Happy Valentine's Day!! I'm sharing some Valentine's Day cupcakes with you that I made a year or so ago.  There is no special recipe just a chocolate cake mix from the box and chocolate and white canned frosting.  I wanted to focus on the fun part of decorating and not fuss with making them from scratch!

A closer view...

Have a fun and happy day! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Turn those boring chocolate heart boxes into a work of art with some basic craft supplies!  After the chocolates are gone use them for a gift box!  These were seriously so fun to make.  I could have made way more but I had to stop myself and get this blog post finished!  These embellished boxes are pretty self explanatory by looking through the photos but I'll point a few things out here and there.

First you need some heart boxes, kind of obvious I guess.  I had a couple saved at my house and bought a few too.  Tip - if you would like to get some of these boxes to have on hand pick some up the day after Valentine's Day when they are 50% off or more!

Word of warning if you are buying boxes mainly for the actual heart shaped box, not for the chocolates.  Be careful of the plastic molded ones like the one below.  I wanted 1 more large box and got this one at Wal-mart I think for $3.00 but it won't make a good gift box because the plastic molding is all one piece so you can't remove it.  I'm not sure if all the plastic heart boxes are this way but just a heads up.

You can use just about any type of creative items to dress up your boxes.  You could use gift wrap or scrapbook paper and call it a day or keep on embellishing.  From my craft arsenal I gathered some wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, chalkboard contact paper, stickers, bakers twine, washi tape and some small clothespins.  I never got to use the small clothespins because I ran out of boxes to dress up but they would have been cute to glue to the box and put a little love note or To/From tag in the clothespin.

At first I thought of just dressing up the outside of the boxes to make them a little cuter with leaving the chocolates inside.  Then I figured they would be good to recycle and use for gift boxes for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Engagements, Weddings and etc. presents.  I was really surprised how many different items I could fit in the boxes since they are only about 1" tall.  As you scroll through the photos below you'll see I ended up making some themed  boxes.  The items below came from various sources (mainly Target, Wal-mart and Michaels) and some items I had on hand.  Gift cards, Disney or other amusement park tickets would be fun to put in these boxes too.  You might need to take some of the items out of the packaging in order to fit in the box.

To get started take the top/front of the box and flip it over and trace it onto the back of the paper you would like to use.  Cut out the paper heart and attach with glue or double sided scotch tape to the front of your box.

After the new paper is attached you can embellish to your hearts content! For the box below I used striped wrapping paper, white card stock, bakers twine and washi tape.  The heart balloons were inspired by the artwork I made in honor of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Confession time...I have many rolls of washi tape but have never used them!  Yes, that's grounds for some type of crafting offense I'm sure...please don't turn me into the craft police!  ha ha  A couple weeks ago I came across these beautiful cards made by Omiyage.  I liked the technique they used to make shapes by overlapping the washi tape so that's what I did to make the heart balloons on this box. If you are like "what the heck is washi tape", go here and Omiyage explains what it's all about.  You can also purchase washi tape from their shop here.  The bakers twine is from The Twinery.  Oh, I made a heart template that you can download towards the bottom of this post.  The template is a sheet of graduated sized hearts ranging from 1" to 4".

This box became a craft themed gift box.  Some of the items include: ribbon, mini paper punches, glitter, pencils, erasers, washi tape, heart post-it notes, fun edge scissors and a little candy!

For those that don't know, I suffer from Hello Kitty addiction.  I don't know if there is a cure, but I really don't want to be cured!  ; )  The 5 year old in me just takes over when I see Hello Kitty and I get all excited and sometime start clapping when it's super cute!  (yes I really do that!)  So while I was staring at my pile of heart boxes the HK face entered my mind and out came this box.  I used white & yellow card stock, black contact paper (you can just use black card stock, I had the black contact paper in front of me so that's what I used) and red polka dot ribbon for the bow.

