Love at 1st Bite Valentines

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. It is full of pink and kisses and candy and hearts and sparkle. Basically it's a little girl's dream...and a little boy's nightmare! It can be really hard to come up with Valentine ideas that don't leave boys running for the dirt pile, and I have to admit that in the past I've made my boys suck it up and take pink, girly Valentine's to school. But last year after Halloween when I came across these cute Glow in the Dark teeth on clearance, I knew they would make a really fun and very boyish Valentine!

I started with a couple packs of clearance Glow in the Dark teeth, cute chevron bags, sticker paper, washi tape, and mini candy bars. I designed the cute Love at 1st Bite printable on my Silhouette software and then print and cut them out with my Silhouette. I saved the printable without my boys' names too, so if you have a Silhouette and you want the printable file just send me an email {kellibwilson @ gmail.com}.

I stuck a sticker onto the cute chevron bags...

...and then stuck in the Glow in the Dark teeth and a mini candy bar. I made the black bags for the boys and the pink ones for the girls.

To close up the bags, I folded over the edge and secured it with a little bit of washi tape.

I think my boys are going to be excited about taking these Valentine's to school tomorrow. They are boyish enough for them, but still really cute and Valentine-like for me {and all the girls in their classes}!

Eleven Fun and Easy Valentine Ideas

For some reason Valentine's Day crafting and creating has been difficult for me this year! I'm not sure if it's because I used up all my creativity over the last few years, or if Pinterest has made me feel way less creative than I thought I was. Either way, the new Valentine ideas have just not been flowing much this year. So I thought  it might be fun to recap a few of my past Valentine's Day ideas in one big Valentine Round Up post!  They are all really cute and really easy to do...which is perfect for all us busy moms who really don't have to make all of those amazing Pinterest level crafts!

Number 1: Kaleidoscope Valentines

Number 2: Valentine Chalkboard Candy Boxes

Number 3: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffles

Number 4: Valentine Hula Hoop Wreath

Number 5: Tootsie Roll Bank Valentine

Number 6: Love Note in a Pancake

Number 7: See Through Valentines

Number 8: Play-Doh Valentines with Printable

Number 9: I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Number 10: Valentine Mailbox Magnets

Number 11: Ruffled Valentine Dishtowels

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Valentine Treat on a Stick!

Anytime you put a treat on a stick, it is just so much more fun {We've all experience the cake pop phenomenon}! So when I saw these yummy red velvet {Twinkie-like} cakes at the store a few days ago, I knew that I just had to put them on a stick! And my theory was right! They were cute in the package but they are so much cuter on the stick...and the sprinkles are helping a little too:)

I started with a couple of packs of Red Velvet Bingles, white chocolate candy coating, sprinkles, and lollipop sticks.

 I started by melting my chocolate in a tall microwave safe glass. I have found that the tall glass makes it a lot easier to cover the whole cake. Just microwave based on the instructions on your package. I also thinned my  candy coating a little with a small spoonful of shortening. Just make sure to follow the directions on your particular package because not all candy coatings can be thinned this way.

Dip one end of your lollipop stick into the candy coating and then insert into the end of your cake. Place them in the freezer to harden up a little so the sticks don't slip out when you are dipping them. 

After about 20 minutes in the freezer you are ready to dip. 

 Make sure to cover the entire cake with the candy coating. Use a spoon to scoop up the coating and cover the end if needed.

 Place the cakes on a sheet of parchment paper and shake on some sprinkles while the candy coating is still wet.

 These little treats on a stick are SUPER cute from the outside, but they are even cuter on the inside!

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Kaleidoscope Valentines

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday! I have so many great childhood memories of making Valentine boxes and passing out cute cards in class. And as fun as store bought cards are, I really love making and sending more personalized Valentines to my boys' classmates. {You can look back HERE and HERE to see other examples of the cute Valentine's that I've come up with for my boys to send to school.} This year, I struggled a little with finding a fun {and original} idea...mostly because there are SO many great ideas on Pinterest these days! Anyway, as I was browsing the aisles of The Dollar Tree last week, I came across these packages of cute Kaleidoscopes that I knew would make adorable Valentines. And the major bonus here is that I made enough for Eli's whole class for around $2.00!

I started with these little kaleidoscopes. I picked them up at the dollar store and they came 8 in pack for $1.

Then I used my Silhouette to cut out these little tags that say "Love at First Sight". If you don't have a Silhouette, you can easily just print the saying on card stock and then punch them out with a decorative hole-punch or even just cute them out scissors.

I tied the little tags on with some red and white bakers twine...and ended up with these adorable Kaleidoscope Valentines!

And a bonus with these Valentines is that the kiddos are getting a little toy to play with instead of even more candy!

Simple, easy, and SUPER inexpensive Valentines from just a few supplies and a little trip to the dollar store!

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Sonic Drink Holder Valentine Gift Box

Back in November I started collecting those cardboard drink holders from Sonic. I had seen some really cute gift baskets made with lots of different kinds of drink holders and the Sonic ones seem to be the best...plus who doesn't want a reason to order a few yummy drinks at Sonic:)  Anyway, I was planning to use the drink holders at Christmas to make the boys' teachers gifts. I ended up giving them a different gift, which means my stash of drink holders {yes they are part of collecting vs. hoarding issues too} was still sitting in the dining room waiting to be turned into a cute gift box. I decided that Valentine's Day would be a great reason for me to pretty up the {kind of plain} cardboard drink holders and add a few goodies!

