Today I'm going to share a couple of ideas for packaging baked goods for Valentine's day. 

We think that you will love our new single cake pop boxes and small bakery window boxes. The scalloped edges are adorable and the clear windows allow you to show off the yummy treats inside.These boxes are available in both kraft and white.

You'll find more Valentine packaging products here and bakery packaging products here.

Follow these links for our mini buckets, lollipop sticks, gingham wire ribbon, chalkboard stickers and chalk markers.

Here's a little diy inspiration using our mason jar mugs ... add a gold glitter heart! These are adorable for Valentine's Day but they would also make sweet favors for a wedding, shower or party.

You can find my complete instructions for adding glitter to glass so that it is dishwasher safe in this post. 

Note: You will need 28 days for the glitter to cure before it is dishwasher safe, so if you make these for a Valentine's Day gift add a note card with a date stamp to let your loved ones know when they can be used.

If you have been following our blog for a while, you know that I like to use our fabric bags for favor and holiday packaging. I've been playing around with the concept of adding a little sparkle to our linen and cotton bags for Valentine's Day and came up with a few ideas to share with you.  

These adorable glitter hearts are a simple way to dress up fabric bags. Make the hearts as big as you want ... use one heart like I did or add a few to create a pattern.! Just add a gift tag and you are ready to go! If you are going to use these bags for candy or food products, I recommend using a smaller sized clear candy bag to contain the food before inserting it inside of the fabric bag of your choice. 

I added a single band of glitter to the bottom of the linen and cotton bags pictured above. We were giving out these cute little buttons at the Total Wedding Show a few weeks ago and I thought that something like this would be cute on the bags with the glitter. You could use vintage buttons or brooches for a more vintage look!

Valentine's day is next week and I thought I'd share a couple of more ideas if you are planning a Valentine celebration.

I've pinned a few of these marshmallow pop treats on my pinterest boards and I thought that it would be cool to try to make these with my daughters. They are so easy to make and you can use different colours of marshmallows, chocolate and sprinkle to customize these for any occasion or party theme.

To display these sweet treats on a lollipop stick I simply placed them in one of our glass cube vases that I filled with candy. {yum}

So here's how I made our Valentine marshmallow pop treats:

You will need some lollipop sticks, marshmallows, chocolate candy waffers and sprinkles (we used mini hearts in red, pink and white).

First you will need to insert the lollipop sticks into the marshmallows and set aside.

Melt the chocolate candy waffers as per the directions on the bag.

Carefully dip the marshmallow tops into the melted chocolate so that you cover about 1/2 of the marshmallow.

Add the decorative sprinkles to the chocolate candy coating while it is still warm.

Here's another cute idea for Valentine's day that was created by one of our customers!

Ivanka Lentle posted this project on her blog at ivankascardstudio.blogspot.com. Ivanka used my valentine flag download as an element on the gift tag of a Valentine themed loot bag. The clear candy bags are from our candy bag collection.

And here's a Valentine card that I created using some scrap elements from previous projects ...

I used one of my {free download} vintage labels from here and here, my {free download} mini chocolate wrappers from here, and scraps of scrapbooking paper (red dot print), ribbon, diamond wrap from here and crystal stickers.  

I used a heart shaped punch to cut out my mini chocolate wrapper and I made the heart shiny by adding a layer of Inkssentials Glossy Accents and some clear glitter. All elements were attached to the card using two sided tape. The red machine stitching was added for a fun and unexpected detail ... I have been machine sewing on my scrapbooking and card making projects for years so it is part of my personal style.

Have you used any of our products and/or my downloads in one of your projects? Have you used our products at a party, wedding, special event? If so, I'd like to hear from you. Leave me a comment on this post with links to your blog or website. You can also email me your pictures! I would love to feature more of our talented customer's work on our blog!

Here's one of my favourite Valentine projects because it involves one of my favourite "food groups" - chocolate! I started designing these mini chocolate bar wrappers a number of years ago for my daughters to give as a Valentine treat to their friends at school. This year I have designed one for you and I've added a really neat way to package these little sweet treats using our cookie box with round scallop window.

You can download the art to my mini chocolate wrapper here. This download is for personal use only. No commerical use please.

To use the mini chocolate wrappers you will want to print my art on your colour ink jet or laser printer using regular white text paper. There are 12 wrappers on a page and you will want to cut each of the wrappers out using a paper cutter if you have one or with scissors.

I purchase mini Hersey's chocolate bars in bulk at the bulk food stores.

1. There is a space on the wrapper to personalize who they are from. Tip: Write on the wrappers before you attach them to the candy bars.

2. You will need two pieces of two sided tape for each wrapper. Attach the two sided tape to the wrapper as shown ... one piece on each end.

3. Leave the original Hersey's wrapper on the chocolate bar. Our wrapper will be placed on top of the original wrapper. Work out your placement of the wrapper on the chocolate bar with the label positioned as shown. Fold the wrapper in place.

4. Using the two sided tape attach one end of the wrapper to the chocolate bar and

5. then attach the second end making sure that the wrapper is tightly set in place.

To package a handful of these mini chocolate bars I used the cookie box with round scalloped window, bakery twine and some colourful sizzle. I placed 8 candy bars in each cookie box and used the sizzle to position the candy bars so they could be seen through the window. The bakery twine was tied around the cookie box and finished with a simple bow.

Because you added a name on the chocolate bar wrapper ... it will be easy to know who the gift box is from! I think that these would make great party or wedding favors too.

And now I'd like to announce our lucky winner of the roll of diamond wrap ... Nadia (of Nadia's Beautiful Mess).

Congratulations Nadia!!

Nadia is expecting a baby girl soon and wrote that she would like the pink diamond wrap to use on a couple of projects that she is planning for the baby's nursery.

Thanks everyone for taking part in our first blog giveaway. I loved hearing your comments ... so many creative ideas. I'll be doing more giveaways and free downloads so please keep checking back or sign up to receive our blog posts by email so you don't miss out!

I was so excited when I saw the new paper straws arrive in the Toronto store the other week. I have been pinning pictures of paper straws from weddings, parties and sweet tables, so I know that I am not the only one who loves them.

One of the great things about paper straws is that it is very easy to personalize them. So with that in mind, I designed a page of pink and red flags as a free download. The colours in the flags match my pink and red vintage label downloads and would be perfect for a Valentine themed party.

download art here

As always, this download is for personal use only. No commercial use is permitted.

The flags can be used on paper straws and treat sticks ... here you can see that I added them to cakepops and displayed them on our wooden market serving trays!

Here's a quick overview on how to attach these flags to straws and treat sticks.

Print the download on heavy weight paper on your colour printer.

1. Cut the flags out and fold each flag in half.

2. Add two sided tape to the back of 1/2 of the flag as shown.

3. Peel the backing off the tape. Position the flag on the straw or treat stick and press the flag together starting at the ends and working towards the (fold) straw/stick.

Personalized paper straws and treat sticks ... a simple and creative way to make your next event "your own".  I hope that you try this out! Let me know if you use my flags - I'd love to see them in use!