Here are a few crafty edibles that you can make this weekend with your honey, sweet child or best friend in celebration of Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year.
As seen on WNBC's LXTV Monday Segment
Gifts don’t always have to be expensive, just thoughtful. And, with these crafts I encourage you to partner with a friend or your child to create. Sometimes the true gift is time spent together one-on-one. Food for thought...
Heart Shaped Brownie or chocolate cookie pops on a "bed of roses". Take brownie mix and use a cupcake mold. Once cupcakes are cooled and taken out of mold add baker sticks and that's all you need for this quick indoor treat.
Roses Picture Frame- hand made using an old frame and dried flowers left over from Valentine's Day. I took a hot glue gun, and after I trimmed the rose heads off the stems, I attached them to the frame.
Crazyoleez heart crayons- This is great new gift idea instead of a cards. It is multi purpose and super fun. It is all the colors of a crayon box in one crayon. We used it to make our hand made cards. www.gocrazyoleez.com
Pink and Red Mini Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies in a mason jar (great for a gift to give to teachers). I found a super tiny heart mold and we made sugar cookies and sprinkled them with red and pink sugar crystals. We placed them in a mason jar and tied a red and white ribbon around the lid.
Hand Made Cards from ribbon and paper. We used the 3-D foam tape to give our hearts a true lift. Also, we took some left over holiday decor and made new cards for this Valentine's Day.
The Be Mine Card is a heart collage of family photos –it is so easy now to print out your digital photos and this is a great gift for the grandparents and friends.
Personalized photo stamps from www.zazzle.com add a nice finished touch. They have Chinese New Year Heart stamps too. Zazzle also creates almost anything in a personalized form. Check out the iphone cases! Super cool.
Michaels Arts and Crafts sells the Frog mail box for cards.
A rock and roll heart bedazzled jacket that kids and moms can do as a fun craft together with just beads and glue and an old jean jacket. The one here is from Nimbus Nine Fashions in Long Island.
Heart Sandwiches with heart healthy bread- Williams Sonoma makes a heart shaped sandwich cutter that is a treat! We used Spelt and walnut, cranberry bread.
And, as we celebrate our love for family this Valentine’s Day, send some love to others in need:
in the spirit of love I thought I'd mention some really awesome local things kids can do to give back more love to their community.
The comedy hall of fame is based in Long Island and teaches laughter in underprivileged schools, they need donations.
http://www.comedyhalloffame.com
Www.MaxCure.org based in New Jersey- Their mission is to underwrite a one of its kind cell therapy lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center dedicated to treating and researching pediatric cancers. The Max Cure Foundation was established in honor of their then four year old son Max who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Thankfully, Max is in remission today, but the crusade of The Max Cure Foundation has just begun. If you would like to donate to Team Max Cure, please go to Maxcure.org.
And to find out some places your children can volunteer please check out
http://mommypoppins.com/ny-kids/how-to-volunteer-with-your-children-in-nyc
http://www.volunteermatch.org/volunteers/resources/
http://www.newyorkcares.org/ (they are a great organization!)