Looking for a Valentine project that’s simple to complete (even in bulk) that doesn’t require baking or buying chintzy, over-priced, mass-produced cards?

Good, because we’ve got one for you!

These adorable little “book of love” chocolate valentines are easy to make in any quantity. You can cut the paper pieces assembly-line style, print this book of love template or make a design of your own, and even snack on chocolate as you go. It’s really the perfect project.

Supplies you will need:

• AdTech Crafters’s Tape/Permanent Glue Runner (pictured; could also use AdTech Archival Permanent Glue Runner; both would work, though archival is actually stronger)
• Colored cardstock cut into 2  1/8″ x 1.5″ rectangles (these are the backs of the books)
• Patterned scrapbook papers cut into 1″ x 3″ strips
• A printed page of our PDF file, cut along guides (download here)
• Scissors or a paper cutter
• Hershey’s Nuggets in any flavor (see image to be sure you get the right shape)
• Thin ribbon or paper, cut into 2 ½” lengths (very thin… use paper if you can’t find ribbon 1.8″ wide)

Step one: Wrap chocolates with decorative paper

Pick one of your decorative, 1″ x 3″scrapbook paper strips. Use your Glue Runner to apply adhesive to both the 1″ ends, along the blank side. Place one of the 1″ ends down at the middle of the underside of the chocolate nugget, as shown (below). Wrap around, and press to seal, creating a sort of wide belt around the chocolate.

(In the end, you’ll only be able to see the decorative paper along the sides of the book, but this makes the project much cuter, we think!)

Step two: Apply adhesive to the cardstock

You’re going to fasten down your chocolates with your glue runner. Because it’s like tape, it’s not going to melt or potentially seep into your chocolate.

Be sure to leave about 1/4 -inch around the edges.

Step three: Place down the ribbon and chocolate

Place the ribbon in the center of the cardstock, with almost all of it sticking out the center of one of the longer sides (off the edge of the card).

You want 2 pieces of wrapped chocolate per valentine. These create the illusion of pages in an open book. Place these side by side on the adhesive, in the center, with the long sides touching. The long sides will be placed over the ribbon, and facing the same direction as the ribbon.

Step four: Fold your valentine message

We created this handy PDF with the definition of “love” on it. The dimensions should already be correct if you print full-page on an 8 x 11″ piece of printer paper. Trim each definition according to cutting guides. Fold in half so that it looks like a page.

Step five: Fasten the message to the chocolates

Place your adhesive closer to the edges of the back of this message than the center, and tuck the fold down (slightly) between the chocolates before pressing message down. This is just more likely to make the pages look even and not crooked.

Step six: Create your ribbon bookmark

Carefully apply adhesive from your glue runner along the side of the ribbon that is facing up, then fold it snugly over the seam of the “book” and press to secure. Trim as needed.

Step seven: Hand out your valentines!

These chocolate “books” are the perfect balance between handmade, which shows thought and care, and simple, which means you can hand them out at work or to friends or classmates. You can even modify them for other occasions: Make school “textbooks,” or “literary fiction” for libraries, or even Bibles for church events!

Love what you created? We will, too! Share your project image with us on Instagram. Be sure to tag @adtech!

I spent an hour or so on Pinterest, looking at my own Halloween board and then also perusing the most popular Halloween pins overall. These 5 seemed like they might be deceptively simple, so I gave them a go. What do you think?

#1: Popsicle Stick Haunted House
Original Creator: Happily Ever After
How doable was this? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most doable, this project was a 6.

Popsicle stick projects make me think of indoor recess and summer camp. They should be fairly simple—easy enough for a child in elementary school to do. This haunted house in particular, with its caricature decals, looked like a good project to test to do with my nephews.

Either I didn’t recall how hard it is to work with popsicle sticks, or this is much more complex than it looks! Between counting the sticks out, glueing them together, waiting for them to set, painting them, positioning the decals, and pulling the house all together, it took several hours and a lot more focus than I would have thought. I also had to add some black Oly-Fun to the inside of the house to make it appear dark inside (not in the instructions), which was harder than I anticipated.

I do like the final result, though!

#2: Spider Web Trick-or-Treat Bag
Original Creator: Merriment Design
How doable was this? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most doable, this project was an 8.

I was able to make this bag in less than an hour using a ready-to-decorate tote bag, some black Oly-Fun fabric, and the AdTech LoTemp Mini.

While the original creator made this project using sewing tools, I thought, for how quickly Halloween crept up on me this year, a faster version might be appealing. I cut long strips of Oly-Fun for the vertical portions of the web, and short strips for the horizontal portions, and fastened them down using AdTech Glitter Glue for some added zazzle.

The LoTemp was a good choice because if I’d used the HiTemp Mini, I think the glue might have melted the fabric and/or caused the front of the bag to stick to the back. I was really pleased with the result of this project for how little time it took.

#3: Spider Web Door Decoration
Original Creator: Twitchetts
How doable was this? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most doable, this project was a 9.

The biggest obstacle with this project was patience! Super cheap to make, since I gathered sticks from the woods and reused twine from an old project and a spider from the tote bag (above), the only real struggle was waiting for the hot glue to dry. I used the AdTech HiTemp Mini to fasten the sticks together, and then to adhere the twine to the branches in a way that wouldn’t allow them to come loose.