What's inside?  Yep, HK items!  HK keychain, bracelet, magnet clip, lipgloss and candy!

Ok, this one is my FAVORITE!!  I LOVE hot air balloons.  I've been fascinated by them since I was a kid.  I wanted to make a box with some dimension and a hot air balloon is what came to my mind.   I used scrapbook paper and bakers twine for this box.  I cheated and made my clouds in Illustrator with the wording.  I have horrible hand writing and didn't want to ruin my design with it so I used the computer!

Here's a quick little tutorial on how to make the hot air balloon.  Trace and cut out 3 heart shapes (you can download a heart template down further in this post), fold them in half, glue or use double sided scotch tape to attach them to each other.  There will be a half heart shape left on each side to glue or tape down to your box.  Pretty easy!

This box became a bakers theme.  Heart shape cookie cutter, sprinkles, mini cupcake liners and candy are what landed in this box.

To be honest, I'm a girly girl designer and my mind just doesn't think in boy land.  I noticed I didn't have anything representing a boys theme and all I could think was Vroom, Vroom!  This was suppose to be a basic car theme but it turned into a Disney's Cars theme.  I was trying to find some basic car stickers with traffic signs but couldn't find anything but Disney's Cars stickers.  This box I used red card stock, Cars stickers and road - looking washi tape. I realize you might not be able to find road -looking washi tape, in place of that just use strips of black card stock and use white chalk or White Out to make the white dash lines.

In the box...Disney's Cars Sticker Tape roll (found at Wal-mart in the greeting card section), match box car, erasers and candy.

This next one I really didn't like how it turned out and I wasn't going to include it but decided to anyways.  Do you ever have an idea and it's so cool in your head then you go to create it and you're like this does not look how it did in my head?  Well, that's what happened with this box.  Chalkboard art seems to be all the rage and I wanted to create something with black chalkboard contact paper I recently bought.  I wanted to get some colored chalk markers but couldn't find them so I just used regular chalk.  It just seemed to be hard to write/design on this paper.  It didn't take the chalk the same as a real chalkboard.  I tried to use colored chalk but it just ended up looking almost white.  So this is what I ended up with.  I think I'll stick to digital/faux chalk art designing and skip the real chalk art!

This box is for the fashion glamor girl!  Heart socks, nail polish, lip glosses and candy!

This last one is another favorite, it's only made from various scrapbook papers.   I turned to one of my Pinterest Boards for this paper rose technique.  I was so happy to use something I pinned for once!  You can find the tutorial to make these roses here.  They really are super easy and fun to make.

I thought this box would be cute to give to a best girlfriend with their favorite lip stick or lip gloss and a little candy!

These 3 are my favorite.  I just love creating with paper!

I hope these spark your own creativity to dress up those boring chocolate heart boxes!

Here's your FREE heart template that I mentioned earlier in this post.  Just click the photo below and you will be able to download and PDF file of hearts to print out and use for your craft projects.

Have fun crafting!! Linked up at:  I Heart Nap Time, Lil' Luna, Somewhat Simple, Tatertots & Jello, Today's Creative Blog & A to Zebra Celebrations

Do you love to bake?  Me too!  I've loved baking since as far as I can remember.  Below is a picture of me getting my baking on at age 3!  I loved using that sifter when I was a kid, I thought it was the coolest gadget.  Now I use a wire mesh strainer (kind of like this one) to sift my flour.

From time to time I'll share with you some of my own recipes and some from others.  It will probably be more recipes from others since I follow way too many baking bloggers that I'd care to admit!  Today I'm sharing with you some yummy Hot Cocoa Cookies that I made from the popular sweet treats blogger Love From The Oven.  Find the recipe here.

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe you would like to share?  Leave a link to the recipe in the comments below. Happy Baking! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Just wanted to share some new Valentine's Day items that I've created this year and are available in the shop now!  Click on the photos below to go straight to the shop listing to purchase. Valentine's Day Subway Artwork Print - This print is 8x10, printed and ready to pop into a frame.  This print is currently on SALE for 50% off , making it $9.00 through February 9th, 2013.

