Handmade Thursdays- Last Minute Valentines

If you're like me, you may still be looking for the perfect card for your Valentine. If so, here are a few quick and easy ideas to show your love with a personally created greeting, handmade just for them!

I love this card from Go Make Something. It uses paint sample cards to create a unique Valentine!
Here's an adorable, free printable butterfly Valentine from Skip to My Lou if you need something quick and easy...


This is a fun Valentine to make and give from Zakka Life. The candies are enclosed in the heart so the only way to get them out is to push them through the maze.



Want some other ideas? Craftbits has a list of 20 Valentine card ideas. Whether your intended recipient is a sweetheart, family member or friend, these fun and festive card ideas are sure to make anyone's Valentine's Day!

Look for more ways to make it handmade each Thursday on The Downtown Boutique.

Got a unique craft, recipe or decorating idea for 'Handmade Thursdays' and want to be featured on The Downtown Boutique? Contact us! We'd love to hear your feedback on items featured, too!

Handmade Thursdays- Heart Shaped Cookie Bouquets!

When I was a young girl, I would go to my grandmother's house every year to make Valentine's Day butter cookies. We'd roll and cut the dough together, then the best part... we'd use all kinds of frosting and candies to decorate the cookies. She'd always have fun heart and other holiday-inspired shaped cookie cutters to make cookie-baking even more fun! This year I'm excited to start the holiday tradition with my own daughter.

While looking for a new way to decorate these great cookies, I stumbled upon The Decorated Cookie's creative idea for heart 'lollipop' cookies. For a change, Meaghan used lollipop sticks and licorice to decorate and 'mix things up a bit'! What a fun way to serve up these treats as a 'cookie bouquet' to friends and family!

You can use any dough for these cookies... but if you'd like to try 'Gam's Best Butter Cookies', here's the recipe:

4 cups flour
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup Crisco
(mix as pie dough)

2 eggs
1 heaping cup sugar
4T milk
1t soda
1t vanilla
Beat together and pour over dry mixture. Mix together and make into 4 balls.

Wrap dough balls in wax paper. Refrigerate overnight before rolling on floured board.
Bake 10-12 mins @ 350.

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Look for more ways to make it handmade each Thursday on The Downtown Boutique.

Got a unique craft, recipe or decorating idea for 'Handmade Thursdays' and want to be featured on The Downtown Boutique? Contact us! We'd love to hear your feedback on items featured, too!

Handmade Thursdays- Love Letters!

Today's Handmade Thursday idea comes to us from Marie of Make and Takes. Marie is a mom of three who blogs daily with craft ideas and recipes for home, family, and fun. If you still have leftover candy canes, Make and Takes has a great way to use them for Valentine's Day!

Look for more ways to make it handmade each Thursday on The Downtown Boutique.

Got a unique craft, recipe or decorating idea for 'Handmade Thursdays' and want to be featured on The Downtown Boutique? Contact us! We'd love to hear your feedback on items featured, too!

Happy Birthday to The Downtown Boutique -- Day 2

Today is Day 2 of our week long giveaway for our birthday/anniversary celebration.

Today we are giving away one of my own creations from our Etsy shop, Photo Greetings:

A Photo Greeting Valentine Design.
Our photo greetings are easy and convenient for any busy family. All you have to do is pick your design, email me your high resolution photos and the text for your card, and then print them at your favorite photo processing center (such as Shutterfly, Costco, Walmart, etc.), on your own schedule! How cool is that?!

Not only do we do Valentine Photo Greeting cards, but we also do Birth/Adoption Announcements, Shower Invitations, Birthday Invitations, Memorial Cards, Graduation Announcements, "Change of Address" Announcements, "Save the Date" Announcements, Holiday Cards, and anything else that you celebrate in your life. We have loads of premade designs to choose from, but if you don't see exactly what you're looking for, we are also glad to do custom designs such as THIS ONE that we did for a customer who requested it.

You can choose a family style Valentine design, or one that can be cut in half and used for classroom Valentine's Day parties (for teachers AND the kids). We'll even pop your pet's photo into the design if that's your choice.

To enter: Please visit Photo Greetings and let us know which design is your favorite, not including the one shown. It doesn't have to be Valentine themed. Please be sure to leave a valid email address.

For an additional entry, you can blog about this giveaway. Please be sure to leave a separate comment with the link to your blog post.

For another additional entry, you can Twitter about this giveaway. Please Twitter to @dwntownboutique, so I can see where you Twittered. Please be sure to leave a separate comment.

For another additional entry, we'd love to have you "Follow" us by clicking on "Follow This Blog" at the top right of the page. Please be sure to leave a separate comment to let us know you are now following us.

Deadline to enter is Wednesday, January 28, at Midnight PST. Giveaway is open worldwide.

Have a great day!

Angie

Gumdrop Shop for Valentine's Day

Here's a cute custom boutique Valentine's Day outfit from Gumdrop Shop on eBay.

Quite Possibly Better Than Valentine's Day!

Get ready for tomorrow...it's almost "Friday Features" time! We have a wonderful feature planned for you, as well as an AWESOME giveaway! Here's a little peek at what you can expect:

You're not going to want to miss this one! In fact, you better tell all your friends! Because I am pretty sure, they're going to want to see it too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Angie

Perfect Valentine's Day Gifts

Valentine's Day is this week. Well, it's this week on our calendar anyways. In my house, it feels like Valentine's Day is year round. My hubby would not hesitate to buy me whatevery my pretty little heart desires, if money weren't an issue!

Check out some of these great Valentine's Day finds from Etsy.com. If you look closely, some of these are offering FREE Priority shipping, so that you can get it by Valentine's Day! But you have to order today.

Click on each picture, and you will be taken directly to the listing for that item.