I think if I did this project again, I would use a thicker twine, and maybe use the LoTemp Mini so the glue would set a little faster.

#4: Blood-Stained Candle
Original Creator: Vicki O’Dell
How doable was this? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most doable, this project was a 10.

I’ll admit, the idea of waiting for a red candle to melt enough to drip on a white candle, all while I’d be holding the two candles and probably getting pretty hot myself, did not appeal to me.

So I took a shortcut on this project and used red AdTech Glitter Glue Sticks, melting them in my AdTech Precision Pro, and then applying the glue to the top and sides of the candle. Since the glue would melt again as soon as the candle was lit, I thought this was a perfect time-saver that also gave me control of where the “blood” drips would go.

And it worked! I love the way this came out. Pro tip: If you try the same glitter glue trick, try not to press the nose of the glue gun into the wax, as it will melt and dilute the red of the “blood.”

#5: Tin Can Jack-O’ Lantern
Original Creator: Emily Peckenham
How doable was this? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most doable, this project was a 9.5.

I learned in Emily’s original post that the trick to punching crisp holes in a tin can is to freeze the can first. That worked really well. I thought that painting the can a nice bright cream color might also make it decorative during the day… and while it does look great in daylight, the brightness of the white takes away from the glow when the sun goes down. If I were to do this one again, I would paint the can black, and hot glue some fall fabric around the top and bottom.

What do you think? We’d love to hear! Tag your own Pinterest tests over on Instagram, @adtech, and email [email protected] if there’s a pin you’d like to see tested!

If you’re a creative, you’ve spent time on Pinterest. And if you’ve spent time on Pinterest, then you know that there is a wide range of DIY inspiration out there—from projects you’ll never even want to do, to projects you really want to do (and are totally feasible), to projects that look super awesome but you kind-of know would be impossible to duplicate (even if the person who posted the project did it and swears it was worth all the effort).

I thought it might be fun if we here in the Studio started testing a few pins each month just to see how doable they really are. Here is our first batch!

Pin#1: Ice Cream Cone Garland
Original Creator: Growing Up Gabel
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was an 8

This project required limited materials, demanded no specific artistic skill, and could be done in under an hour. It could also be customized easily; I personalized the color scheme to match my own decor, so that if I hosted a party and used this garland, it wouldn’t clash with the existing fixtures. The biggest obstacle was trying to keep the ice cream cones from spinning once the garland was hung—one side of a project is always better than the other, and we wanted the “pretty” side facing out. Other than that, though, great project! We recommend trying this pin!

Use the AdTech LoTemp Mini for this project.

Pin #2: Dragon’s Eye Mason Jar Luminaries
Original Creator: Mom Spark
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was a 6

This project was one we wanted to customize and thought seemed really easy to make our own. Instead of Mason jars, we picked up some square votive holders at Michael’s, along with some clear jewel embellishments that were about 1/4 the size of your average dragon’s eye. To create an ombre effect, we sprayed the votive holder with Aleene’s acrylic spray and then sprinkled the wet adhesive with gold glitter, then applied the jewel embellishments. They didn’t quite come out the way we envisioned; perhaps next time we will use glitter glue and clear glue to create our own embellishments?

Use the AdTech HiTemp Mini for this project.

Pin #3: Scrabble Tile Garden Markers
Original Creator: 5 Dollar Dinners
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was a perfect 10!

The great thing about using Scrabble tiles for creative projects is that the tiles do most of the legwork in making the project seem both creative and streamlined. We added a little green paint to the craft sticks in order to make them more garden-themey, but with a little painter’s tape to keep the lines straight, even that didn’t make the project any harder! The only obstacle we hit is that this project is ideal only for plants and herbs with short names; since craft sticks are typically about six inches, herbs like “Parsley” or “Cilantro” are hard to spell all the way out on craft sticks using Scrabble tiles.

Use the AdTech HiTemp Mini for this project.

Pin #4: Floral Napkin Rings
Original Creator: Crafts Unleashed (Consumer Crafts)
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, this project was a 6

We modified these napkin rings pretty significantly. First of all, since it’s getting close to that time that we need to be planning for Thanksgiving, we swapped out the spring colors for autumnal harvest colors. We also forewent the labor of making each flower by hand and instead picked up some faux flowers and fall embellishments. The trickiest part was wrapping birch paper around cardboard cylinders. In the end, we just wound up the birch paper a couple times and glued a seam to hold it together, and that worked well—and looked great, too!

Use the AdTech LoTemp Mini for this project.

Pin #5: Pom-Pom Clutch
Original Creator: Aunt Peaches
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, this project was an 8.5

Once again, we modified the project. (Well, I did—this was an Alexis project all the way!) I really wanted to find a clutch with vertical stripes, but on short notice I settled for a change purse with horizontal stripes. Instead of pom poms, I used this tutorial for making fabric flowers and found a brightly colored floral fabric to pair with the striped clutch. In the end, I’m a big fan of how mine came out—it’s much more my personality than the pom-poms, and I foresee many people asking me where I got it… at which point I’ll get to say, “I made it!”

Use the AdTech Project Pro for this project.

Do you have a pin you’d like us to test? Fill out the contact form on this page or recommend a pin over on Pinterest!

That’s all for today! Let us know what you think!