 I started by gathering up a few things to put into the gift box: a coffee cup, hand sanitizer, a Starbucks drink, and a recycled PB jar full of yummy cookies. 

 I used some left over Christmas wrapping paper {red and white polka dots work for so many things} and some scrapbook paper to cover all four sides of the drink holder. I simply placed the drink holder on the backside of the paper and traced around the part that I wanted to cover. I used spray adhesive and a glue runner to attach the paper to the box.

 I added a few vinyl letters to the coffee cup and the hand sanitzier just to make them more personalized. I also added a strip of chalkboard vinyl to the peanut butter jar {to cover up the sticky glue that wouldn't come off}. Then I let the boys decorate the jars with chalk. They wrote Happy Valentine's Day, drew a few hearts, and signed their names.

 I added a circl of scrapbook paper to the top of the jar to cover up the Jif label and then filled it up with yummy Valentine M&M cookies.

To finish off the gift box, I wrapped up the Starbucks drink, added a few pink & white paper straws, and tied on a cute tag with some bakers twine. The boxes took a little bit of time and effort, but they only cost a few dollars {around $7 each} to put together and they turned out SUPER cute! I hope the boys' teachers like them:)

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I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Eli and I are heading to library story time today. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that my poor neglected third child has never been to story time. I took the boys all the time when Henry and Grant were little, but for a million and one reasons I've never taken Eli. A friend has invited us a few times over the past few months, and I had planned to start going in January....but I got sick, and it rained, and I had laundry to do...a million and one reasons! So we are going today! And today just happens to be the special Valentine party, which means if I'm going to show up for the first time I have to bring something cute with me:) Actually I probably don't have to take anything, but I bought these cute heart shaped marshmallows at Walmart a few weeks ago and I was kind of excited to have somewhere to take them!

So here are my SUPER simple, less than ten minutes to make, and really really really yummy

I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts!

 I started with a bag of pink and white heart shaped marshmallows, melted chocolate candy coating, and a handful of toothpicks.

 Stick the toothpick into the side of heart shaped marshmallow and then give it a good dunk in the melted chocolate. Carefully shake off any excess chocolate.

 After dipping, place them on foil...

 ...and add a few shakes of some pretty Valentine sprinkles.

 After the chocolate hardens, carefully pull out the toothpick. You can dip another toothpick into the melted chocolate and covered up the hole where you pulled out the dipping toothpick, or you can just leave them as they are. 

Place your chocolate marshmallow hearts directly on a serving tray, or put them into cute papers cups like I did. They fit perfectly into mini baking cups that I picked up on clearance last year at Target. These were a big hit at our house yesterday {my boys begged to eat the extra chocolate marshmallow hearts last night after dinner}, so I'm hoping they will do just as good at story time today. What preschooler doesn't love sprinkles?!?

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Valentine Mailbox Magnets

I'm still working on getting our house ready for Valentine's Day. We really don't have a ton of decorations out other than the cute Chalkboard Candy Boxes that I made a few weeks ago, and this really cute printable that I pinned and then downloaded from Oopsey Daisy. For the last few years, my boys have had some cute little metal mailboxes that I picked up at Target {don't you LOVE the Dollar Spot} and decorated with a paint pen...obviously before my days of owning a Cricut or Silhouette:) I pulled them out of storage and Eli promptly sat on two of them and bent them all out of shape! Needless to say, the last time I as at Target there were three new little metal mailboxes in my shopping cart. I decided to try something a little different this time. Instead of just decorating the boys' Valentine mailboxes with their names or initials, I thought it would be really cute to include a picture of them too...but I wasn't quite sure how to achieve that. Then I walked past our fridge and noticed two old magnets that I had saved just in case I wanted to craft something, and a light bulb went off! Those little mailboxes are metal which means a magnet will cling to it with no problems! So I set out to make some cute Valentine Mailbox Magnets!

Here are the cute {but oh so plain mailboxes} that I started with.

They look really cute {but oh so plain} sitting the edge of our stairs with the Chalkboard Candy Boxes...but they needed something to jazz them up a little and make them pop!

I started with two 4 inch by 4 inch magnets that I cut in half. I ended up with 4 inch by 2 inch magnets, so I opened up a few pictures of the boys in PSE and cropped their pictures to fit the 4 X 2 magnet. I printed the pictures out in black and white and made sure that they were the right size.

I used my paper cutter to trim the picture to the right size, and then I used spray adhesive to attach the pictures to the magnets.

After the spray adhesive dried, I grabbed a red Sharpie and added a little bit of fun Valentine graffiti to the boys pictures. The black and white pictures were kind of plain and this was a quick easy way to add a little color. You could also add some cute stickers or even attach some pretty Valentine scrapbook paper. 

Then to seal the pictures, I added a few thin coats of Mod Podge.

I also cut out some red vinyl initials with my Silhouette, but stickers or scrap book paper would work great here too!

After the Mod Podge was dry I simply stuck the magnet to the side of the mailbox and they were ready to go! Eli was so excited to see his face on the side of  his Valentine mailbox:) Now I just have to come up with some fun stuff to put inside their mailboxes!

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