Sponsored by readers like you - chocolate making!

Valentine's Day will soon be upon us, and the best way I know of to tell someone you love them is with loads of chocolate. So why not make your own? It's easy to make chocolate bark - get something you want to add to the chocolate, like cinnamon hearts, almonds, macadamia nuts and coconut, or any other dried fruit or nuts, mix it into some melted chocolate, pour into a mold of some kind and put in the fridge. In twenty minutes, you've got yourself a bark!

Or make some tiger butter. We made ours with milk chocolate and Nutella last night, but you can make it with peanut butter. I like to use a teaspoon for about 30 grams. Get your spoon, scoop out some peanut butter or Nutella, pour the melted chocolate over it, mix well, pour into a mold, and put into the fridge or freezer. In twenty minutes, you've got a lovely tiger, hazelnut, or panther butter!

Don't forget about the packaging! I like to use foils and cellophane bags for packaging our chocolates because they're fun to use and look very professional and adorable. Emily's chocolate here is a black foil with a pink foam glitter heart (I bought those from Michael's). Add an adorable tag or card (for instance, these are sweet as are these ones) on the ribbon or twist tie and you have yourself a fantastic Valentine's day chocolate-y gift!

If you'd like to learn more about making chocolate, please visit this post or  this post (with the hand outs), or this one, or this one!

If you want to give something that looks like chocolate but isn't, consider making the black cocoa emulsified scrub, black cocoa scrub bars, or some bath melts, which you can decorate in foils (but make sure you put a big DO NOT EAT warning on the label!)

And you know Jay had to make some replica of the Bob-Bombs from the Mario games, so I made sure he had all the stuff he needed to make his awesome little characters! 

As you know, our youth groups are funded by readers like you who donate by buying the e-books, Back to Basics, Hair Care Products: Shampoos & Conditioners, and Lotionmaking 101. If you'd like to learn more about our groups and what we do, please click here. I'm posting these pictures because not only do our youth love seeing their work shared with others and to encourage you to make these projects with the kids in your lives, but to thank you for all the support you give them. We couldn't do these programs without the donations you've offered, and I simply can't thank you all enough.