1. Have a baking date
Creating delicious desserts with your partner is a great way to spend time together.
For some reason, decadent chocolate treats have become the gold standard of Valentine’s Day desserts. And what’s more romantic than staying home and turning up the heat in the kitchen by baking a rich, moist and delicious flourless chocolate cake?
Cupcakes are simple Valentine treats that are easy to make, fun to decorate and yummy to eat. Best of all, they are great to share with others.
The Best of Both Worlds: Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes
Make your cupcakes adult-friendly with this fabulous Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes recipe from Delish. It’s easy and incredibly decadent. These yummy spiked cupcakes with amazing fresh cherry and red wine frosting will delight wine lovers and chocolate lovers alike. What’s not to like?
2. Bake cookies or cupcakes with your kids
What kid (or adult) doesn’t love arts and crafts? Cookie decorating is an awesome way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your kids, and the best part is, when you’re done they can give them out to their friends!
Shortbreads are probably the easiest cookies to make, with only a few ingredients, and they’re fun to decorate. Plus you can add extra ingredients (chocolate chips or cocoa powder, citrus zest, or nuts). Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter or just make them round and color the dough. Finish off with icing and colored sprinkles. To stylishly give away, put a few cookies in cello wrap and tie with a ribbon.
3. Celebrate Galentine’s Day
When was the last time you got together with your girlfriends and celebrated your friendship? The unflappable Leslie Knope from the comedy series Parks and Recreation gave us the wonderful holiday of Galentine’s Day, celebrated on February 13.
Knope’s “best day of the year” is a time for women to gather and celebrate their friendships. There are innumerable ways to celebrate Galentine’s Day, but a good bet is pretty much anything you like to do with your friends for fun.
Although Amy Poehler’s character prefers to celebrate over brunch with waffles with lots of whipped cream and mimosas, you can do something as simple as coffee and dessert together.
As far as gift-giving, this is totally unnecessary but could add to the fun. What could be better than receiving a Leslie Knope Galentine card?! Okay, maybe getting a heart-shaped waffle iron.
4. Give out personalized cards
Remember when you were a kid and you helped your parents pick out those cute little Valentine’s cards at the store to exchange with your friends (okay, and maybe some not-so-friends) at school? Well, you can actually do a similar thing as an adult and, believe it or not, people will LOVE it!
If you want to go for a cute homemade card, use cardstock embellished with scrapbook paper, recycled bits from old cards, sheet music, lace, washi tape, and rhinestones or metal accents.
If you’re not into making cards this year, check out these cute ready-made Valentine’s cards on Etsy.
Or do a variation of the old-fashioned Candy-Gram. Okay, the one below is REALLY OLD!
Did you know?
For Valentine's Day 1959, Western Union introduced the CandyGram, "the sweetest message in the world." The message came with a 1 pound box of chocolates.
5. Upcycle a Picture Frame
Instead of immediately switching out Christmas decor for spring, why not embrace February first?
I recently ran across an awesome idea for a simple rustic Framed Heart Wreath by A Night Owl. I like the idea of repurposing an unused frame. Their idea for a front door wreath inspired me to make this variation (above).
I used a picture frame but kept the glass in it to create a colorful background. I also realized this meant I’d need to keep mine inside due to the heavier weight of the frame with the glass, which is fine as it looks great inside the house too!
This is an easy, inexpensive project that you can put your own spin on.
To Make this Heart Frame Variation you’ll need:
- A picture frame*
- A sheet of Valentine appropriate scrapbook paper
- (3) flat wooden hearts (I used 3” x 2 ½” for my 14” x 16” frame)
- Acrylic paints (red and white or pink) and paintbrush
- Fabric ribbon
- Glue
*your frame can be wooden or plastic, hung up or standing up.
To Make:
Choose a Valentine appropriate scrapbook paper. Cut it to fit the insert area of the frame behind the glass and slide it in as you would a photo.
- Paint the wooden hearts on each side, allowing them to dry completely on each side before painting the other side.
2. Cut your ribbon into a piece that is long enough to tie into a bow, leaving the ends long. Trim one side of the end slightly shorter than the other.
3. After the painted hearts have completely dried, glue the (2) “dangling” hearts, one on each end of the ribbon, making sure they are hanging at different lengths. Allow to dry completely.
4. Glue the finished bow onto the third heart and allow to dry completely.
5. Glue the third heart onto the top middle of the frame. Allow to dry completely.
All Done!
