Valentine’s Day Cake Pops

I have made cake pops before, for my daughter’s birthday and other occasions. Monday, I made some just for fun after getting the Williams Sonoma catalog in the mail and seeing their Valentine’s Day treats. They have some really cute heart-shaped cake pops and I got inspired to make some of my own!

Making cake pops is very simple. Bakerella is the queen of cake pops and has lots of examples and step by step instructions on her site. Normally, you crumble up your baked, cooled cake into a bowl, add some frosting, mix it up, and roll the cake into balls with your hands. I decided to do it a little differently this time.

Step 1: Prepare your cake/frosting mixture and turn it out onto a sheet of waxed paper.

Step 2: Cover with another sheet of waxed paper and roll it to about 1″-1 1/4″ thick with a rolling pin

Step 3: Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (approximately 1 1/2″-2″ across) cut out shapes from your “dough”. Use an offset spatula to lift the hearts out if they don’t come out with the cookie cutter.

Step 4: Take your lollipop stick and poke a hole into the bottom of your heart, going in approximately 1/4 of the way up. Using the same end of the lollipop stick, dip it into melted candy coating/melted chocolate and put it back into the hole. This will help “glue” your heart onto your stick.

At this point, put your cake pops into the refrigerator or freezer to firm up, 15-20 minutes in the freezer, in the refrigerator they can stay for a day covered with plastic wrap.

As for the dipping process, I like to melt my chocolate in a 1 cup pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, then keep it nestled in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup filled 1/2 full of hot water. Be sure not to get any water in your chocolate or it will seize.

I used Wilton’s pink candy melts with a  teaspoon of crisco to thin it out for easier dipping. I also used Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips for the Dark Chocolate pops.

For another option, I mixed some Wilton White Candy Melts with the semi-sweet chips. It was delicious! I find the Wilton Milk Chocolate candy melts too sweet for my taste. This was the perfect combination! The only thing with using chocolate chips is that they take longer to set, so just keep that in mind.

I like to store these in ziploc bags in the refrigerator. They taste good cold, but you can also keep them out at room temperature just before serving.

It’s also a good idea to get a block of styrofoam to keep your pops in while they set. I forgot to pick some up, so I had to improvise–used the drip tray to my espresso machine!

Slide Out Gift Card Holder {Buttons & Baby Ducks}

I absolutely LOVE this style of card. It’s a slide out/pocket card that works really well for gift cards. I’ve made this style of card before, which you can see here. You can also view a video tutorial here.

The basics: Card stock for the base is Kraft (soon to be called Crumb Cake), Bashful Blue, and Welcome Neighbor DSP. Slider/Insert is Kraft layered with Whisper White. I rounded the edges of both layers using the Corner Rounder. To make the “window” on the front, I used the 1 3/8″ Circle Punch and Scallop Circle Punch.

Here is the slide out portion. It’s a little difficult to see in the picture, but the reason this works so well for gift cards is the Slit Punch. I punch the slit toward the bottom of the card, and a gift card slides in there perfectly.

I stamped the little duck from Goody Goody Gumdrops in Creamy Caramel ink, colored it in with Copic Markers, and then fluffed it up by adding Martha Stewart White Flocking Powder (using the 2 Way Glue Pen to adhere the Flocking Powder). The sentiment is from the same set, stamped in Bashful Blue ink.

These buttons from American Crafts–can we just admire the buttons for a minute? I threaded the larger ones with Linen Thread and attached them to the card with Glue Dots. They’re glittery and the colors go so well with the Welcome Neighbor DSP Pack.

Finally, I decided to liven up the back of the card a little by stamping the ducky repeatedly along the bottom edge. I colored them in with Copic Markers and I was surprised to see the colors showed up so well on Kraft colored card stock! Now that I know this works, I’ll have to try it more often.

I {Heart} Cupcakes Birthday Card

I made this card for my friend’s birthday–can you tell it’s supposed to be a cupcake? Technically, this is not the card I sent her, but an exact replica. The reason I had to make another card is because in my excitement, I made the card, put it in an envelope and dropped it at the post office BEFORE I took a picture! Where was my head??

The base is Chocolate chip card stock, layered with Shades of Spring DSP in a large pink dotted pattern.

The cupcake was made with chocolate chip card stock (I cut the shape of the base with scissors), then passed it through the Crimper. All of the hearts are from I {Heart} Hearts stamped in Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa ink. Then I punched them out with the Heart to Heart Punch. They are attached to the Whisper White base using Mini Glue Dots and Stampin Dimensionals.

Across the front of the cupcake, I added a sentiment. I stamped “happy birthday” from Goody Goody Gumdrops in Regal Rose Marker on Whisper White and punched that out with the Word Window Punch. Then, I layered that onto a Regal Rose Modern Label Punch attached with Stampin Dimensionals.

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