Valentine's Day Faux Cupcake Decorations - I have many Valentine's Day themed faux cupcakes but these are a couple new ones I added to the mix this year!

Valentine's Day Faux Cupcake Photo and Note Card Holders:  Perfect to attach a little love note to!

A variety of Valentine's Day cupcake decorations I make that you can find here:

Happy Valentine's Day!!

December 14th,2012 was the day I didn't get a lot of work done.  I put my TV on at 11:00am while I ate lunch and I saw on the bottom crawler on CNN that 20 people (at the time) where shot to death at an elementary school in Newtown, CT and the number included children.  My heart sank and I had a dull ache in my stomach. I just shook my head trying to process how someone could do this. I watched the coverage all day until I went to bed about 11:00pm.  While watching the news the visual that kept coming to my mind was a balloon being released into the sky.  Maybe for me that was the children's spirits being lifted up to heaven.  Once the final number of victims were released 26 balloons kept coming to my mind.  While I watched the memorial service a few days after the incident I sketched out the below image that was on my mind:

At the time I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this sketch.  I decided to turn it into an 8x10 artwork printable.  Click on the image below or click here to download a pdf file that you can print out.

After a tragedy the goodness of people really comes out and I started hearing about 26 Acts of Kindness that Ann Curry from NBC News was sharing on her twitter account.  Here is what the 26 Acts of Kindness is all about (taken directly from their facebook page):  "Newtown's heartbreak has a lot of us asking, "What can I do?" Thinking about this, Ann Curry took to social media and asked people to imagine what would happen if all of us committed to 26 acts of kindness to honor each life lost in Newtown."  I was very moved by this and thought instead of the New Years resolutions we make (and typically never keep) at the being of the year we could switch to doing 26 Acts of Kindness throughout the year.  This would be great to do individually, as a couple or as a family and get your kids involved.  I made a worksheet you can use to write down the 26 Acts of Kindness you would like to do for the year.  Click the image below for a 2 page worksheet to download and print out or click here.

I put mine up on the refrigerator as a remembrance to Sandy Hook School and a reminder to fill out my list this month and accomplish my 26 Acts throughout 2013.

If you would like to participate in the 26 Acts of Kindness and are looking for some ideas to add to your list here are some resources: 26 Acts of Kindness Ann Curry's twitter account #26Acts NBC News The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation their Facebook Page Please leave a comment below if you are participating in the 26 Acts of Kindness and what type of ideas you are coming up with to add to your list.

Do you have a Holiday decoration that you put up every year just because you have it but don't really like it?  Well that's the story of my Christmas wreath that I hang on my front door.  I made the one below about 10 years ago and liked it at the time but over the years many things have fallen off, the pine cones keep disintegrating and so on.  I read somewhere that a wreath on your front door says something about your personality.  I didn't like what my old wreath was saying about my personality, so this year I pulled my wreath out from the attic and said I'm not putting this up again, I'm making a new one.

So off to Michaels I went to get a new wreath, ornaments, ribbon and fun glittery poinsettias and curly-Q picks (love these)!

The first thing I did was make a new bow:

I found my bow maker I made and used for a bunch of pew bows for my wedding about 10 years ago.

I made my bow maker out of some scrap wood and dowel rods I had.  You can find a similar one here that you can most likely find at one of the mass craft stores.  I haven't used it since my wedding and just stared at it and couldn't remember how to go about using it.  So off to the world wide web I went to see if I could find out how to use it again.  I found this great step by step video that showed how to make a wreath bow and that's exactly how I made my bow. I decided to use floral wire to attach all the decorations to my wreath.  The old wreath I made I just hot glued everything onto it and I live in a very warm weather climate and store my wreath in the attic of my garage.  I think the glue might have kind of come unglued with the hot weather temperature.  We'll see if this new one holds up a little better over the years being attached with wire instead of glue. So here's what my new wreath looks like.  I think it shows my personality a little more than the old one! ; )

A close up view:

I didn't get my new wreath made until Dec 24th (can you say procrastination?) so I'm looking forward to putting it up next year!

