14 Days of Valentines Summary

My 14 Days of Valentines is finally complete. I had fun doing this but there definitely wasn't as much variety as with my Christmas challenge. Valentine's Day is a lot of pink and red and hearts! It was still fun though and I'm hoping to get a little more unique next year.

14 Days of Valentines
Day 1: Countdown to Kisses
Day 2: Candy Heart Hurricane Centerpiece
Day 3: Cloud Nine Martini
Day 4: Candy Cane Heart Lollipop
Day 5: White Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
Day 6: Heart Candle
Day 7: Wine Cork Heart Wreath
Day 8: Valentine Peppermint Bark Popcorn
Day 9: Conversation Heart Tree
Day 10: Valentine Mani-Pedi
Day 11: Valentine White Hot Chocolate
Day 12: S'mores Love Bars
Day 13: Valentine Candy Skewers
Day 14: Cupcake Toppings Bar

14 Days of Valentines: Day 14: Happy Valentine's Day!

For the final day of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to make a cupcake toppings bar for my co-workers. A cupcake toppings bar consists of a selection of iced cupcakes and then you have choices of different toppings. A muffin tin with cupcake liners is the perfect way to display the toppings.

For the toppings, I tried to choose V-Day candy. I went with heart shaped strawberry marshmallows, V-Day peanut butter M&Ms, red and pink sugar crystals, mini V-Day colored candy coated chocolates, conversation hearts, coconut, and pink candy corn.

For the cupcakes, I baked strawberry ones, I thought their pink color was fitting for the holiday. I then iced 12 with white icing and 12 with chocolate icing. I used heart cupcake liners that came with little heart toothpick cupcake toppers.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 13

For day thirteen of my 14 Days of Valentines, I made V-Day themed candy skewers. These make a great centerpiece or a great addition to a fondue party. I made mine using strawberry heart marshmallows but you can use any Valentine colored or heart shaped soft candy. Some other ideas are pink and red taffy, Valentine Peeps and heart shaped gummies. All you need to do is skewer them onto a lollipop stick and find a fun way to display them. I displayed mine in a LOVE vase with some red and gold basket filler.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 12

For day twelve of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to make S'more Love Bars. Everyone loves S'mores and these have a nice V-Day touch.

Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 cups mini marshmallows

3/4 cups M&Ms  (you know I used more than that though!)

1/4 cup hot fudge topping

Pam spray

Step 1:  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray Pam in a 13x9 inch pan.

Step 2:  In a large bowl, beat crumbs, brown sugar, butter, flour, and baking soda with electric mixer until coarse crumbs form.  Press mixture in bottom of the pan.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Step 3:  Remove partially baked crust from oven.  Sprinkle marshmallows over the crust.  Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or until the marshmallows begin to puff.

Step 4:  Remove the pan from the oven.  Drizzle with hot fudge topping.  Sprinkle the M&Ms evenly over the marshmallows.  Let it cool for an hour and then cut into bars.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 11

For day eleven of my 14 Days of Valentines, a delightful hot beverage was the perfect idea for a cold blustery day. Valentine's White Hot Cocoa is a fun twist on the classic winter beverage. This tastes exactly like hot white chocolate and is very delicious!

Ingredients Needed:

• 4 ounces of white chocolate chips
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring (optional)
• 16 ounces milk
• 2 ounces cream (Optional for richer taste)

Whipped cream and heart sprinkles make the perfect topping.

Step 1: In a pan or microwave, heat the cream and milk until almost boiling.

Step 2: Remove from heat and stir in white chocolate chips until melted.

Step 3: Stir in vanilla.

Step 4: Add red food coloring to make pink or red hot chocolate. (I skipped this step, didn't have any food coloring and figured the whipped cream would cover up the color anyways) This might be a fun step though if you're making it for a party.

