A Pinteresting Wednesday: Brownie Point Teacher Valentine

I had so, SO much fun making these valentine's for the boys' teachers.
 
I pinned an idea for using a brownie box mix and a "Shooting for Brownie Points" tag from Lauren McKinsey Designs onto my Valentine pinboard.

I really like her tags and the idea was insanely cute.

While I loved her idea, I really wanted to make brownies and I wanted to package them differently.

I designed a label in PicMonkey, my online photo editing best friend. They have some fantastic Valentine's overlays, like that arrow. SO cute!

I had these white lunch bags and I remembered reading somewhere (probably on pinterest) that you could print on lunch bags.

So through some trial and error I figured out how to print my newly made Valentine label onto a white lunch bag.

I kind of love it a lot. I will probably be doing this super neato trick again.

In order to make it more of a treat bag instead of a lunch bag, I cut off the bottom and then stitched it closed with a decorative zig zag stitch.

Then came the brownies....

Oh the delightful brownies.

This is my new favorite recipe and if you keep reading, you just might find the recipe at the end.

The brownies are dense and truffle-like.  They are rich. They are glorious.

I tripled the recipe and decided cutting out heart-shaped brownies would be perfect.

Look at all those delicious and cute brownies.

I packed them up first in cellophane bags and some washi tape.

Then I slipped them in the paper treat bags. I folded over the top and, again, used washi tape.

Now they are all ready for Thursday. Hopefully they will earn my Little Men plenty of brownie points.

Did you use Pinterest this Valentine's day? As always, Pinterest is full of ideas. I would love for you to follow along and join me in my Pinterest adventures!

And now, I think I promised you a brownie recipe!

Truffle Brownies

Printable Recipe

1 2/3 cups 63% dark chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Tablespoons water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 325. Line an 8x8 pan with foil, with enough excess to allow you to pull the brownies out by the foil when they are done.

Heat chocolate, butter and water in a microwave-safe bowl for one minute. Stir well. Continue to melt at 30 second intervals, stirring each time until melted and almost completely smooth.

Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Next beat in the eggs one at a time. The batter will be smooth and glossy. Next stir in the flour until just combined.

Spread the batter into the foil-lined pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a slight crust forms on the top.The center when tested should still be slightly moist. Place the pan on a cooling rack and allow to cool for about an hour and then either refrigerate for 2-3 hours or freeze for an hour.

When they are set, remove from the pan by lifting out the foil. Then cut the brownies. If they are still too tacky to cut, put them back in the freezer for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk.

Hugs and Kisses Valentine Day T-Shirt

Only two more day until Valentine's Day.

After a lot of patience, my Little finally has his own Valentine shirt. He saw me make Oldest's Love In NYC shirt and Middle's Heartstopper shirt.

Every day he asked me, "Is my shirt done?" "Are you making my shirt now?"

Today he got his shirt. Yippee! Doesn't he look excited?

 I knew I wanted something simple. I had more flocked t-shirt vinyl from Expressions Vinyl. I loved working with it so much on the Heartstopper tee, I started brainstorming how I could use it again.

I came up with this Hugs and Kisses design.

I very simply just typed "XO" five times in one row. I made five rows. I then made sure the image was the width and height I wanted. Mine measured 9" tall and about 7 1/2" wide.

Since this is for a t-shirt vinyl, before you can cut the image out you need to flip the image horizontally.

Then the image gets cut out of the vinyl with the Silhouette. I cut away one set of "XOXO" from the bottom corner.

So when I peeled away the excess this is what the main image looks like.

Then I took the cut away piece and peeled out the letters, creating a stencil.

After ironing the main image on according to the instructions, I put the "stencil" part down and ironed it very, very briefly. Basically iron it only long enough to get it stay in place but not to be permanent.

Just using it for a stencil.

I wanted a little Valentine's red pop.

So I painted the stencil "XOXO" red. Tap, tap, tap-a-roo. Tap that paint in place.

Now here is a "get real" moment.

After the paint was on, I went to pull up the stencil and I had a little mishap. I was just a tad impatient and didn't wait for the paint to dry. Some of the red paint got on the white shirt.

FOR THE LOVE!

Oooh I was so mad. So, so mad.

Thank heavens for teeny tiny brushes, a somewhat steady hand, and white fabric paint.

It is not perfect, but it hides my little faux paux.

With my oops practically invisible, Little's Hugs and Kisses shirt is all ready for Thursday.

 So super duper cute.

The t-shirt is kind of cute too!

Man I could just hug and kiss that Little guy all day.

A perfect tee for my huggable kissable Little Man. I am not sure I can convince him to wait until Thursday to wear it.

Thanks for reading.

Heartstopper Valentine's Day T-shirt

I know that I just said how excited I was for the In Love in NYC Valentine's Day tee.

I am pretty much just as excited for this t-shirt.

This was such a fun shirt to design and complete thanks to my handy dandy Silhouette and the very lovely people at Expressions Vinyl, where you can pretty much find vinyl for all your creating dreams!

I had a vision for this shirt from the very beginning. I know that sounds silly, but you guys know what I am talking about.  I know you do the same thing with your projects.

