It’s that time again! Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and today I’m sharing some of my favorite ideas with a Valentine’s Day printables round-up round-up .
I can’t help it – I’m a sucker for retro inspired candies. When I stumbled across candy wax bottles the other day, I had a retro Soda Shoppe Valentine’s Day idea I couldn’t get out of my head.
Today’s sweet Valentine’s Day printable is brought to you by my daughter’s upcoming birthday party.
You see, in brainstorming her pink lemonade party favors, I couldn’t help but think they would also make great valentines. Since I’m all about pulling double duty on party planning, I’m offering these Pink Lemonade Valentines as a printable for you today!
There’s just something about Candy Buttons. These nostalgic candies are surprisingly easy to make, and are perfect for birthdays, party favors, or just a fun sweet treat.
To make Candy Buttons, all you need to do is prepare a simple royal icing recipe. You can use the recipe listed on the can of Meringue Powder, but I used the following recipe, inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle:
What you’ll need:
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar (4 3/4 cups)
Meringue powder (about 1/4 cup)
1/3-1/2 cup water
1-2 tablespoons flavored extract (I used almond extract because it’s what I had on hand, but there are tons of fruity flavors at the craft store that would be fun to try!)
Food coloring
Electric mixer
Freezer paper
Icing bag and small round tip (or a resealable bag with a tiny corner cut off would work in a pinch)
To prepare:
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
In a separate measuring cup, mix the flavored extract into the water.
Slowly begin pouring the liquid mixture into the powder mixture while it mixes.
Mix the frosting on medium-high speed until the frosting forms stiff peaks (around 7 minutes)
Add food coloring to achieve desired color. (I first made pink frosting, and later added a few drops of blue to make purple to get two colors out of one batch.)
Next, tear off a sheet of freezer paper – large enough that you can fit a large batch of buttons on (you won’t cut the paper until these are dry).
Fill your pastry bag (I used my Pampered Chef Decorator Bottle Set*) with frosting and twist the top, removing excess air. Now, simply pipe evenly sized dots across the paper. If possible, print a template in advance and place it below the freezer paper. Be sure that the design will fit into your final packaging. If you’re using pretzel bags for your packaging, your design will need to be approximately 2.15 x 5″ to fit the pretzel bags I would be placing them in.
Let the Buttons sit overnight to dry. Any excess frosting will keep in a resealable bag refrigerated for two weeks.
Now for the fun! Once the Buttons have set up overnight, you can begin cutting the freezer paper to your desired shapes.
Package your Candy Buttons for the occasion. I placed them in Wilton pretzel bags that I got at JoAnn’s for $1.37 using my 40% off coupon. Think of the possibilities! Birthday party favors, Valentines, and more!
In addition to being featured on the fab blogs listed on the right of this blog, this post was also featured on Huckleberry Love.
I was so excited for Eve’s first birthday and I knew exactly what the theme would be – Pink Lemonade, for my sweet and sour little girl 🙂
Well, then there was an out of state family wedding the weekend of her birthday which meant significantly toning down the birthday plans. Which was hard for me, because I just love a good themed party. Side note: do you know what else is hard? Accidentally deleting all the photos in my camera from said party, and then racing to take just a couple to prove my baby had a party. Ugh!
So to plan the un-party, I started with the basics. One of the things I’ve done for all of my kids is purchase just a few birthday items that we bring out every year, including a pendant banner, centerpieces with photos of them over the years, and a “My special day” seat cover.
We also use this seat cover for all special occasions, from birthdays to the first day of school and other milestones. It’s a tradition that has become very meaningful to us – when the kids come downstairs in the morning and see their seat cover, they know we’re celebrating them that day.
Next, I added some cute polka-dot napkins, cups and cute paper straws from Target. I served a basic lemonade some frozen strawberries. Yum!
I made these adorable cupcakes. I’d scoured the interwebs for the best pink lemonade recipe and landed on this one. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too tart for us! No problemo – that just left more room for the homemade ice cream we made (and Mmmm does our family love homemade ice cream!).
So there you have it – a very simple, sweet Pink Lemonade birthday. Check out my Pink Lemonade Pinterest board for more ideas for our next Pink Lemonade birthday. Enjoy!
Let the Buttons sit overnight to dry. Any excess frosting will keep in a resealable bag refrigerated for two weeks.
