Who knew Red Hots were so hard to find?

Seriously...

I spent well over an hour, driving to SIX (yes 6!!!) different stores to find Red Hots. I figure at this time of year I'd have my pickings but no. All of the Valentine's displays were sans Red Hots, even the regular, non-heart shaped ones. I even stopped to look up on my Blackberry to make sure they still manufacture them. Sheesh...

FINALLY, in the regular candy section at the second Walgreen's I went to, I found them. Good thing too because I could not have done this cutie project without them.

Today, Carolyn is hosting a DT challenge where we were supposed to make a Valentine project for a non-significant other. Be sure to check out the entire team's projects! Kendra has some blog candy too but only until Wednesday so be sure to pop over there and enter!

Amber Kroening
Carolyn Mustopa
Cathleen Torina
Deb Felts
Dee Jackson
Kendra Wietstock
Loretta Lock
Lori Tecler
Meredith Socha
Sarah Anderson
Tracy Schultz

So for my project I decided that I wanted something to give out to friends and neighbors. They count as non-significant others!

Cute right? And, in case you're wondering why I *needed* Red Hots, it is because I made that popcorn.

Red Hot Popcorn recipe:

4 quarts plain popcorn

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 6 oz. box Red Hots

1/2 stick butter

Pop your popcorn - just use plain. Place it in a GIANT bowl...way bigger than you need it to be. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Coat two baking sheets with Pam or other non-stick spray (really well).

Melt the Red Hots, butter and corn syrup in a heavy duty pan, stirring constantly (I mean it) and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then pour over popcorn and mix it up really, really fast to coat as much as you can before it starts to set up. Before it sets up, spread out the coated popcorn on the two baking sheets and bake at 275 for 1 hour, stirring them every 15 minutes.

The oven heat allows the Red Hot mixture to soften up a bit more and when you stir it on the baking sheet you will cover more of the popcorn. I use my silicone spatula to do this so the mixture doesn't stick to my spoon. Plus, it makes the popcorn nice and toasty - kinda like REAL Kettle Corn popcorn. YUM!

For my packaging I used a clear card box, wrapped with a belly band of SU! Real Red cardstock, stuck on with some i {stick} papers redline tape. Then I wrapped some of the totally cute pink sheer edge heart ribbonLarge Oval and Scalloped around and secured in the front. I dressed it with an oval medallion from my Nesties and pierced each scallop.

The saying is from Many Hearts, stamped with L'Amour Red Palette ink, omitting the little hearts that are on the bottom of the phrase.

I finished off the medallion with a red puffy heart and some adhesive heart pearls (also used on the corners of the bellyband).

Lastly I stuck a few pink puffy hearts on the box, just to tie in the pink against the red popcorn.

So what do you think? Would you know I liked you a whole lot if I gave you one of these?

Hurry up and get that heart ribbon...it's seasonal and when it is gone, it's gone! I'm also heading to CHA in a couple of weeks so I've got a bunch of stuff on sale to help make some room for all the new goodies I'll have. During CHA I'll be sending back coverage of things so be sure to get the word out and check in here every day!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm taking my dad in for cataract surgery so I'll be a little out of touch for the rest of today! Have a great day!