This Heart's For You

Valentine's Day is literally around the corner. If you're still thinking about putting together a little sweet get together, I put together some crafts I worked on late last month into a little party inspiration. Some of them were super easy, some required a sewing machine.And some just required me dipping my fingers into chocolate. But I do it for you! ;)

The inspiration started when I decided to make some Valentine's Chair Envelopes which turned into Valentine's Chair Back{Packs}. I did a full detailed tutorial here.

And as if I hadn't stuck myself enough with straight pins as I was staring at the leftover fabric I started sketching out a totally random idea for a napkin/menu/utensil holder. Is the name thingamajig taken? Practical? Maybe not, but they are really cute. Bow and all!

If you follow my Facebook page, you may have seen the LOVE Letters I yarn wrapped last month. I scored some Christmas yarn on clearance at JoAnns. And it was glitter yarn to boot! The Kraft letters happened to be on sale that day too. It was clearly fate. Except for the letter "O"...that one gave me some wrinkles.  

I picked up a Styrofoam heart too. When you get glittery gold yarn, you may just want to wrap everything in it. You've been warned.

If you haven't heard or seen yet, Michaels now sells push pop containers! They come in a package of six. Use a 40% coupon and pick up a pack. And a super simple way to utilize them in a pinch is mini cupcakes! I grabbed some of these Valentine's minis from Target and dropped 2 of them in each push pop. Doesn't get easier than that.  Put some heart stickers on top to jazz em up even more. 

I know not everyone has Cookie Chocolate molds handy, but if you are into that sort of thing, I got mine from Spinning Leaf {$6} and I only have one of the plain design. If you're not making 10 dozen, they harden pretty fast in the freezer and it's not bad at all to keep the momentum going. 

Maria from Love & Sugar Kisses did a blog post late last year about jazzing up desserts using Wilton's edible Gold color mist. I decided to try it out on some Dove hearts to fancy up my chocolate covered Oreos. It worked great and got the kid's seal of approval. I took a couple others and spread a thin later of the melted chocolate on top of a completely cooled cookie and then doused it with gold sugar crystals. {Tip: After I spread the warm chocolate on top I placed the cookie inside a circular cookie cutter (you could even just use a wide cut stripe of paper stapled in a ring) that was just slightly bigger than the cookie which enabled me to concentrate the sugar crystals on top of the cookie and apply a little pressure to make sure they set}

Ever since I threw the Peg Doll Gender Reveal Party, I've been in love with bite size tastings. I had some of the containers left over that I had picked up from Party City and decided to do heart shaped pancake bites! I simply made some small round pancakes and then punched out hearts. Would love to find a more defined heart cookie cutter for next time. I dipped the end of some bamboo appetizer picks into syrup and then dipped them into the gold sugar crystals for some added sparkle. I did try to use red sugar sprinkles I had first, but the chunkier sugar definitely works better. A little syrup in a tasting cup and brunch is served. 

With some more of the cups, I filled them with M&M's and Gumballs I had on hand. The XOXO letters were made using felt. I enlarged some type , print and cut them out for a template. Then traced onto felt and cut two of each in both pink and red. Top stitched them{leaving an opening} and used some polyester fill to stuff them. Sewed them closed and if nothing else the kids like to toss them around. I also did a few hearts in whatever felt I had leftover. 

I finally bought some Vinyl for my silhouette machine and I've been wanting to do something with it. While this was a tiny project, I thought it would be fun to use some of my hoarded craft supplies{aka random fancy cut-out purchased in one of my Pick Your Plum black-out shopping sessions a while ago} to make a little Tic Tac Toe game for the kids. I used Hershey Nuggets for the game pieces! 

To cover the table, I used an inexpensive white table cloth and pinned it square across the sides to make it look even around the table. I used a piece of scrap fabric and pinned it down the middle and then wrapped the front three edges around with pink ribbon I had in my craft stash. Added a paper banner and called it a day. Want the "I Heart You" Banner? Free DOWNLOAD HERE!

The table runner on the kids table was from Target. And the melamine plates I picked up two years ago from Target on clearance after the Holiday. 

Add in your kids' wagon and turn it into a drink station!

And the end of the day though, all you really need are some little sweet hearts to have some fun!

 A special thanks to my crazy two and half year old for always wanting to be in the pictures. :)

And to my six and a half year old who I haven't been able to pick up since he was 4. Where does the time go? 

I Love, Love. :)

Thanks for stopping by. I love comments, questions, and random babble. 

Photos property of Marie Thomas Designs.