More Cute Valentine's Treats!

With so many fabulous ideas out there for Valentines Day projects, I thought I'd share a few more today. And these are truly so simple that you could whip them up in minutes with a few store-bought ingredients. First up.....

It doesn't get much cuter than this!

"Love-Bug" Marshmallow Pops from the Decorated Cookie.

I LOVE THESE!

And the next goodies are all from Suzie's Confections, using all easy-to-find ingredients such as these large pretzel sticks and covering them in melted candy coating and sprinkles.

Buy a bag of fortune cookies and dip them in the candy coating and sprinkles, too.

These would make a great favor for friends and teachers.

These are chocolate covered rice krispy bites.

And graham cracker sticks covered in chocolate and sprinkles rounds out the super-easy, super-quick Valentines' ideas. I love all of these projects because they allow even busy moms a way to have fun and be creative with the kids.

Only a week or so before those classroom parties -- we better get on the ball!

Valentine's Treats - Yum!

I'm finding and sharing some more cute Valentine's treats today from across the web. Some are super easy, too, which is always helpful around a busy holiday with classroom parties and all the rest. I love these ideas because they translate well into party themes of all kinds, not just Valentines. Change the sprinkles.... the frosting colors, etc. and you can make them work into your own child's birthday party theme.


Heart shaped Cookie Pops from the Idea Room using a "play-dough" cookie dough recipe (it's not really play dough, in case you're a little worried..... it just works like play dough for easy molding.)

And another super cute creation from the Idea Room, a stuffed-cookie with Valentine's sprinkles. Talk about easy! Wrap them in cellophane with some sweet Valentine's ribbon and hand them out to classroom friends.

And how adorable are these marshmallow pops from The Decorated Cookie? Using food markers makes this activity simple and quick, too.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this version of ice cream cone cupcakes from Girl.Inspired!

Talk about cute..... just look at that "spilled" cone!

Heart-shaped cake pops from Oopsey Daisy with a great tutorial, too.

And my favorite idea of all from Bakerella, using only store-bought

OREO Cakesters and a small cookie cutter.

Now there's no excuse at all for not whipping up a little something special

for Valentine's Day -What a perfect after school activity!

Valentines's Heart Pops

Everyone loves Valentines Day, I mean, really, how could you not? A full day set aside to celebrate LOVE! Hearts and flowers, chocolate and other goodies, and super sweet notes to those we care about..... what a terrific reminder to focus on the positive things in life.

I'm almost overwhelmed by all of the great Valentines ideas circulating on the internet. I hope to share lots of them with you all over the coming weeks.... recipes and crafts and parties, too. I happened across this adorable idea for a Valentine's treat from Pleasant Home, Valentine's Heart Pops made from candy canes and white chocolate candy melts. This is brilliant! Easy and quick and a great favor for neighbors and friends.

Adorable for a classroom treat, too!

With the directions from Pleasant Home, they are simple to make with a few ingredients..... small candy canes, white chocolate candy melts and some Valentines sprinkles.

And while you're visiting Jodi over at Pleasant Home,

take a look at these yummy jello pop corn balls.

And these super easy favors using tic-tacs and a little scrapbook paper.

Thanks, Jodi, for all of your inspiring ideas!

Kids' Valentines Favor Idea

I'm always looking for a fun project to do with my kids.... they LIVE for art projects, and it's one of those things that brings all 3 of them together, despite their 6 year age spread. Yesterday, I came across an adorable project from Positively Splendid that we are going to use for Valentine's treats for friends. It's a sweet Valentine to hand out to classmates and friends, but here's the kicker...... you make your own paper and include some wildflower seeds. Then the kids get to "plant" their paper this spring to create their very own little flower garden.

ADORABLE!

