Pink Peppermint Blogger

I made these marshmallow pops for my daughter’s winter princess party.

I had bought all the supplies: large pink marshmallows, squirtable white cookie icing (the kind that sets and comes in a sort of glue bottle), pink pearl nonpareils and 6 in. lollipop sticks–but thought surely I’d run out of time before the party started.

It was literally 15 minutes before the guests came. I tried it to see if it would work, and had what I think are great results given how totally easy they are to make. No, really. If you can use glue, you can do this. The kids L.O.V.E. to eat them, and it’s something that’s not messy that they can help make!

Pour nonpareils on a plate, follow the directions for preparing the cookie icing (*note: after some trial and error, I only heated mine for a fraction of the time it called for because hot icing=runny icing) and apply a THIN layer to the top of the marshmallow. Press the icing side of the marshmallow face down into the nonpareils.

Then lift and fill in any holes in the coverage and neaten the edges by hand. Set face up on a plate to dry. Once dry, insert lollipop stick into opposite side of marshmallow.

I cut some simple leaf shapes out of green paper and used a small hole punch (and a little wriggling) to thread the lollipop sticks through.

And Voila! A marshmallow rose.

If you want to do this step, it’s easier to add the leaves before you insert the stick into the marshmallow. My small hole punch was a little too small so I made a couple of overlapping punches to make the hole a bit bigger. We are giving a half dozen “roses” to teachers for Valentine’s Day wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane bags like real flowers would be.

I think this would also be cute for a Valentine’s party, as a festive centerpiece for a springtime shower, Easter parties or for other party themes where roses/flowers play a part–Beauty and the Beast, Bachelor/Bachelorette finale watching parties (do people have those anymore?) You get the idea. How would you use these?

Yep. Here we are. Valentine’s Day is upon us. It was just Thanksgiving and now, at least in the South, we’ve got bathing suit weather barreling down on us. Awesome. All the more reason to steer clear of the candy if you can. We’re still working through the avalanche of Christmas treats that live in what my kids call “the basket.” Ugh.

I’m going rogue here and avoiding the candy almost entirely. Alas, when I spotted these adorably large heart suckers in the dollar bin at Target, I could not resist. You can make even the most commonplace of V-Day goodies festive with a cute tag and a playful message. These gift enclosures were made with a grosgrain tie and a rounded corner option.

Last year, I dug these little mailboxes (also from the hallowed bins of dollar goodness at Target). Imagine my delight when I spotted them again this year. My kiddos are both fairly into mail. Getting it, sending it, making it, checking it. So I figure that most kids are. Ages ago I bought some inexpensive blank white cards and envelopes at Michael’s Arts and Crafts and let my oldest make his own cards to send to friends and family for various occasions. I was back at Michael’s the other day and spotted an assorted pack of Valentine’s Card Stock Paper. They come 25 sheets to a pack and were on sale two pack for $5. I thought it would be cute to do some Make Your Own Valentine’s kits this year to include with the mailboxes. I just scored each page the long way and cut them in half to make folding cards. I think I’ll throw in a few envelopes just because my son LOVES that part and because of Pink Peppermint Paper, I happen to buy them in boxes of 250, but you could always just include some stickers to seal the Valentines.

Here are the mailboxes. Aren’t they sweet? I think they would also be charming as decorations for a Valentine’s Day Party. Don’t you agree?

And here are the cards I made for the kids to make their own Valentine’s.  These are for my daughter’s class of two-year-old pals. They are really into trying to peel and place stickers and are starting to color so will probably include some of those things to make it more fun for them.

Or if you want to include individual stickers or other lose frills, you can enclose your kits in zip-top bags. This also works nicely because as with most things like this, no plan is perfect. The mailboxes have a lid on each end and the cards at this standard size are too long, so you can just throw the extra lid in the bag for later use and let the mail just hang out like it’s too stuffed to close!

And finally a slightly more random idea. I got off on a tangent thinking about things that make your heart race. You know really get it pumping. I found some Disney jump ropes at a local discount store and decided that would be a fun alternative to candy for my son’s class of three- and four-year old buds.

Ahhh…the jump rope. Great for learning coordination. Great exercise. If you haven’t picked one up in a while, give it a try. Talk about wearing yourself out. More importantly, it will wear the kids out. My son is already begging for the race car rope he saw in my hand. And hey, if he can’t quite get the hang of jumping it yet, I’m sure he’ll find alternate uses. I’m fully anticipating that he will convert his little sister’s Cozy Coupe into a tow truck in no time compliments of that Max and Ruby episode we’ve seen 50 times.

Hope you’ve seen something that makes your heart flutter. If you like what you’re seeing, please leave a comment at the top of this or any of our posts. Funny thing about a blog is that it’s hard to know if anyone is reading it if no one comments!

And if you are in the market for some cutie V-Day cupcake toppers, check out these freebies  from Creative Party Place. Enjoy!