I thought it out in my head. I drew it on paper. I knew I wanted a retro vibe to it. I basically had it all thought out, but I still needed to execute it.

I was so happy when Expressions Vinyl gave me the opportunity to try some of their flocked t-shirt vinyl. Flocked t-shirt vinyl is that awesome fuzzy vinyl. I was so excited because the fuzzy texture totally helped create the retro vibe I wanted for this shirt.

T-shirt vinyl is so cool. It allows you to create your very own pretty legit shirt. Have idea. Have t-shirt. Have t-shirt vinyl. You are set.

I mean for reals people, do you see my Little Man in his heartstopper t-shirt?

Gawh! Love it.

I have said it before, boy's Valentine's shirts can be hard to find. Especially as they get older. I have enjoyed putting my noggin' to work coming up with some ideas for my adorable future Cary Grants.

I used my Silhouette software to create the main EKG image. I wanted the EKG squiggles (yeah I am pretty sure I could have been a nurse) to flat line, implying a heart stopping.

You get it.

My image measured 10" across and 6" tall. The image has to be reversed before cutting it.  The font was Bauhaus 93 and sized at 128.3

Whenever you work with t-shirt vinyl you need to flip the image horizontally so it cuts with the image backwards.

Expressions Vinyl has some great video tutorials showing you how to use their products.

Then peel, place, and iron.

BAM. Instant one-of-a kind Valentine's Day boys' t-shirt.

I know I already said it, but "GAWH!"
 

The best part...

He was more excited to wear his shirt than I was about making it.

Two down. Two to go.

Have a great day friends!

Linking:

The 36th Avenue,
Tatertots and Jello,
Be Different Act Normal,
Your Homebased Mom

A Very Funny Valentine: How-to

The last valentine is done. Oldest has his "Stick with You" valentines and Middle has his "Nacho Average" valentines.

Now my sweet funny, Little has his own set of Valentines.

I had the idea for a Funny Valentine.

I bought a giant tub of Laffy Taffy (some for the Valentines and some for me...hehehe).

Then I pulled up this picture I had taken of Little-

Quite utterly the most perfect picture for a Funny Valentine, don't you think?

With my tub of Laffy Taffy's in hand and this way-too-cute picture I was ready to make some Funny Valentine's.

I of course went to PicMonkey to help me make my Valentine. It was seriously so, so easy.

Go to PicMonkey and choose "Edit a Photo". Open your photo. I used the photo above and then I went into the effects option and chose the Black and White effect.

Now here, you can do one of two options.

If you don't have the Royale upgrade membership (which is super reasonable if you get a whole year), then keep your photo open and skip the next step.

If you have Royale, then save your photo and close it.

Then open up a blank document. I showed you how to make a blank document HERE. Once I had my blank document open I resized it to 1467x2200.

Next I went to the overlay option and clicked on the "Your Own" button at the top. Find your edited photo and choose that photo. Move it to the bottom half of the blank canvas.

Then it is time to add the text. If you are just working with your photo, now is the time to add text.

I used three texts.

For the word Valentine I used Amatic Small Caps. The font size was 317 and the hex code was EC2A00. 

Then I used Sacramento for the line "you make" and then again for the line "me" I chose to type these two lines separately instead of just hitting return to create the second line because that allowed me to be in control of the spacing.

The font size was 200 and the hex code was 000000.

For the last word "LAUGH", I used the font Sketch Block (this is a Royale font, you could use Chelsea Market font if you don't have Royale).

I used the same red as in the word Valentine, white whose hex code is FFFFFF, pink whose hex code is F50073. You can add in another other valentiney color if you want.

Here I added an embellishment to what would be the back of the tag. The doodle hearts are some of my favorite overlays. I, excuse me, HEART them. Sorry it had to be said.

I saved the finished card.

Then I opened a Word document. Changed the page orientation from portrait to landscape and then I inserted the image onto the page.

Then I copied the image and pasted it right next to the original. Now I have two on one page.

I printed them off on white card stock.

Then I trimmed them down with a paper cutter.

Soon I had a whole pile of valentines.

Fold the tags in half (unless you just did the photo).

Assemble a pile of red and pink Laffy Taffy (aka strawberry and cherry).

I used small cellophane bags to package a few pieces.

I used a gluestick to adhere the tag to the bag.

To ensure that the tag stayed attached to the bag, I ran all of the valentines through my machine loaded with hot pink thread.

I separated them from each other. Now I have 17 sweet little Funny Valentines.

This if my very favorite valentine this year. I love, love, love that sweet face.  I always like when I can make valentines personal.

If you are still looking for a valentine idea, this is such a fun and easy one to do.

You just need your own adorable Funny Little Valentine, and I am sure you all do!

If this idea just makes you oh-so-happy, I would 

love for you to pin it and share on facebook.

Linking Here:
CraftOManiac, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,
CRAFT, Project Inspire, Skip To My Lou,
Today's Creative Blog, Not Just A Housewife,
Sugar Bee Crafts
Lil'Luna 
The 36th Avenue, Tatertots and Jello,
Be Different Act Normal,
Your Homebase Mom