My husband doesn’t eat sweets.  I know.  Ridiculous.  But, on occasion, he will eat a brownie.  So for Valentine’s Day, I made him an “I love you” brownie.  The leftovers were packaged up and sent off to friends.

I added some pink frosting trim to make them look more “Valentine’s-ish”.

I laid each one on a small square of cardstock, trimmed with pinking shears.  A little dot of frosting holds it in place.

Slide the brownie into a clear, cellophane treat bag.  I like to roll down the top and close with a staple or piece of tape.

I added a topper made of some elementary school writing paper folded over the top of the bag.  I printed out an I heart Brownies label on my computer and they were finished!  Not including baking time, the whole project only took a little over an  hour and I was in a hurry. (You can see the sleeve of my coat in this last picture-I was heading out the door as I finished up!)  If I could do it over again, I would let the frosting set up a little more before packaging.  You can see how smooshed the pink dots are in my final photo.  They still looked cute and tasted devine, but I prefer non-smooshed treats when it comes to gifts from the kitchen!  Sorry if you got a smooshed one-I hope you liked it anyway!

Valentine’s cards are nice, but Valentine’s Brownies are nicer!

An ice skating birthday party deserves an ice skating gift!  Off Ellery went today to join a friend in celebrating her 10th birthday.  We recreated the often used clothespin doll into a Winter Princess on top of a box.  This holds a small present inside, but the box itself is a great gift and would look adorable sitting on a shelf or a nightstand.

She wears a gown of white felt decorated with glittered polka dots and fur trim on her collar and hem.  She carries her ice skates, complete with blades and pink laces, as she travels through the snowflake forest.

The lid comes off  and the box holds a small present…

Earrings from Justice!  After all, this was a gift for a “tween” girl.  You know, you have to carefully cross back and forth between cute and cool at this age and even my daughter approved of this gift-which is saying a lot!  I am finding that as my children have gotten out of the lower elementary years, it is harder and harder to find or make hand made gifts that are relevant.  Any ideas you’d like to share?