Amy, the creator of this crafty idea, says, "I absolutely adore a craft project that utilizes things that would otherwise be discarded. See the speckled paper hearts at the center of each of these blooms? My kiddos and I took an afternoon to make that paper together using paper scraps and other ingredients we had on hand, and we had tons of fun in the process. The kids were fascinated by the fact that it is possible to take something used and make it new again, which makes this a truly stellar lesson in recycling. Once the paper was completely finished, we used it the next day to craft the flower Valentines you see here. Why flowers? you might ask. That, friends, is the very best part of this project: Our homemade paper contains a magic ingredient, and the heart centers made out of it can be planted in the spring so that wildflowers can grow as a result of our hard work! "

Please go visit Amy at Positively Splendid and check out her very detailed step-by-step tutorial and get your own jump-start on those Valentines favors today.

I can't wait to make some homemade paper and create these with my own kids. Happy Friday!

FREE Valentine's Classroom Pack Printable!

I'm so excited to announce that I've got a new FREEBIE for all of you today. It's a fun little classroom pack, perfect for those class treat bags and Valentine's parties. I've designed some "Toad-ally" Awesome froggie cupcake toppers, cupcake wraps, a sweet heart shaped tic-tac-toe game to use as a favor for friends, and a ziploc sized favor bag topper, too. So be sure to grab your set -- DOWNLOAD HERE -- and have those treat bags ready early this year! The download is set up on Scribd, so you'll have to be logged into Facebook to download the files -- while you're there, make sure you've become a FAN of Shindig Parties TO GO by clicking "Like" HERE.

Here's what you'll need for MATERIALS:

• photo paper (premium paper in a soft gloss finish)
• printables files
• scissors
• scotch tape
• hot glue gun
• 1" circle craft punch
• 2" circle craft punch
• ziploc bags (quart size)
• stapler
• ruler
• butter knife
• coffee stirrers or lollipop sticks
• ribbon (optional)
• cupcakes

Now let's get started -- it's really easy to put these together as long as you have a 1" and a 2" circle punch. If you don't have the punches, you can purchase them from Michaels or Amazon.com. You may use white cardstock if you like for printing, but the photo paper produces much more vivid colors and professional looking results.

1. Download, save and then print your FREE Classroom Pack using soft gloss or semi gloss premium photo paper (for best results) or white cardstock.
2. To make cupcake toppers, first cut the 2" party logo sheet into columns
3. Using the 2" circle punch, punch out all 12 Valentine's logos
4. Use your 1" circle punch to punch 1" circles from the tic-tac-toe game sheet. Cut out the heart-shaped game boards.
5. Using a hot glue gun, put a small amount of hot glue onto a coffee stirrer or lollipop stick. Cut off approximately 1" from one end of the coffee stirrer.
6. Hot glue the coffee stirrer to the back of the 2" logo
7. Finished cupcake topper
8. Using the favor bag topper sheet, cut along the outside line of each design with scissors. Place a ruler down the middle of the backside of the treat bag topper and score a folding line with a butter knife. Fold the topper in half and make a center crease.
9. Insert one game board, 5 "X" game pieces and 5 "O" game pieces inside a quart size ziploc bag and seal. Fold top of ziploc bag over one time (approximately 1" fold) and insert ziploc top inside of folded treat bag topper.
10. Staple topper to ziploc on each side and in the middle.
11. To make cupcake wraps, cut along inside edge of each printed cupcake wrap approximately 1/8". If desired, cut top edge of wrap (the longest side) with decorative scallop scissors. Wrap around a cupcake baked in a liner and secure along back with scotch tape or a dot of hot glue.
12. Congratulations -- you're done! You've made an adorable Valentine's party set -- perfect for your child's classroom Valentine's party.

I hope you all love your new printables!

.... oh, yes, I DID say "HOPPY!"

Linked to: Craftomanic, Skip to My Lou, Making the World Cuter, Blue Cricket Design, Tip Junkie, Life as Lori, My Delicious Ambiguity, House of Hepworths, Craft Edition, Today's Creative Blog,Crafts Keep Me Sane, Under the Table and Dreaming, Funky Junk Interiors, Tater Tots and Jello