Valentines Cookie Cups

Every year, the kids pick out Valentine's for their friends at Target. This year, Amanda Lily had a different idea. Being the creative girl she is, she decided to hand make Valentines for her classmates.(See photos below.) I had a wonderful time getting in on the excitement of Valentines Day. Mrs Roberts asked me if I could come up with a craft to do with the class. Amanda Lily and her friends had a lot of fun painting decorative rocks, then I came around and put a heart sticker on each. A blast of spray gloss sealed them and shined them up. Voila.....paperweights for their parents! I didn't get any great photos of her class in action because they kept me busy.

I'm afraid my years of having fun with Steven's class for Valentines Day are officially over. I sent in a batch of chocolate cupcakes for him to share, but 5th grade must be the cut off for fun cutesy arts and crafts. He and his friends had no interest in me coming in and making a big fuss over the holiday. :(
However, Steven did have a good time picking his Valentines cards out at Target. And, he took his time attaching a pencil and piece of candy to each.

I saw a recipe along these lines on Pinterest. I tweaked it by using pink filled oreo cookies in the center. They couldn't be simpler to make, or more yummy.

1 package sugar cookie dough, softend

1 package oreo cookies or 12 full sized peanut butter cups or rolos 

cupcake wrappers

Take softened sugar cookie dough, and form around treat of your choice. Drop into cupcake wrapper lined cupcake pan, and bake at 300* for 35 mins. Let cookies cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove from cups.

Valentines Day fell on a dance day this year. I found these vintage ballerina tags on freeprettythingsforyou.com, and couldn't resist attaching them with twine to a snack sized ziploc filled with pink and white marshmallow hearts. All of Amanda Lily's dance friends were charmed.

Here are the pouches she weaved for her classmates. They each got a personalized pouch that she filled with a pencil and piece of candy.

These are the only photos I got of her class working on the heart paperweights. 

And finally, here she is all smiles with her dozen reds from her only Valentine (for now at least), Daddy. He sends her flowers every year on Valentine's Day. Be still my heart.