Chocolate, Crafting and Crates

I don't usually write crafting posts, mostly because I never finish anything.  I've got a load of half finished projects ranging from box make overs to my bathroom which is still all white rather than the sophisticated grey I intend it to be one day.

BUT!!!

I'm going to share something with you that I DID finish!

I recently found a blog called The Pin Junkie  basically it does what it says on the tin.  She's addicted to Pinterest.

I actually joined Pinterest about 2 years ago but I've never pinned anything or even actually logged in.  I figure I have a big enough Internet addiction without adding that to it.

Anyway, The Pin Junkie throws a party once a week where people link up posts that they've pinned (I think that's how it work anyway) and I have been looking through them.

SO MANY TALENTED PEOPLE OUT THERE!!!

Seriously, I'm in awe.

Ok, to cut a long story short (ish), Miss Mac is on the Prom committee.  The idea is to raise as much money as possible toward their Prom to bring down the ticket prices for each person.

So far I've made a shed load of cakes and they also had other fundraisers over Christmas.

Now Valentines Day is coming up next week so when I saw this idea for making chocolate roses I thought great, looks simple enough, lets give it a go!

All you need is:

Wooden skewers - I got a pack of 50 bamboo flower sticks from Poundland.

Coloured tissue paper - I chose pink rather than red but you could do them any colour.

Florist tape - or any tape really but florists tape looks a little more authentic (top tip - rather than trawl through town looking for the stuff try going into an actual florist's to get some ...)

Foil cover chocolate hearts (the original post uses Hershey Kisses but I couldn't get them) - Sainsburys are selling little nets of these at £1 for 10 but I decided to make my own.

Artificial leaves - or, if like me you are a cheapskate prefer a more authentic look and have a bay tree in the garden then snip off some leaves, they keep their colour and freshness for several weeks after being cut (yes, I did say WEEKS), are a fairly similar shape to rose leaves and they smell nice too.

To make the roses this is what you need to do:

Make your chocolate hearts if you aren't using ready made ones.  Do this by melting chocolate in a heatproof bowl over water ensuring that the bowl doesn't actually touch the water (no idea why this is important but apparently it is).  I bought some great  Fin Carre chocolate from Lidll, it was 35p (seriously!!) for 100g which made about 10 chocolates.  It may be cheap to buy but it's pretty good chocolate, a little sweet but still good quality.

I also bought a silicone chocolate mould from Asda for £2.

I made 10 yesterday and then realised that the batteries on my camera had run out so I had to recharge them before I could take photos, I may have eaten one or two (or 8) chocolates while I waited ...

Then wrap the chocolates in foil - if anyone knows where to buy coloured foil then please let me know but the ordinary household silver stuff is fine:

Then cut a square of tissue paper approximately 8cm square and place the heart in the middle.  Gather the tissue paper around it and then, with the pointy bit of the heart at the top, get the wooden skewer and place it inside the tissue paper resting in the top groove of the heart (all will hopefully be clear in the photo!).  Gather the tissue paper around the skewer and tape into place with the florist tape.  Continue the tape right down to the bottom of the skewer and break off:

The shape of the heart up side down makes a pretty good rosebud 

The original post says to incorporate the leaves as you wrap the skewer but I found this a bit fiddly and so added them after:

And voila!

Really simple to make and they cost very little  - I spent less than £6 in total in including the silicone mould (but excluding the chocolate) and I have enough of everything (except chocolate) to make loads more.

They aren't perfect but I got better the more I made and I'm pretty pleased with they way they turned out.

I reckon that Miss Mac and friends could sell them for £1 each at school and raise a good amount of money toward that Prom.


Oh, and if you are wondering where the crates come into this - well, I've decided to give that a post of it's own.


I'm going to link this post up with Ann from Help!!  I'm Stuck for things I know this week.






Now Valentines D