Step 5: Serve with whipped cream & red sprinkles. You can also drizzle raspberry or chocolate syrup over your hot cocoa.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 10

For day ten of my 14 Days of Valentines, I had a Groupon for a mani-pedi so I decided to get a Valentine's Day themed one. I opted to go every other nail, red and pink. I then topped the red nails with red glitter and the pink nails with pink glitter. I was very happy with the end result! It looks great and the colors are perfect for the holiday. If I hadn't had the Groupon, I would have had fun experimenting with doing my own at home mani-pedi with similar colors.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 9

For day nine of my 14 Days of Valentines, I thought I would have more fun with conversation hearts. I had a foam cone left over from my 25 Days of Christmas crafts and I had the idea to cover it in conversation hearts to make a V-Day tree. I also had a few heart floral picks so I thought one of those would make a great tree topper. I started by sticking the heart in the middle of the top of the cone. It was the perfect size. Then I started by making a row of conversation hearts by hot gluing them onto the cone. I tried to do random color patterns. Below is the end result.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 8

For day eight of my 14 Days of Valentines, I took a stab at something I've been wanting to make for a while: peppermint bark popcorn. I had a recipe for this that I wanted to try for my Christmas challenge but never got around to it. The main reason is that I cannot find almond bark at any grocery store. I decided to give it a try with a valentine's day twist but instead of almond bark, I used melted white chocolate chips. The consistency wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I'll experiment with something else next time and go from there. For now, here's what I tried.

 Ingredients:
1 bag of microwave popcorn
1 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips
1 tsp of peppermint extract
1 bag of crushed chocolate peppermint candy canes
Valentine colored m&ms and sprinkles

First pop the popcorn in the microwave and spread it out on a cookie sheet on top of wax paper. I needed two cookie sheets. I then divided the crushed candy canes between the two pans. Next melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave. I did a cup at a time. For the first cup, I tried adding some peppermint extract to the melted white chocolate. It seemed to give it a tougher texture which made it hard to mix the popcorn in. For the second cup, I left out the extract. It was still difficult to mix with the popcorn but not quite as bad. Finally I added the valentines sprinkles and m&ms. So I basically have two batches, one with the peppermint extract and one without. Finally, I let it cool for 15 minutes and then divided it into cute heart baggies. This could make a great gift or goodie bag at a V-day themed party.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 7

For day seven of my 14 Days of Valentines, I put my collection of wine corks to work by making them into a heart wreath. I started by placing the corks on a foam heart to get the idea of what shape I wanted.

Once I was satisfied with the look, I heated up my glue gun. I started by adding a line of hot glue on the side of one of the corks and attached it to another cork. I did this as I followed the pattern until I had a heart! I also made sure all the wine sides were facing up, this gives your heart a little purple color. I thought about adding ribbon but I love the simplicity of just the corks in a heart shape.

It makes a great mini wreath for your door or a fun wall decoration. If you have enough corks you could also fill it in and make a fun trivet.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 6

For day six of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to make a heart themed candle. I took a baked cookie scented pillar candle and decorated it with foam heart stickers. Once complete, I put it in a heart dish filled with conversation hearts for a festive look.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 5

For day five of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to make white chocolate dipped pretzel rods. You can also make these with milk chocolate, dark chocolate or caramel.

Ingredients Needed:
1 cup of your choice of melted chips (white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate or caramel)
Pretzel Rods
Valentine sprinkles

All you need to do is melt the chocolate and dip the pretzel rods in it. Then dip them immediately into the sprinkles. You can also use mini m&ms, peanuts, or other toppings. These are fun to display in a vase similar to the candy cane heart lollipops.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 4

I had a lot of candy canes left from my Christmas crafts and recipes. Luckily Valentine's Day is the perfect way to use up those leftover candy canes. Not only does the red and white match V-Day colors, but you can also make hearts out of putting two candy canes together. For day four of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to try and make heart candy cane lollipops.

Ingredients Needed:
Mini candy canes
1 cup of white chocolate chips
Valentine sprinkles
Lollipop sticks

This is one of those projects that seems really easy but the technique is a little harder than it seems.

