Valentine's Day Treats

Happy Wednesday!  Valentine's Day is almost here, which makes me a little sad because I love Valentine's Day crafting.  My son needed valentines for his classmates this week and I found a fantastic tutorial for adorable treat holders, so I just had to make some fun little packages for his class.  A friend recently lamented that her child's school doesn't allow candy at their Valentine's Day class parties.  Oh, the horrors!  As a dedicated chocoholic, I cannot imagine this holiday without candy.  Thank goodness my son's school isn't so strict!!

Here's what I made:

The kids are asked to give signed but unaddressed valentines.  
I substituted my name for my son's name just for these pictures. 

Here's a side view, so you can see how they stand:

(I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures.  I finished them late at night and sent them to school with my son in the morning, so I had to photograph them without natural light.  Nothing like last-minute crafting!)

These treat holders come together very quickly and Angie's tutorial is really easy to follow.  The tutorial shows how to make a Halloween treat package, but as you can see it can easily be adapted to other holidays.  Here's the tutorial and video I followed, which includes measurements and assembly instructions: Chic' n Scratch. (While you're there, check out some of Angie's other tutorials.  She has over 400 of them!)

If you use an 8.5 x 11 piece of card stock for the base you can make three packages from one piece of card stock.  I also had some 12 x 12 card stock that I wanted to use, so I was able to get more packages from a piece that size.  I made 12 packages for my son's class and only needed one piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper (I only used the patterned paper on the front side of each package).  I filled them with the snack size bags of candy, which cost me less than 20 cents each.  I decorated mine by making a bow from baker's twine and attaching it with a mini glue dot to the tag, then attaching the tag to the package with dimensional foam tape (all things that I had in my stash of supplies).  This is a very cost-effective project!

I chose to staple the candy to the package to keep it in place, but forgot to staple it before adhering the patterned paper.  Quick fix: I adhered the tag over the staple.  Easy peasy!

I hope you're enjoying your Valentine's Day crafting!  Tomorrow I will post one final Valentine's Day card, so I hope you'll visit me again.  Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used:
Stamp: deadbeat DESIGNS

Paper: Red card stock (Bazzill); Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (Neenah); 
Candy Pile (EK Success, Ltd.) 

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Pure Black Writer (Zig)

Tools and Accessories: Small and Large Tag Punches (Stampin' Up!); baker's twine (Strands Etc.); 
mini glue dots; foam tape

Valentine for a Friend

Happy Thursday!  It's another dark and dreary (and oh, sooooo cold) day here, but I'm so excited that the weekend is in sight!

I created today's card for a couple of different challenges.  I used the sketch from this week's Card Sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  I am also entering the color challenge at Dynamic Duos:

The "dessert" option on the color challenge is to make a Valentine, but since I am sending this card to a friend I didn't want to use the traditional hearts and lovey-dovey sentiments.  I left the hearts and flowers behind and headed straight for the chocolate!

This card turned out very differently than I'd planned.  I ended up adding more and more and more layers until the card was so heavy I had to add a heavyweight card stock liner to balance it!  Have you ever heard the children's song, "This is the Song That Never Ends"?  As I created this card, I kept thinking, "This is the card that never ends!"  But I just kept adding layer after layer after layer.  I'll be honest, the creative process got a bit out of control last night!  

Here's my card:

(Isn't that candy image fun?  I went to my mailbox one day, expecting only bills, and was surprised to find a package with this stamp and two other chocolate-themed stamps.  A very sweet family member saw them and thought of me, so she bought them and sent them in the mail as a surprise.  Isn't that the best kind of surprise?  So very "sweet" in more ways than one!)

This is a square card, 5"x5", which I don't often make.  They require square envelopes and additional postage, so I usually reserve this size for cards I'm hand-delivering.  I started by stamping my candy images on Whisper White card stock using Real Red ink, then die cut them.  I used a deckled square punch to cut four squares from Real Red card stock.  I stamped the sentiment in black craft ink, added clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Then I started cutting layers (and layers, and layers!) of Real Red, Whisper White and Basic Black card stock and adhered them to the base.  I attached the images and sentiment (using dimensionals behind the sentiment), then covered the candy images with Glossy Accents to get the shiny look of the "real thing".  I added my heavyweight (balancing) inner liner and stamped it with the same candy images in the corners.  Then I searched my house high and low for some of that delicious chocolate candy, and doggone it, there was none to be found!  

I love hearts and flowers and all the romantic stuff of Valentine's Day, but I have come to realize the value of my friendships with women.  This year as I'm celebrating Valentine's Day with my husband and children, I will also be thinking of all those wonderful women who've helped me get to this place of contentment in my life. Good friends are such wonderful blessings!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

Products Used:

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!); 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (for inner liner, not pictured)

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink, Basic Black Craft Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Deadbeat Designs (candy image); Hambo Stamps (sentiment)

Tools and Accessories: Nestabilities Standard Circles Large (Spellbinders); 1 1/4" deckle punch (McGill); 

clear embossing powder (Mrs. O'Leary's); Glossy Accents (Ranger); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)