Cookies and candy for Valentine’s Day
The key to a really good valentine is making it personal.
And a surefire way to ensure that it is uniquely personal is to make it by hand. Handmade and heartfelt — that’s the killer combo for a fantastic valentine.
Trouble is, handmade usually means lots of time and tons of work. And if it’s not time consuming, it often times is expensive, but not with this project.
So put your credit card away, grab a few craft supplies and you are well on your way to a super valentine.
Did I mention that it’s not a card? Why not think inside the box and create a heart-shaped container that you can fill with handmade or store-bought candy or — my personal favourite — renovated fortune cookies?
Making your own heart candy is as easy as melting chocolate in the microwave, pouring it into heartshaped silicone ice cube trays and popping the hearts out of the moulds once they have cooled for about an hour in the fridge.
Custom fortune cookies are even easier. Simply buy the cookies, by the dozen, from any Chinese food restaurant, remove the fortunes with tweezers and replace them with personal fortunes written (or computer printed) on red or pink paper.
Slip the new fortunes back into the cookies and for even more customization, dip half of each cookie in melted chocolate and hang them over the lip of a glass to dry. When your valentine breaks open a cookie and reads your personal message (X-rated, silly or romantic ... it’s up to you) you will surely have left a lasting impression.
Now that you have candy and cookies covered, it’s time to think about a container to hold them.
Cut two matching hearts from card stock, embellish one side of each heart with patterned paper and cut a two-inch wide, long strip of cardstock to hold the hearts together.
Every inch, cut a shallow V along the length of both sides of the long, narrow strip.
Fold the strip lengthwise with a ruler placed at the tip of each V, apply adhesive to the tabs on the top and bottom of the strip and attach a decorated heart to the tabs, resulting in a heart shaped container that is just waiting to be filled with any number of personalized, tiny treats.