You Have My Heart – A Banner for Your Military Loved One

Valentine’s Day can be really tough when someone you love is serving overseas, or on a base somewhere in the country. So Zanzibar and I decided to make a special banner with a yellow/gold heart to symbolize our missing loved ones. It’s easy to make – and we hope you like it!

What you need:

construction paper in shades of pink scissors heart templates (we used cookie cutters) ribbon hole punch

Construction paper hearts and ribbon.

Carefully cut out hearts. We used gold construction paper for the big heart and shades of pink and silver construction paper for the smaller hearts. Then we punched holes in the sides of the hearts and strung the ribbon through.

Simple, pretty and meaningful!

The big gold heart in the middle really stands out – and you can add someone’s name, or Mom, or Dad – whatever works for you!

And that’s all there is to it!!!

Delivered to Persnickerty by her admirer Skeet, the snail mail man!

Pink, heart-shaped cake

This looks – and tastes – fantastic! And it’s so simple, even I, Heckerty, could make it! So I did. And here’s what you do.

What you need:

Pink cake mix Vegetable Oil 2 Eggs 2 heart-shaped cake tins

Oil, cake mix and measuring cups.

Heart-shaped baking tins.

Mix according to directions on the packet.

Make pink cake according to directions.

Pour mix into two well greased and floured heart shaped baking tins. Bake for 35 mins at 350

Greased and floured pan.

Pour mix in and bake.

Turns out really well!

Put pans on rack to cool and when cool, turn out cake to cool further.

Take whipping cream or instant cream in a spray can and cover the top of one cake.

Cream and strawberries!

Place the second cake on top and cover that with whipping cream too. Decorate with sliced strawberries and some red sprinkle sugar. Chill in fridge so cream firms a little.

Pink, heart-shaped cake smothered in strawberries, cream and pink sugar!!!

Eat and enjoy!

Pink and White Rubber Band Bracelets

as designed by Zanzibar – in one of his mellow moments!

To make this you need a rainbow loom or something like it. And what Zanzibar came up with is a monster quad fishtail in red, pink and white. I think he thought it would make a monster fish, but it made a bracelet instead!

What you need:

Monster tail loom Red rubber bands Pink rubber bands White rubber bands Loom hook

What you need

The trick now is to get the instructions and the best are found on YouTube.

And when you’re finished you have a pretty bracelet in red, pink and white!

A Valentine Rubber Band Bracelet

And when you’re finished you have a pretty bracelet in red, pink and white!

Write Your Own Heckerty Story!

Heart, Love, Valentine, Stars, Pink, Red, White, Silver, Rain, Clouds, Heckerty, Zanzibar!

Now’s the time to write your own Heckerty story! And here’s a helping hand – 12 words you need to include in the story. You can use them in any order – but all 12 must be in there.

And as a special – email us your stories to [email protected] and the best one wins a PRIZE! And if the winner is a class,  there’ll be a prize for the class and one for each student!

Heart, Love, Valentine, Stars, Pink, Red, White, Silver, Rain, Clouds, Heckerty, Zanzibar!

Here’s an example to start you off:

One day – I think it was near Valentine’s Day a few year’s ago – and I wanted to do something special for my cat, Zanzibar. He is always so good and kind, and he gets me out of all sorts of situations that I somehow find myself in.

We were having a friendly argument about which comes first the rain or the clouds – I said the rain and Zanzibar said the clouds – he’s right by the way – and we sat discussing this late into the evening.

Suddenly Zanz stared up at the sky. “Look Heckerty,” he said. “The stars are all funny colors, tonight.” I looked up into the night sky where he was pointing with his paw. And indeed, all the stars were gathered into a huge heart shape and they were twinkling pink, red, white and silver!

And then, in the middle of the heart a big H appeared. I looked at Zanz who was grinning in his cat way. “I love to surprise you, Heckerty,” he said. And he had!

Heckerty’s Valentine Book and App

Concentration Game

Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies

Heckerty’s cousin, Persnickerty, loves hearts. Her house is full of them, her kitchen is covered in them.

She gets hundreds of Valentine cards every year. So does her cat.

And now, just for you, Persnickerty shares her famous heart-shaped sugar cookies because who doesn’t love the smell of sugar cookies baking in the oven? And the delicious sensation of light, crumbly cookies that melt in your mouth?

This will make 60 or more cookies of assorted sizes, that taste divine!

What you need:

1 cup butter (2 sticks) 1 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp cream of tartar pink sugar for decoration

1 tsp vanilla 1 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp soda 1/2 tsp salt 4 cups flour

How to do it:

Take the dough and roll not too thinly on a well floured surface. Take an assortment of heart shaped cookie cutters (we found our in the 99¢ store – what a deal!) and cut out the cookies, putting them on the greased cookie sheet.

Sprinkle pink sugar on the cookies.  Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cookies are done when they are just starting to brown.

Let them cool.  Then see how long you can wait before tasting more than one!!!

Valentine Candy Jars 

What would Valentine’s Day be without chocolate?
To celebrate and for a bit of fun – we designed a simple, pretty project. With a twist! Guess how many candies are in these jars (without going over) and you could win them both!

What you need:

How to do it:

Candies, a Mason Jar and Ribbon.

Take the two jars and fill them with candy being careful to count how many candies are in each jar.

Screw on the tops and decorate with ribbon, bows and glittery heart stickers.

Decorate Your Lid

You can make several of these and give them as Valentine gifts, or you can have some fun asking people to guess how many candies are in the jars. The person with the nearest guess (that DOESN’T go over) wins the candy jars!

How To Win These Jars 

So go ahead – send in your guesses to [email protected] and let us know how many candies there are in total when you combine these two jars!

Beautiful! Can you guess how many candies are in these two jars?

Valentine Card of your own design 

Nothing says “I’m thinking of you” more than a handmade card. But what if you can’t draw? Or you can’t think of something clever to say? Here’s a simple solution that’s quick to make and cute too.

What you need:

How to do it:

Valentine Card of Your Own Design

Open the playing cards and remove all the cards in the hearts suit and the two of spades. They will be the pictures on our cards.

Take several sheets of pink paper. Fold them in half (top to bottom) and cut along fold. Then take one of the half sheets and fold it in half again, this time left to right. Glue the playing cards onto the card, adding whatever saying or greeting you feel is appropriate. Use a red or dark purple Sharpie – it looks cool!

Valentine Card of your own design

Here are some suggestions to go with the cards:
Ace: You’re Ace, Valentine! (ace of hearts)
2: We’re two of a kind. (two of hearts and two of spades)
Queen: You’re Queen of my heart. (Queen of hearts)
King: You’re King of my heart. (King of Hearts)
Five, six, seven of hearts: We are so suited!
Any card: You’re the real deal!
And you’re done!