Valentine’s Day Crafts

Valentine crafts are a perfect expression of your affection for another person because they say that the most heart-felt gift is a home made one. There are literally thousands of valentine craft ideas on the Internet, complete with recipes for everything from home made clay to gel candles. All you have to do to meet with the slightest bit of inspiration to get some kind of craft project going with your children.

Perhaps one of the most classic of valentine crafts is the floral wreath. All this involves is visiting your local craft store or Walmart to pick up some heart shaped foam backing. This foam backing will act as the armature for your valentine floral craft. You then have the option of pinning real or fake flowers (preferably red or pink roses!) to the armature until no foam is exposed. This kind of wreathe can also be decorated with bows, ribbons gumdrops and heart shaped candies. You can also buy heart shaped armatures at Walmart and other craft outlets that are made out of twisted ropes of grapevines. These grapevines make a very attractive spine to which you can attach blooms with tiny bits of wire.

Wreathes don’t have to created from flowers. They can also be created from candies. Heart shaped candies or chocolates can be affixed to a heart shaped backing to create an easy valentine craft that is also edible!

The art of candle making is also a source of valentine craft ideas, especially with the advent of the new gel candle making kits that are now out there on the market. Gel candles are petroleum based and they are not free standing, so you do need to purchase some attractive jars to pour your finished product in. Gel candles are created by melting flakes or chips of the gel in a double boiler and then pouring it into a jar or a glass. As gel candles are see through and often resemble liquid, a champagne or wine glass makes an attractive vessel. Before you pour the liquid you can also place objects such as small plastic hearts, faux engagement rings as well as heart shaped glitter into the glass before you pour the gel into the vessel. Like jello, the gel candle will harden and the objects will be suspended in the glass. Tying the jar or ribbon with a red bow turns this valenties day craft into a great gift.

The safest and easiest to make valentines crafts for children are usually made of construction paper or play dough. Pink home-made play dough is easily made using flour, salt and water and a couple of drops of food coloring. You can roll out the dough like clay and make heart shaped plaques using heart shaped cookie cutters. The heart-shaped results can be baked in the oven like cookies and given away like gifts.

Hearts can also be cut out of red construction paper to create valentines crafts. Red paper glue and scissors can either used to make cards or an accordian like string of decorations. All it takes is some glitter, crayons and a little imagination to spark your child’s imagination to create unique valentine’s crafts.

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Highly Exotic Garnishes

Sometimes when you are throwing a dinner praty for your hubby's boss you want to choose garnishes that will impress. Here are some really unusual ones —

Marzipan is not just used for cake decorating. You can buy premade sheets of marzipan and use them the same way you would use modeling clay to make any shape you want. Marzipan looks great garnishing any kind of cake or cookie. To make marzipan carrots to decorate a carrot cake simply roll tubular carrot shapes out of orange marzipan and top them with a button of green marzipan

The next time you are garnishing a cocktail or looking for a unique garnish for a punchbowl consider slicing a star fruit in thin slices. These thin star shapes look fantastic floating in a punch bowl. They also look nice perched on the rim of a cocktail glass.

Stop garnishing your drinks with maraschino cherries. For an authentic taste, garnish a Manhattan or martini with a real Queen Ann sour cherry which you can buy in red or white versions and which can still be purchased in specialty stores online.

Bee Balm is a pretty red little flower that tastes like a cross between orange and mint. They make a beautiful garnish for lamb or mint jelly. They also look pretty floating on top of a grasshopper or in a snifter of Grand Marnier.

To add charm to a drink, alcoholic or not, that has pineapple in it try rimming the glass with finely flaked coconut for a unique effect. This look also suits a bowl of chocolate pudding.

For an unusual garnish for a martini stuff a big black olive with blue cheese and drop it to the bottom of the martini glass. This garnish especially suits drinks made with pepper-flavored vodka.

For a highly unusual garnish encase candied violets in cubes of pink or yellow cubes of Jell-O. To make Jell-O that is stiff enough to hold the violets add an extra packet of Knox gelatin to the usual Jell-O mix.

Carnation petals are one of secret ingredients that has been used to make Chartreuse, a French liqueur, since the 17th century. For this reason, they are the perfect garnish to decorate any drink made with chartreuse.

The next time you are garnishing a cocktail or looking for a unique garnish for a punchbowl consider slicing a star fruit in thin slices. These thin star shapes look fantastic floating in a punch bowl. They also look nice perched on the rim of a cocktail glass.

Instead of using knives to spread dip on pita or chips at your next Mexican themed party consider using small thick cactus leaves instead. These make ideal spreaders for foods like hummus or cream cheese based bread dips

Chrysanthemums are tangy yet slightly bitter buds that in colors from red, white, yellow and orange. They range in taste from faint peppery to mild cauliflower. They add a kind of Asian flavored twist to tomato-based cocktails. They look gorgeous suspended in tomato aspic. Sprinkle the petals in a salad or on the surface of a bowl of tomato soup to add visual interest.

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