Votive Valentine

Valentines Day is a couple days away. If you're looking for a little something to show the ladies in your life that you care about them, one of these darling votive candles with candy is sure to brighten their day! Your friends/mom/sister/niece/aunt/grandma/babysitter/teacher/co-worker will love it. Did I forget anyone? 

I thought of this craft while perusing the Dollar Tree. I spotted these adorable rose decal glass votive candle holders, which sparked the whole idea. TWO in a pack for just $1! You can use any type of votive candle holder, even add your own decal or stickers. These were too cute to pass up, and perfect for valentines day! I bought 4 sets, so 8 votive holders total.

I also found an 8 pack of red apple cinnamon scented tea light candles for $1. Perfect! 

I picked up a bag of Hershey's Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate Hearts at the grocery store. I knew I already had cellophane, ribbon and paper confetti at home.

Start with the empty votive holder and place one tea light candle inside. 

Next, add some paper confetti on top of the tea light. Enough to create a cushion for the chocolate candy to sit on top. 

Add 4-5 chocolate candy hearts on top.

Wrap with a square piece of cellophane and tie a bow with a ribbon and a tag. I made tags with scrapbook paper, pattern on one side, solid red on the other side to write on.

What could be cuter? After the recipient enjoys the chocolate, they have a pretty votive candle to enjoy. 

This is a very affordable craft gift. I was able to make 8 of these for about $8. It's not to late to whip up a few of your own! 

Supplies:
glass votive candle holder
tea light candle
paper confetti 
chocolate heart candy
cellophane wrapping (or tissue paper)
ribbon
card stock or scrapbook paper tag

Heart Tree Valentine Freebie

I couldn't resist, so here's two more Valentines Day Card freebies. In your choice of white or purple. I found this adorable tree illustration on vecteezy.com and it was just crying out to be made into a cute little card like this. Click the images to enlarge and save them to your desktop to print or email. Enjoy!

Goodie Bag Gifts

This is a gift project I did over Christmas that I forgot about. I couldn't reveal it until I gave them to the recipients, who were some of my close friends and co-workers. 

The idea started back in the summer, when Christy and I were perusing the Joann-Fabrics clearance aisle, when we saw these adorable little flower and button embellished felt zipper pouches, for a mere 97 cents each AND I had a coupon. After some thought and convincing from Christy, I scooped up 11 of them. They would make a cute Christmas gift some how.

I started thinking about what I could put in these little pouches that would be both useful and fun to receive. Maybe they could have a "purse kit" theme. Some hand lotion for the winter months. I love this one by St. Ives. It has a very light oatmeal and shea fragrance and really helps sooth dry hands.

I don't know about you, but I seem to always be looking for a nail file. I found some stylish multi-packs of mini nail files. Perfect to keep in your purse.

I'm also usually looking for a tissue. Ask my husband. He'll tell you that he's never met anyone that uses as many tissues as I do. I try to keep these mini packs of Kleenex in my purse at all times. 

Chocolate. Every now and then you just need a piece of chocolate. These Ghirardelli squares, filled with mint, peanut butter, peppermint, or caramel are soooo good. I put a couple of those in.

I don't recommend carrying this next item around in your purse, necessarily. Maybe if you really need to take the edge off.....kidding! These are for the coffee and caramel lovers. Vincent VanGogh Double espresso and Dutch caramel flavored mini vodka. Yes, I said vodka. For a special holiday beverage treat. Or those really rough mornings when coffee ain't cutting it. Kidding again! They're small enough to fit in the bag. They have artsy packaging. And they taste good. It made sense at the time. Don't judge me.

Get some festive clear cellophane holiday bags and wrap everything up with a twist tie or ribbon. The bags I used came with a punch-out ornament tags. 

Place the goodie bag inside the cosmetic bag and you have a cute little gift!

I kept one for myself and use it to store my ipod and charger. This would make a great Valentines Day gift too! You could fill it with candy, your loved ones favorite gum or mints, maybe a gift card or some jewelry. Think outside the standard gift box or bag when presenting a gift. I did get asked if I made the cosmetic bag, and I wish that I could have said yes. I just didn't have the time to sew that many. You certainly could make your own and it would be an even more personalized gift!