I can hardly believe that January has already come and gone. What a blast and blur all at the same time. One of the reasons I am excited January is done is because of Valentines. I love baking treats, making crafts and spending time with those I love. Because I love that so much, I want to share it with you! So heres some of the ways I am celebrating this year!
The first thing I wanted to make was a DIY chocolate box to share with all my friends and family. The inspiration for this came recently when I was scrolling through the Cricut Design Space and realized you could make a box... out of paper! This got me excited and I knew my next craft had to have a box. So I quickly got designing and started coming up with ideas. My design space quickly got crowded with ideas and images. After process of elimination, I ended up with a design looking like this:
I was excited to start the process and see how everything would turn out. I even decided to use my Cuttlebug Embossing Machine to add some texture. What a fun project this would be... but it was also a big project. Talk about making 15 boxes from scratch. Although 15 boxes seemed a little daunting, I was just excited and ready to get making.
I didn't take time to document very much of the process because I just got carried away in the fun. After constructing and gluing everything together, I filled each box with some crinkle confetti paper and chocolate. After all, chocolate is the best part of Valentines right?The boxes had a variety of chocolate, some had Reese's hearts, some had Dove hearts, and some had caramel Hershey's kisses. I had fun filling the boxes with the chocolates the recipient would want. For example, my mom loves Dove chocolates so her box had Doves, But my friend loves Reese's so I made sure to give her Reese's. It always feels awesome to give someone a special handmade gift.
The Next idea I wanted to share is my 20 Minute Pizzas:
I have been making this recipe for a couple years now and I still absolutely love it. It is quick and easy yet fun and delicious! It can be so customizable to your preferences with pizza. I usually keep it pretty simple but I love it! So lets get right into it.
First off, I wanted to share my favorite valentines heart pan with you: here's a link!
Alright, Lets get started. Here's what you'll need:
Heart Shaped pan or Muffin tins work great too!
Non-Stick Cooking Spray
Can of Crescent Rolls (one can makes 4 pizzas)
Pizza Sauce or Spaghetti Sauce (whatever you have on hand, I used Prego Spaghetti Sauce)
Shredded Cheese (I used the Mexican Blend from Costco)
Lastly, Italian Seasoning (optional but if you have it.. use it!)
Before you start making the pizza, you'll want to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. And then the fun happens.
First you'll want to spray your pan to insure easy pizza removal and clean up.
Now we'll see the whole process through pictures!
Here's some tips for each of the steps:
Step 2: I like to put cheese in between the two layers of dough because it tastes good that way, you could also put sauce in between if you wanted too.
Step 3: I put the next piece of dough on the opposite side in order to balance it when it cooks. And its just more symmetrical that way.
Step 4: Sauce, I will use whatever sauce I already have. This time I used Prego Traditional Spaghetti sauce and it worked great. There was some good flavor in it.
Step 5: Topping time! I just used cheese this time because thats what I had, but I've done pepperoni before and its DELICIOUS! You could also customize this with whatever toppings you like... vegetables, sausage, chicken... you name it! I love these because there are so many possibilities!
Step 6: I like to add Italian Seasoning. I just sprinkle some on (I have never measured it and it always turns out great!) I've done this two ways before, one in the cheese and one on the very top. Either way it works... If you want it to look pretty, sprinkling some on top gives it a nice flair!
Step 7: There isn't really very much going on here. Its pretty simple. Just fold over the edges and VOILA!
Step 8: Stick it in the Oven. Your oven should already be preheated to 350 degrees. Usually I just follow the directions on the Crescent Roll packaging. So you'll probably want to look at that first. Mine said 350 for 9-12 minutes so I just kept an eye on it. Cook till the top is golden brown!
Step 9: After pulling out of the oven, you'll want to let the Pizzas cool for just a minute so you don't burn yourself and so the pizza can set up a little before taking out of the pan. After all, you don't have your pizza to fall apart!
Step 10: ENJOY! Sometimes, I even like to dip mine in a little ranch! YUM!!
Heres the end Result. I paired mine with a caesar salad, (if you know me, you'll know that is my favorite!) and some ranch dressing! Heres a link to my favorite silicon cupcake liners:
I love using them for any sauce or anything! So fun and Useful! Who knew that such a fun and yummy meal could be done in just about 20 minutes start to finish?
Also fun fact: the pan leaves a fun heart indent on the bottom of the pizzas. I thought id show you!
The next DIY I decided to do was heart brownies.
Again I decided to use my favorite heart pan!
These treats are so fun and so customizable! Although I used brownie mix, you could use any cake mix or even make cookies or bars and decorate. The options are almost ENDLESS!
Lets see the whole process through pictures:
To start, preheat your oven to 350.
First you'll want to mix your brownies (or whatever treat you choose!) I added extra chocolate chips because YUM! Once your brownies are all mixed, spray your pan with baking spray. (this will make for an easy removal and keep your hearts looking perfect!) Then you'll divide your batter by 6 to fit in each of the hearts. Then you'll stick them in the oven and wait. I cooked mine about 25 minutes. At first I did 15 and that wasn't enough so just kept watching them. When the toothpick came out clean, I knew we were done!
After removing from the oven, you'll want to wait for a couple minutes to let them cool. That way they'll have time to set before you remove. After a couple minutes, take a toothpick around the edges of each heart to make for an easy removal.
Now we play the waiting game again. You'll want your brownies to be 100% cool before decorating. After they are cooled, we'll decorate.
My decorating supplies consist of:
Wilton Candy Melts (pink)
Wilton Candy Melts (red)
Wilton Valentines Sprinkles (multi)
Wilton Valentines Candy Pieces
After letting the brownies cool and set for a while, here is the final product:
I have had a lot of fun creating these DIYs because Valentines is such a fun time of year. I hope you enjoy everything I have shared and consider making them yourself.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great Valentines week and Remember to keep making happiness... every day!
XOXO Hollyn
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