Not Just A Mommy! {Tasty Treats Thursday}

 I am completely thrilled to have Dawn from Not Just a Mommy! on board today as my guest blogger. She always shares such great party ideas, and today's treat/tutorial is no exception!! 

Give a warm Party Starters welcome to Dawn!! 

 Hugs, 

Pam

Hello dear Party Starters readers, my name is Dawn from Not Just A Mommy! and I'm so honored that Pam let me heist her blog for the day. Today I'm sharing a fun treat with a twist from traditional Valentine's Day ideas with my latest obsession, a playing card candy mold. I scored mine from a local cake decorating store, but the great Bake It Pretty carries a similar mold.
I had no idea what I was ever going to use it for (that can be said for many of my party purchases) until I discovered this playing card box template from Mirkwood Designs and the wheels started turning. A quick trip to my craft store for scrapbook paper (Reminisce Vegas Icons) and I went to work. I trimmed my paper down to letter size to fit through my printer, printed out the template on the white size and cut and folded according to the directions.

I love to use Wilton candy melts because I can use coupons at my craft store, but any brand will do. Just melt according to directions. Note to self, it's painstakingly slow to make this mold, you have to paint in the details with a toothpick. I can't see myself making a classroom's worth of Valentines, but for teachers, office ladies, special friends, it's totally worth it!
I still haven't figured out how to melt candy over existing candy, i.e. the white candy over the red candy, without the bleed-over. I worked so hard to get the red inside it's boundaries, and I let the white cool down as much as possible before pouring over it, but to no avail, I still get blurry edges. I'll keep working on that.
I have tons of different sizes of treat bags; the candy playing cards measure about 2.5 by 3.5 inches so the closest size I could find was my 3 by 4.75 inch bags by Darice to package each candy card before adding to the box. With a bit of wiggling (the plastic bag overlap took up some space), I could fit all 4 candy playing cards in the box.

I trimmed down black cardstock to layer behind the wrap-around label that I just typed up in Word. Feel free to be as clever as you like; 'You're a real ace, Valentine', 'You’re an ace in my book', etc., etc.
If you don't get a chance to make this treat, get yourself to a dollar store for a pack or two of playing cards. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve. Check out Martha Stewart's playing card valentines; I'm starting to get into glassine envelopes now that I'm finally able to find them locally.
A little glitter, a doily or two and voila! Eddie Ross's glittered Heart Of Hearts valentines.

Have mini cards handy? Check out Udandi's version inspired by aforementioned Martha.
Looking for more kid-friendly options? FamilyFun's Ace Of Hearts valentines lets you personalize your card to (pun intended) your heart's content.