The embellishments were made using “Candy and Cupcake” stickers and microbeads from Martha Stewart Crafts, available online or at Michaels.

Directions

1. Drain cherries thoroughly on paper towels for several hours. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set baking sheet aside.

2. In a small mixing bowl combine butter and corn syrup. Stir in powdered sugar; knead mixture until smooth (chill if mixture is too soft to handle).

Shape about 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar mixture around each cherry.

Place coated cherries, stem sides up, on the prepared baking sheet; chill about 1 hour or until firm (do not chill too long or sugar mixture will begin to dissolve).

3. Melt candy coating. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Holding cherries by stems, dip one at a time into coating; if necessary, spoon coating over cherries to coat. (Be sure to completely seal cherries in coating to prevent juice from leaking.) Let excess coating drip off. Place cherries, stem sides up, on prepared baking sheet.

4. Chill until coating is firm. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator. Let candies ripen in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks before serving. (Ripening allows powdered sugar mixture around cherries to soften and liquefy.) Makes 20 pieces.

I used cherries without stems and lifted them out of the chocolate with a fork.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies (they’re heart-shaped!)

Rice Krispie and Coco Pops Treats (dressed up for Valentine’s Day)

Valentine’s Day Treats Recipes by Martha

Chocolate Lip Balm with Cocoa Powder

And don’t forget to check out my Valentine’s Day ideas from last year – tag: Valentine’s Day

To make these yumtastic goodies, you will need 2 boxes of Jello (I used cherry), a bag of jelly hearts, a can of whipped cream, silicone cupcake liners or foil cupcake papers, and optional cake sparkles to give it, well, sparkle!

Make the Jello according to the directions for Jigglers.  Jigglers call for 4 boxes.  I used 2 and halved the amount of water.

Pour the jello into the cupcake liners.  If you use foil ones, leave the paper layer in.  I tried it with the paper and without.  It is much easier to remove the jello from the paper.  I think it would be awesome to use the silicone cupcake liners, but I use mine for soap and I don’t have any that I use for food.

The way I filled mine yielded 7 Jello cupcakes.

Melt and pour soapers, resist the urge to spray with alcohol to remove the surface bubbles!

Refrigerate until fully set.  It took one hour for mine.

You can leave the jello in the papers (as pictured above) or take them out (pictured below), before decorating.  It’s up to you.  If you want to remove the paper, first peel away the foil.  Then, go around the top gently rubbing the jello away from the paper.  Once you loosen the top all the way around, you can just peel off the paper and it should come off fine.

Top with whipped cream and cake sparkles, if desired.  Place a jelly heart on top.  Wait until just before serving to top, or the whipped cream will melt!  If you want them to last longer, try Cool Whip, which holds its form better.

If you push a toothpick into the jelly heart, then push the other end into the jello, the heart will stand up better.

Jello and soap cupcake BFFs.

I have always wanted to try needle felting.  It looks fun and rather simple to do this beginner project.  I might have to try it.

I really wanted to do tons of awesome Valentine’s Day posts and here I am, only a week before the big day, just now kicking it off.

And what better way to kick off a week of Valentine’s Day posts than with Melt and Pour Soap Cupcakes all dressed up for V day?

I left the “frosting” white and, even though the Jewelry Box colorants are not non-bleeding, it has been a week and there has been no bleed whatsoever.  If you are worried about bleeding, make the frosting pink.

I colored clear soap with the red colorant and soap-safe glitter, and added fragrance.  I poured a thin layer (~1/4 inch) into a silicone pan.  (I only wanted a couple of hearts, so I used a muffin pan, but if you want to make a bunch, use a brownie pan.)  I poured the rest of the soap into the silicone cupcake liners.  When the thin layer of soap was set, I popped it out and used a small metal heart cookie cutter to cut out the hearts.

When the cupcake was set, I made the frosting using white melt and pour soap, with added fragrance.  I stirred it with a fork until it was thick and poured/scooped it onto the cupcake, which was sprayed with alcohol to make it stick better.  Then, I sprayed the top with more alcohol and sprinkled on more glitter!

While the frosting was still freshly poured, I popped in the heart.

Give one to someone you love.  Just don’t let anyone eat it!

I made the Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Hearts from Martha Stewart and I have to say, I made them a little bit better.  Now, it was her amazingly delicious recipe that made these so wonderful tasting, but I think my special touch made a big difference in the presentation.

I hate to brag, but this is a big deal for me.  I never thought I would get my own creativity to a point where I was improving on Martha’s ideas.

Okay, enough about me and my big ego.  Here are the cookies.  Shortbread Hearts, dipped in melted chocolate and drizzled with pink Wilton candy melts.  (Sorry for the poor lighting.)

Some of the mini cookies I totally submerged in the chocolate.  Mmm.

Here is one displayed in a mini cupcake paper.

