies also has a very easy tutorial on how to make this sweet recycled firefly! This one is too good to not share;)

I love that these little treat boxes feature special art work! These would make very thoughtful classroom treats to share! Check out inchmark for more great ideas!

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This is one of the cutest ideas yet!!! Stitch Craft gives an amazing tutorial on how to make these little tissue holders. What a great time of year for a gift like this!

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Moda Bake Shop gives full measurements and directions on how to sew one of these Valentine's Penny Pockets! These would be cute holding your silverware for a romantic dinner!

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Cake Journal does it again!

My mouth is watering looking a this cute paper cone filled with sugar cookies!

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This crocheted edging on About.com would make a very sweet trim on the bottom hem of a pair of jeans or a cotton dress!

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Sew Mama Sew has a really easy tutorial on how to make one of these sewn valentines for someone special in your life!

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Happy Crafting!!