I have loved candy for basically my whole life. The story goes that when I was a toddler, I used to cry and try to lunge out of the shopping cart when my mom wheeled me past the candy aisle at the grocery store. Naturally, being a candy-aholic, I really look forward to all of the candy-centered holidays–like Valentine’s Day! These not-so-little Airheads Conversation Hearts might be one of my favorite projects ever; they’re easy to make and oh-so-cute! And yes, being made out of candy, they are delicious too!
Airheads candy
rolling pin
heart-shaped cookie cutter
small metal letter stamps
red food coloring
toothpick
1. Unwrap 1 Airhead and fold it into thirds, the way you would fold a letter. Place it on a clean work surface, and begin rolling it firmly with the rolling pin until it is about 1/4″ thick. My cookie cutter was too big to fit on an Airhead that hadn’t been rolled out, but if yours fits, that’s certainly easier! You can also stack 2 Airheads that are the same flavor together and then roll them out to the desired thickness.
2. Use the cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the Airhead. If pressing down on the cookie cutter hurts your hand, use the rolling pin to press the cookie cutter down. When the cookie cutter has cut all the way through the candy, gently poke the heart out. You can roll the Airhead scraps into a ball, roll them out again, and cut out another heart.
3. Use the metal letter stamps to stamp out a message on the Airhead heart. You might want to practice on some Airhead scraps first so that you know how hard to press. You want the letters to be visible, but you don’t want to press so hard that the outline of the whole stamp shows up.
4. Squirt a small amount of red food coloring into the food coloring bottle cap (or another tiny container). Dip the toothpick into the food coloring, and with a very steady hand, trace over the stamped letters. Allow the Airhead conversation hearts to dry before using. They look super cute on sugar cookies and cupcakes!
Oh my gosh these are soooooooo cute!!!! Absolutely perfect for Valentine’s day, I don’t usually go mad for V day, but you’ve got me wanting to make these! 😀
Thanks Annie! Let me know if you do go ahead and make them!
GENIUS!
Thank you, Alison. 🙂
This is such a great idea Melissa! Thanks for sharing, I can’t wait to make them. 🙂
Thanks, Gretchen!
What a brilliant idea!! I never would have thought of something so awesome made out of airheads. I love it, I want one.
I would send you some, but I couldn’t help myself and ate them all right away!
Very cute! What a fun project for Valentines! Thanks for the instructions.
You’re welcome, Crystal!
Very cute!! Never had airheads but these look sweet!
AnnMarie, I can’t believe you’ve never had Airheads! They are yummy!
Where can I get the tiny metal letter stamps?
Natalie, I bought mine at the Gem Faire a few years ago, but I’m told you can buy them at Harbor Freight, if you have one of those in your town. They are available on lots of jewelry and beading websites, but they’re kind of expensive if you go that route. Here’s a link to a set that is a little more affordable on Amazon, and that looks identical to mine:
http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-6610-32-Inch-Letter-36-Piece/dp/B000NPUKY8/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_0
There are a lot of fancy alphabet stamp sets out there these days, but my set is very utilitarian and straight-forward. I’m positive that it was made for stamping tools and not jewelry!
Oh, and one more thing! You could try tiny rubber stamps too, I’m just not 100% that they’d work. If you microwave the airheads for a few seconds before working with them, they soften up a little.
These are so cute! I wish I snagged a whole bunch more packages of air heads so I could try these! We don’t have them up here :/
I just found an entire unopened package in the bottom of my suitcase. Maybe I’ll send it to you…!
These look fantastic! I’m making them and bringing to work on Valentine’s day.
What size of meal letters did you use?
Hi Deb! They’re still packed in a box in the basement, so I can’t check right now, but they’re about 1/4″ tall. They’re just a standard metal-stamping set, nothing too fancy. And you can always make your hearts bigger or smaller to accommodate different sized letters.