Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. It helps that I was born 4 days before and the majority of my childhood birthday parties were Vday themed :) Each year I send out cards to loved ones, and this year I wanted to send something more. The Martha Stewart Crafts site has always been a great source for fun and simple DIY projects, so I turned there for ideas. 
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Tools: glue tape, heart 1 inch punch, heart hole punch. I find shape punches (heart, circles) to be serious time savers when crafting multiple pieces.
Step 1: punch 4 hearts out of colored card stock. I used leftover wedding yellow and purple paper.
Step 2: punch 1/4 inch hole on the bottom of hearts. I used a 1/4 heart hole punch since it was the only one I had, plus it's a cute detail that only I will see :)
Step 3: fold hearts in half and stack like a flower. Make sure the holes line up.
Step 4: take lollipop (I used dum dums since their small size matches the petal size) and put the stick through the holes. It also helps to make sure the lollipop's wrapper is tight. This allows the petal part get close to the candy part, and gives it a cleaner look. Lastly, glue the backs of the petals to one another for structural support.
And you're done :) 
I made tons! The colors of the papers and wrappers are so sweet. It was a fun project and I got to enjoy some of the lollipops, too.
I'll be sending the majority to my brother and sister to share with their friends and co-workers :)
Will you be sending any sweet treats out on Valentine's Day?
*note: Since we are still waiting for our pro photos (I saw a sneak preview and jaw dropped), I think I'll write a few posts about the remainder of the DIYs and small details of the wedding.*The stacks of take-out boxes grew higher and higher.
The count almost reached 200.
They were everywhere! But what to put in them? Candy, ofcourse! And lots of it!!
We love the look of color-coordinated candy buffets (a la Amy Atlas) and sweet treats in matching packaging. But the wedding was 2 weeks out and the only personalized purple & yellow candy we had ordered were M&Ms. A bit panicked, we headed to Target to load up. I knew candy wouldn't be hard to find, we just had to choose the correct candy wrappers/packaging: anything in yellow, gold, or purple.Enter these yummy bites:
They are just a portion of the many bags we bought.
For those interested, here is the amount of candy we purchased.
Kisses: 10 bags dark chocolate (purple wrapping) and 5 bags almond (gold wrapping)
Jelly Belly: buttered popcorn, island punch, lemon drop (to match our martinis)Cadbury: 3 bags (purple wrapping)
Hershey's Nuggets: 5 bags of various almond, toffee, dark (gold wrapping)Hershey's Bliss: 7 bags (purple wrapping)
M&Ms: 4 bags personalized, 4 bags Lakers (purple, yellow, white)
Lemonheads: 6 boxes (yellow)
Almond Roca: 1 container (gold wrapping)
Ferrero Rocher: 5 containers (gold wrapping, delicious)
Tobleron: 3 bags (yellowish wrapping)
It ended up being way too much! I would say about 2/3 of what I purchased would have been fine for our 120 guests. Less mini chocolates but definitely more M&Ms because they were a hit!For containers, I had amassed a nice collection of apothecary jars from Michael's (all thanks to their 40% off coupons). The jars were perfect to display the candy.
Here are just a few of the jars (photo taken w/ BB camera).Next step was signage!
Signage for the candy bar :) I used PaperSource Plum Scallop Circle Labels to print out the candy contents of each jar, and cut circles from lavender paper to provide the labels with sturdy backing.
Font is freebooter script from dafont.
Wide yellow ribbon went around each jar and the labels were attached to them. 
We also tied some ribbon around the jars for a cute look.
We packed the candy, jars, and take out boxes nice and tight, and handed them off to Anna of Love & Splendor the day before.
About 1.5 hours before the reception ended, the candy bar all set and ready to go! Anna set it up perfectly. It looked super stylish and too sweet!! Here are a few photos taken by friends :)
So much chocolaty goodness :)
Purple and gold foil look so nice and shiny.
And the take out boxes rounded off the look nicely :)
My favorite part was the personalized M&Ms! We ordered ones that said "Jella and Matt" and "9.26.09", and custom ones with Lakers logos :) It was definitely a crowd favorite.
Will you be having a candy bar? What candies did you choose?
Blog title is from lyrics by Gwen Stefani
We definitely want a candy bar to treat guests at the end of the night. This is ideal since most everyone has a sweet tooth and guests will enjoy a wedding favor they can eat. My main goal would be to have the candy bar look like this. We also want to include customizable M&Ms.
I took a screen shot of the M&Ms I would want for the candy bar. It's so cool that you can customize colors and wording to whatever fits your theme :) Now time to find cute packaging.Blog title is from lyrics by the Strangeloves
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