DIY Valentine's Cards

I love sending little notes or cards to friends and family, and holidays are the perfect excuse for doing that. I have found so many lovely Valentine's cards you can buy in stores, but I have so many card-making supplies lying around. So why not just make my own?

And here's what came out of my late-night card making extravaganza.









So what about you? Do you make your own cards? And also... how much easier would life be if we all had Cricuts?

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Color Your Own Flowers

This is such a fun project, especially for kids -- or the young at heart who still love "magic" things... like me. You can color your own flowers!

What You'll Need
White flowers (Carnations and daisies work well.)
Vases
Water
Food Coloring

What You'll Do
Step 1: Cut the flowers to fit the vase. You'll want to cut off at least 2 inches so the flower can really drink up the water.

Step 2: Fill the vases with water and drop in food coloring, about 10 drops for a medium-size vase. If you want to mix colors to make another, do equal parts of each color. Stir with a flower stem or long straw to help mix the color.

Step 3: Place flowers in the vases and wait!



In a few hours, your flowers will start coloring themselves.

After 12 hours...


And after two days...

The longer you leave them in, the darker they get. It's so easy, so lovely, and so fun!

Be My Sweet Heart

Things I love:

• Auburn football
• Fall weather
• Warm sugar cookies

On the last one, can you blame me? Well, can you?

Cheat your way to these awesome conversation heart sugar cookies!

Ingredients
1 package (17.5 ounces) Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Cookie Mix
1/3 cup stick butter, margarine or spread
1 egg
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Red food coloring (for red or pink cookies)
Powdered sugar
1 tube fondant icing writer

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stir cookie mix, softened butter, egg, and flour in medium bowl until soft dough forms. I had to mix by hand to get the dough to form.


If you'd like to color your sugar cookie dough -- Drop the mixed dough in a gallon-size resealable bag. Squeeze 15 to 20 drops of red food coloring in bag with dough. (More drops means darker color.) Push all the air out of the bag and seal it. Gently knead food coloring into dough. You can do this by hand, but I cheat this way to avoid pink hands and fingernails.


If the dough is too soft when you're done, refrigerate for 10 minutes. Warm dough back up by gently kneading it if it gets too stiff.

Divide the dough into smaller segments and keep the portions you're not using covered.

Roll dough on "floured" surface with "floured" rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick. (I use powdered sugar instead of flour. This way, if I have to use a little extra, it will be a sweet addition, not a flour-y one.)

Cut with a cookie cutter of your choice. If using a cutter that is smaller than two inches, it's best to dip the edge of the cutter in powdered sugar or flour for easier cutting.


Place cookies one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. For large cookies, bake 11 to 14 minutes; smaller cookies, seven to nine minutes.


Cool one minute before removing from cookie sheet.

Allow cookies to cool completely. Using a fondant icing writer (because it hardens and won't smear like decorating gel will), decorate your cookies. I tried to make mine look like conversation heart candies with the funny and cheesy sayings.


Got leftover dough? I made some fun X's and O's... which I let burn, so there's no after to this one. But it would have been cute! :)

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Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I love red velvet. And I love these cookies!

They're so fun and perfectly sweet for your Valentine's sweetie. Did you see what I did with them yesterday? Check it out here.

Ingredients
Red Velvet Cookies
(makes about a dozen cookies, more or less depending on size)
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (or one stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

Filling
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 pound (one box) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions for the cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, cream butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy. (This takes about 4 minutes.) Add in the egg, food coloring and vanilla, and beat until well mixed. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup (about 2 heaping spoonfuls) scoops of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the batter out with a butter knife in a cookie shape. They should not be completely flat. (See picture.)

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.


Directions for the filling
Place stick of butter in small bowl on mixer and beat gently.

Divide cream cheese into three parts, and gradually add to butter. Mix well, but do not over beat.

Add sugar to the butter/cream cheese mixture gradually. Add vanilla. Mix gently.

Once cookies have cooled completely, flip cookies over and frost the underneath side of the cookie. Press two together, and there you have a delicious red velvet sandwich!

It's like nothing you've ever had before. Unless of course, you've had red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and then it's just like it. :) Except a cookie!

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Also sharing at Foodie Friday.

Blogger Love

A big thank you to Michelle at My Craft Happiness for this awesome blog award!


Instructions:

To accept this award you must post it on your blog with the name of the person who granted you the award and link back to them.

• Pass the award on to approximately 15 other bloggers that you recently discovered and think are great.
• Contact the bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for the award.
• List 3 things you would like to learn how to do.

I would like to learn to

• bake
• cook without recipes
• knit

I am passing this award on to:
I'm coming up with this list now and will update soon. :) I just couldn't wait to post this.

What's Black, White, and Red All Over?

Red velvet black and white cookies, of course!

Just in time for Valentine's Day... Quite possibly one of the most amazing creations. Ever. Give it up to Rachel Ray for this one! She's one smart... cookie! (cue drums.)

And keep this recipe handy as we have round two of red velvet cookies tomorrow. Can't wait to show you what I created!

Ingredients
Red Velvet Cookies
(makes about a dozen cookies, more or less depending on size)
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (or one stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk


For Vanilla Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons hot water


For Chocolate Glaze
4 ounces (about a 1/2 cup) semi-sweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup


Directions for the cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, cream butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy. (This takes about 4 minutes.) Add in the egg, food coloring and vanilla, and beat until well mixed. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup (about 2 heaping spoonfuls) scoops of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the batter out with a butter knife in a cookie shape. They should not be completely flat (See picture.)


Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.


Directions for the glazes
In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, corn syrup and hot water, until smooth. If it's too thick to stir, add tiny amounts of hot water, but don't add too much or it will become runny. If it's too runny, add more powdered sugar to regain thickness.

In a seperate bowl, melt the butter and the chocolate in a microwave for about 1 minute. If it's still not melted, heat in 20-second increments until completely melted. Add the corn syrup and stir until smooth.

Once the cookies are cooled, face them all bottom side up (this way it's flat). Spread half of the cookie with vanilla glaze and the other half with chocolate glaze. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set glazes. Then enjoy!

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