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Be Mine . Our Valentine's Day Traditions

February 10, 2015

 

Whether you are spending this Valentine’s Day with the love of your life, your girlfriends, or alone with a bottle of wine paired with your favorite chick flicks, Valentine’s Day can be celebrated by all. We always say that Valentine’s Day is one of the best excuses to pull out the glitter and sprinkles and get crafty!

DIY Valentine’s

 

After years of exchanging flowers and chocolates, Valentine’s Day starts to seem a bit generic. While we admit to falling into the cheesy trap of purchasing singing teddy bears and heart shaped chocolates, we strongly believe that Valentine’s Day cards are a perfect opportunity to not only get creative, but to show your individuality. The more personal you can make your Valentine’s Day cards, the more your recipient will appreciate it. It is a favorite tradition of ours to craft our own Valentine’s from scratch. Here are a few of our favorite ideas that we wanted to teach you so that you can make one for your Valentine this year!

Heart Banner Valentine

 

MATERIALS:

• Card Stock and Scrapbook Paper
• Twine
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue
• Scissors
• Pens & Pencils
• Hole Puncher

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fold the card stock in half that you are using for the base of the card.
2. Choose 2 different types of scrapbook paper to use to cut out hearts. Use a pencil to draw a heart then cut it out with scissors. Use that heart to trace 4 more hearts in both types of paper and cut them out as well.
3. Use your pen to write out cute Valentine’s messages like “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me” on each heart.
4. Next you can punch holes in the corners of your hearts and feed twine through like a mini banner. If you do not have a hole puncher, you can also just layer hearts and glue them together to have the same garland look and glue pieces of twine to each end.
5. Tie knots on each end of  twine and hot glue them to the inside of your card.
6. Decorate the front of your card however your heart desires, and you are ready to give it to your Valentine!

 

 

 

Doily Valentine

 

MATERIALS:

• Card Stock
• Doilies
• Glitter Glue Pens
• Clear Glue or Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Pens & Pencils

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fold the card stock in half that you are using for the base of the card.
2. Take one doily and place it on the front of the card where you would like the doily design to go.
3. Mark where the doily needs to be cut according to the edge of the card stock, then cut the excess doily away.
4. Use clear glue or a glue stick on doily to glue to the card stock in desired position.
5. Add a simple love message using pretty pens and glitter glue, and voilà you have your personalized Valentine!

 

Lovable Treats

 

We can’t imagine spending Valentine’s Day without making sweet treats to indulge in. This is certainly a holiday that deserves a free pass from counting calories. In fact, we have always felt this way since we were little girls. As sisters growing up we spent almost every Valentine’s Day eve making sugar cookies and decorating them with pink and red icing, topped with sprinkles for days. This year we have certainly kept the tradition going, and we still had more fun with it than ever!

We also put a spin on one of our favorite holiday treats, and made it Valentine’s Day appropriate. Try out our marshmallow pops at home. We will certainly be adding them to our must have Valentine’s Day treats from now on!

Heart Sugar Cookies

 

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Pilsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
• Heart Shaped Cookie Mold
• Cake Decorating Icing
• Icing tubes (For text or small details)
• Pink, Red, or White Spreadable Frosting
• Sprinkles of your choice

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using all cookie dough, fill each cookie mold 3/4 of the way to the brim.
3. Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.  Once removed from the oven, let cookies cool until the edges have hardened.  Then you may remove the cookies from the mold, pulling up from the edges.
4. Using your spreadable frosting, icing, and icing tubes, decorate your cookies to your desire.  Use your sprinkles at the end as a finishing touch (there is no such thing as going overboard with sprinkles)!
5. Enjoy eating them with the ones you love.

 

With all of the decorating ahead of us, we like to get a jump start on our cookies by using pre-made cookie dough, but if you prefer to make your cookie dough from scratch, here is a recipe we love!  This will make 28 cookies.

Ingredients

-2¾ cups all­purpose flour

-1 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. baking powder

-2 sticks softened butter (1 cup)

-1½ cups sugar

-1 egg

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

 Instructions

1. Mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder in one bowl.
2. In another bowl (or in a mixer) combine butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
3. Gradually mix in the flour/baking soda/baking powder mix.
4. Scoop out dough balls and place in cookie mold or on a baking sheet.

 

 

Marshmallow Pops

 

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• 1 Package of Marshmallows
• 2 Packages of White Chocolate Chips
• Lollipop sticks or decorative straws
• 1 Small Bottle of Red Liquid Food Coloring
• Sprinkles of your choice

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. With a sharp knife, cut a small hole in the center of the top surface of the marshmallows.

 

 

 

2.  Insert straws into marshmallows, stopping just before the stick comes through the marshmallow top.

 

 

 

 

3.  Lay marshmallow sticks on a plate, and place in the freezer for 19 minutes.

 

 

4.  In a small microwave safe bowl, heat white chocolate chips for 30 seconds. Stir chocolate, then heat for an additional 30 seconds, and stir again until chocolate is smooth. If you wish to make your chocolate pink, add 3 drops of liquid red food coloring to the melted chocolate, and mix until the chocolate is pink through and through.

 

 

 

5.  Place your variety of sprinkles into small bowls.

 

 

6.  Remove marshmallow sticks from the freezer. Dip the first marshmallow into the chocolate, and let the excess drip away.

 

 

7.  Immediately dip the marshmallow edge into your desired bowl of sprinkles, and place on a plate to dry.

 

 

 

 

8.  Keep marshmallow pops spaced out from each other on the plate so they do not touch. Once they have completely dried, enjoy!

 

 

Have a Lovely Valentine’s Day!