Step 1: Arrange the candy canes and lollipop sticks on a piece of wax paper. You use two mini candy canes per lollipop. Arrange them to look like a heart with the stick in the middle. See picture.

Step 2: Melt your white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl following the directions on the bag.

Step 3: Pour the melted white chocolate in the middle of each heart. This is the part that was a little messy. I used a baby spoon since the space was small.

Step 4: Finally sprinkle some Valentine's Day sprinkles in the middle and wait for them to cool.

Once your lollipops are cool, you can do a couple different things with them. If you're making them for a party, you can display the pops in a vase, tying a ribbon around them looks cute. If you're bringing them somewhere, I recommend putting each individual pop in a Valentine's Day themed baggy and tie with a ribbon to keep them fresh.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 3

For day three of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to try out a V-Day themed cocktail. I have been looking for a recipe to use some more of my Godiva White Chocolate liqueur since making my Winter Wonderland Martini for my 25 Days of Christmas Challenge. I came across this Cloud Nine Martini recipe on Pinterest and it sounded like a good idea to try!

Cloud Nine Martini (Serves 2)

Ingredients:
6 ounces Godiva White Chocolate liqueur
2 ounces Pinnacle Whipped Cream vodka

Instructions:
Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Pour ingredients into the cocktail shaker, and shake for 20 seconds.
Strain and serve into martini glasses.

For added flare you can rim your martini glass with red or pink sugar and add some heart sprinkles. Wet the rim of the glass by dipping your finger in a small pour of the Pinacle Whipped and rub it around the edge of the glass. Then pour some colored sugar on a plate and roll the rim on the glass around in the sugar until it's coated.

I own two different kinds of martini glasses. I tested how it looked in both. I think the red glass with pink rimming sugar looks more Valentine's Day like. The pink rimming sugar on the glass with the green handle looks more Spring-ish and if I had used red rimming sugar on the green glass it would have been Christmas colored. Also, I tossed a few heart sprinkles in and most of them sank. One resurfaced which looked cute. This martini is delicious and I think I even like it better than the Winter Wonderland one I tried for the holidays.

14 Days of Valentines: Day 1

Advent calendars aren't just for Christmas anymore. For Day 1 of my 14 Days of Valentines, I decided to make a "Countdown to Kisses" board. I saw a couple cute ideas for this on Pinterest.  I decided to take the idea and make it my own. You can do the same!

Supplies Needed:
Some type of board- I went with a piece of foam poster board
Scrapbook paper or paint- you can do a mix of Valentines' patterned or colored paper or paint your board red or pink
Random Valentines' themed di-cuts, stickers, etc.
Scrapbook letters and numbers
14 Hershey kisses (if you have multiple people in your household, feel free to double, triple, etc. the amount of kisses if each person wants one per day)

These are just some suggestions of supplies. It's really up to you and your creative mind how you want to do this. The ultimate goal is to make a Valentines' themed countdown starting on February 1 where you eat a Hershey kiss each day until Valentine's Day on February 14. I chose to use the phrase "Countdown to Kisses" at the top because I really liked it. Some other suggestions are: "Kiss Countdown", "Happy Valentine's Day", "Countdown to Valentine's Day", etc.

I have been hoarding my pumpkin spice kisses because I didn't want them to go too fast but I also don't want them to go bad so I decided to use those instead of buying new ones. The orange wrappers may not match as well as a pink, purple or red wrapper would but it works.

I started by painting my poster board with glittery pink poster paint. I let it dry and when I came back to it, it was all curled up and since it was a foam board, it was stuck that way. I also ended up just putting a heart by each kiss. I'd like to add numbers but didn't have enough number stickers. Something I need to add. I like the idea of this project but I didn't find the right look. It'll do for this year but next year I'd like to look into doing something else. Perhaps similar to my Christmas Advent Calendar using a cookie sheet. 

My end result wasn't exactly what I was looking to do but I hope to make something similar but better next year when I have more time.