Valentine's Day "Chocolate" Box

It's always a little sad to put Christmas decorations away. I used to think Halloween and Christmas were the only holidays with "good" decorations because the others have decorations that just don't seem to fit my style. In my opinion, they can skew a too "kiddish" and while that's not always a bad thing, it's not something that really appeals to me. 

I've decided it's better to try to make my own decorations. I love Valentine's Day and it's been hard to find really good decorations to just buy. I've had some help from my mom in the past - she's given me a few old fashioned-looking tins that are nice for display. In college I had a string of heart lights I've since taken to the office. But I was looking for something more. 

While watching NBC's Making It, Amber Kemp-Gertsel decided to use Valentine's Day as the inspiration for her holiday porch in one event, and she made a chocolate box "wreath" for her door. I loved it so much I decided I needed one of my own. 

I'm posting this now, so soon after Christmas, because it's a little more time-consuming to make this. For this "wreath," I used a wooden heart box from the dollar section of Target. I painted it red and the "candy" inside is just wooden balls from everywhere - Michael's, Joann Fabrics, and (at the time) Pat Catan's. 

Next up is painting the "chocolate." All you really need paint-wise is white, black, brown, and red. You can mix the colors together to get the shades of brown and pink needed to create some variety in the candies. I also used brushes from the dollar store and sometimes Q-Tips to get a more frosted look. 

Once everything was painted, I used hot glue to adhere the wooden balls to the box, though I'm sure wood glue would work as well. 

I originally meant for this to go outside on the front door, but I liked it too much to get weathered, so it became a wall decoration instead. My dad attached a hook to the back of the box, and if I were to do this project again, I would have done that first because he had to sand down a screw so it wouldn't be seen on the inside. 

Overall I'm very happy with how this turned out and how the "candy" looks like real chocolate. It's something different and unique that you can't find in stores (yet) but I'm sure this trend will pick up - it's too cute not to - but it's really easy to make this on your own! In total, it took me probably three afternoons to complete this project, mostly because you have to wait for paint to dry before you can add designs to the candy. Even though it's a little more time-consuming, I highly recommend this craft.