I really love it when my Better Homes and Gardens magazine shows up in the mailbox. I always find something useful and interesting in there. It’s not often that I tear out something from a magazine for future reference, but it happens a lot with this one.

This month there are some adorable Valentine’s Day crafts that I really like.

They featured some really sweet cookies; love notes tucked into sugar cones and topped with meringue cookies; and — my favorite — votive holders with muffin liners over the top. They look really easy and really fun (not to mention inexpensive).

Basically, you take a votive candle holder, top it with a cute muffin liner, tie with some colorful string or ribbon and you’re set! You can fill the votive with a little gift. Cheapest route is a little poem, a truffle or other chocolate. I plan on making these with my daughter.

On the same page is another craft with muffin liners. Just glue the liners on a handmade card, glue your child’s picture in the middle of the liner (just their face) and cut out a few “stems” to make the picture complete.

The cookies I like are also easy. You start with a box of chocolate wafer cookies, put a heart-shaped stencil over a cookie and “paint” inside the lines with piping gel and dust the gel with edible glitter. Nom, nom. And pretty, too!