Butterscotch Haystacks are an oldie but a goody.  This is a great one to have in your arsenal of no-bake recipes. What you'll need:

How to make them:

These are totally easy and the ingredients are basic ones that you can keep supplied in your pantry and be ready to make for those unexpected last minute guests that are headed your way.  These are definitely a crowd pleaser.  Just try not to eat half the batch before your guests arrive.  Keep your portion control to 1 an hour! ; )

For a printable .pdf recipe click here.  Make, Eat & Enjoy!! FYI:  if you like the Christmas Elf Quote Artwork in the frame of the photo above download it here for FREE! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

What happens when Bakerella and Amy Miller Designs combine forces??  Faux cake pop ornaments!  You can WIN these, keep on reading!

Bakerella (aka Angie) approached me in October to see if I could bring a few of her Holiday cake pops to life in the form of Christmas ornaments from her new Cake Pops Holiday book.  With a little time and brainstorming here's what I came up with!

I made just a few sets of these unique one of a kind ornaments exclusively for Bakerella.  I won't be selling these, the only way you can get them is to enter the giveaway on Bakerella's blog.  Bakerella is giving away 3 boxed sets that include 5 Holiday Cake Pops in each box PLUS a signed copy of her new Holiday book!  So scoot on over to her blog right now and enter here.  The deadline to enter the giveaway is Thursday, December 13th, 2012 at 7:00 PM ET.

Good Luck!!

Incase you have a little extra to give this Holiday Season I wanted to share with you a gift card drive going on for Kate's Crazy Cool Christmas.  What's Kate's Crazy Cool Christmas??  This is the 4th year it's been going on and this year Kate's family, the McRaes are collecting gift cards to pass on to families that are battling pediatric cancers. I should probably back this story up a little more.   Kate is a little girl who use to live in my city that has been battling brain cancer for a few years.  I've been following this family from the start of Kate's diagnoses on Kate's mom, Holly's blog.  The first year Kate was diagnosed she had to be in the hospital for treatments during Christmas time and her brother and sister could not visit her in the hospital.  Not being able to be together at Christmas time as a family was pretty devastating and kind of rob them from the joy of the Holiday Season.  To try and bring a little joy and normalcy with a disease that is far from normal they decided to give back to others fighting pediatric cancer and started a Toy Drive to have something fun to look forward to as a family.  I thought that was so awesome at a time of need for their own family they turned that around and gave back to others.  It was a great success.  Each year the donation drive has changed a little and this year to make things a little easier they are gathering gift cards to a variety of stores and matching them up to deserving families. Here are the type of gift cards they are looking for (taken directly from Holly's blog):

"We are looking for a variety of gift cards.... mainly the following~ Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Visa, Matercard, Starbucks, Best Buy, Game Stop, I tunes, clothing stores (Macys, dept stores, Tillys, JCP, Kohls, Old Navy, Gap, etc) chain grocery stores (we will match them with the appropriate families) gas cards, chain restaurants etc."

I don't personally know Kate or her family but she has really been an inspiration to me.  This little girl has really taught me a lot, especially to fight fear.  She actually inspired me to open my Etsy shop.  Kind of funny that I could learn so much from a 5 year old girl! If you would like to donate a gift card to Kate's Crazy Cool Christmas please go to Holly's blog post dated November 24th here for the address to send your gift card to.  At most large grocery stores you can find many gift cards to mass retailers so you don't need to go all over the place, just grab one when you are out getting groceries.  Please send your donation by December 15th so they have time to gather and distribute the cards by Christmas. Thank You!