You still have time to make these.  But, hurry!  The dough needs to chill for 2 hours before rolling out.

Or you can always wait and make chocolate-dipped shamrocks, drizzled with green candy melts.

I used pink mica and a light rose fragrance.  Since I made the first layer white, I was able to throw the cut-outs in with the other soap to melt for the pink layer.  No waste.  Not that I have a hard time finding a use for cute soap cut-outs.

What are you waiting for? Go make some!

This is the final post of my seven day Valentine’s blog-a-thon.  I will probably have a couple stray Valentine’s Day posts from stuff I make for my family this week, but this is the last post in the series.

If you are just joining me, here is a recap:

Valentine’s Day Fudge

Valentine Soap, Fizzies, and Treats

Stuffed Felt Valentines (kid friendly)

Crochet (or Knit) a Valentine

Valentine’s Projects from the Web

Today’s project: Valentine’s Day Soaps

For this project, you will need:

- Wilton six cavity silicone heart pan
- 15 oz. clear melt and pour soap base
- fragrance oil of your choice
- liquid soap colorant and mica in coordinating colors
- two heat-safe glass measuring cups
- spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol
- spoons and other utensils

Choose two valentine-y colors to make your soap.  I used red liquid color and rose pearl mica in the soaps above.  I will also show you at the end a soap I made with a blackish-bluish color and pink mica, so you can see the contrast better.

Also choose your fragrance.  It does not have to be a fragrance the goes with your theme, it can be the recipient’s favorite fragrance.  Allow yourself the freedom to think outside the box.  I made mine with lemon essential oil. My son D could not get over how weird it was for a red heart soap to smell like lemons, but I thought it was appropriate to scent the soap with a fragrance that my mom loves so I can give the soap to her.

I made six 2.5 oz soaps, for a total of 15 oz of base.  That does not fill each cup to the top.

Cut up the soap into chunks for melting.  Divide the soap into two measuring cups, 10 oz in one and 5 oz in the other.  Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals until fully melted.

Scent each cup of soap and add the liquid color to the 10 oz and the mica to the 5 oz.  You want the mica to really show up, so be generous.  You can dissolve the mica in the fragrance oil before adding it to the soap, to avoid that pesky clumping.

Now, there are two ways to pour the soap.  You can pour the mica-colored soap first, then the liquid-colored.  This will cause a layered look, with cracks or breaks in the mica layer.  Or you can pour the liquid-colored soap first, then pour the mica soap.  This causes a cloud of the mica-colored soap in the center of the liquid color.  Or, you can do three of each kind, which is what I did.

What ever the method you use, pour your first layer.  (Remember: the liquid-colored soap layer will be twice the size of the mica layer.)  Spritz with alcohol and let set for a minute or so.  You want to it start to form a skin on top just barely, but not really.

Spritz with alcohol quickly.  Then, carefully pour the next layer in the center.  The effects are caused by the fact that the mica-colored soap is more dense.  If you are pouring the mica second, it should stay in the center and form a cloud.  If you are pouring the liquid layer second, it will form a second layer on top of the mica, but there will be areas where it disturbs the mica layer, causing crack-like effect.  Spray with alcohol to remove bubbles and let cool and harden completely.

This is an example of the liquid-colored soap poured first.  You can see the mica cloud in the center.  (Kind of.)

When hardened, pull away the edges, turn the pan over, and gently push on the bottom of each cavity to release the soap.  Voila!

The soap on the left is liquid, then mica.  The soap on the right is mica, then liquid.

Here is a color scheme that shows the effects better.

Clockwise from the top left, mica-then-liquid, mica-then-liquid, liquid-then-mica.

You can see on the top left that there is a thin pink layer, with a black layer on the bottom, but the black layer breaks through in the center.  The one next to it is similar, but the crack is only in the top corner.  The bottom soap is black, with a pink cloud in the center.

I hope these instructions are clear.  This was a super-easy project with a cool effect, but it was hard to explain.  Basically, it is not an exact science, so just have fun with it.  It will look neat however it comes out.  But, if there is anything I can clarify, please ask!

I finally finished making and taking pictures of my Valentine’s soap for a tutorial.  It will be up sometime later today.

In the meantime, here are some Valentine projects from the real experts.

Family Fun magazine has loads and loads of great Valentine’s projects to do with your kids.

Michaels the craft store has some cute ideas on their website.  We went there yesterday and bought a Foamies Valentine kit to do, which was on sale this week.

Don’t forget about Martha Stewart’s online Valentine’s Day workshop.  The ideas over there are amazing – of course; it’s Martha!

Check out Martha’s Valentine’s Day projects for kids.  My favorite is the Crayon Hearts.  Aren’t they something?

Now that you have all of your crafts, you need some food!  Check out Food Network’s Valentine’s Day recipes.

The links above for Marths Stewart and Family Fun have recipes, too.