Valentine's Goodies and a Yummy Challenge!

Good morning friends! I hope you all are doing well and keeping warm! It is highly unlikely for us to receive snow here but we are expected to receive some tonight! It has been very cloudy and a bit breezy since the morning, I love days like this, just makes me want to relax!

[EDIT: 2-2-11 Scroll down to see my submission for Week 19 over at the Paper Variety!]

I finished up the schools' Valentine Candy Grams yesterday. I wish I could have done a little bit more, but just didn't really have much time. So today, I am sharing with you everything else I made in addition to the 144 3x3 Mini Cards that I made and shared with you in 2 earlier posts. Here is a shot of everything altogether. I have to admit that even though I enjoyed making everything, I am glad to be finished. I've spent every morning of the last week putting all this stuff together, it's time for a break! So, I hope you are ready for a long post!



To make my Pencil holders, I measured out cardstock to 3" x 2¾" and patterned paper from the Target Dollar spot to 2¾" x 2½". After rounding off all the corners, I adhered the patterned paper and used a small circle punch to punch holes, centered, in both ends of the paper. (I can't remember the size of the punch, it came together with a small butterfly punch and is from EK Success). Using 1 7/8" scalloped circles and 1" white circles, I stamped my images using the Tiny Treats Stamp set from Papertrey ink and colored them in using my Prismacolor markers. I used a glue gun to adhere the circles to the paper bases and then inserted the pencils. I got this idea from this month's issue of Scrapbooks Etc. Since I already had the stamp set, I had to try this out! I made 40 in total, they came out so cute! Target paper was $1 and the pencils were also from the Dollar Spot, so I spent ~$4.00 making these.







Using standard size lollipop treat bags, I made 30 of these little bags filled with 3 different kinds of chocolate hearts. The bag toppers are 3" x 3" and scored at 1½". The hearts are cut out at 2" using the Plantin' Schoolbook Cricut cartridge and I used a border scallop punch on the edges. I stamped "To and From" on the back of each bag topper, so I did not want to close these off with a staple. Instead, I ran a line of hot glue on the inside of the bag topper (top and bottom) and adhered the bags this way. Since the bags are plastic, they melted right into the glue for a secure hold. Just make sure you keep the glue away from the chocolates! I made a total of 30 of these, and only spent $4.74!







These are Charms Mini Lollipop Bunches. I found these mini lollipops at the Dollar tree and bought 4 bags. Each bag had about 23 pops in it, so I made 30 little bags with 3 lollipops each. These are the same lollipop bags that I used above. I inserted 3 lollipops upside down and secured them with 3 colors of curling ribbon, topped off with a mini Valentine tag. Again, only spent about $4.00 here.







I also made these Lollipop holders. Normally, I would make the matchbook lollipop holders, but I was running out of time and out of adhesive. So I made these instead. I cut out 3" x 3" cardstock squares, 2¾ " x 2¾ " patterned paper squares, and 1 7/8" scalloped cirles with stamped images. For these, I used glue dots to sandwich each lollipop between the squares and scalloped circles, and I added "To and From" on the back of each one. I made a total of 40 of these. I found the heart lollipops at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each, but I also saw them at Walmart. So again, spent only about $4.00 here.







Now, on to the challenge! These are also part of my candy gram donations to the school, and it just so happens that the Challenge for Week 19 over at the Paper Variety is to make a project using this photo as inspiration:



So this is my submission for this weeks challenge! Using the exact same supplies and measurements as above, I repeated these bags using scallop circles and Sweetheart Conversation Hearts instead. Here, I spent $2.60 on the hearts, and was able to fill each bag with 6 large hearts and 15 small hearts. I made a total of 25 of these bags.







I think what I am most happy about at the end of this project is the fact that I didn't spend too much money. I love that I was able to create so many little things without having to worry about how much money I had spent. I do however think I need to invest in a new stamp set for next year though :)

So now that all of these are done and turned in to the school, I still have to make the treat bags for the girls' classes! I am now making 40 little "bags" using the Plantin' Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge, and I can't wait to finish these. The girls are going to help me fill them with goodies and write notes to their friends.

Until next time, be safe, be warm, and have a great week! Thanks for stopping by!