Chocolate and Flowers? Think Again!

Hi everyone, thanks for indulging your curiosity and clicking on this link! As this is all new to me I'm going to start off with something nice and simple. Enjoy xx

Romantic Tip No.1

Instead of just giving your girlfriend chocolate and flowers, why not reinvent it a little. You could make origami flowers, a tissue paper flower bouquet, a flower shape made out of chocolates or cakes and if you're a particularly good artist, you could even paint/draw her a really nice flower! There are plenty of variations (which are cheaper than expensive shop bought flowers!) that I'm sure she'll love more than the standard chocolate and flowers because you put the effort in and made them for her or thought a little outside the box. (We love it when you do that!) Also, don't think you have to save these ideas for a special occasion! Why not surprise her with one of the ideas just because it's Friday?! You don't just have to save these ideas for occasions with your girlfriend either, mums will appreciate a nice homemade bunch of flowers too!

Some Interesting Variations

1. Handmade Flowers

Listed below are some fun and lasting flower alternatives!

• Origami - you can find endless tutorials online so find one you like the look of and have some fun! These origami flowers are particularly cute and look relatively easy to make. You could mix them up with different coloured or patterned papers.

• Basic Tissue Paper - i normally just get a chopstick/similar and some small sheets of coloured tissue paper. Sheet by sheet, pierce the middle of the tissue paper, pull the paper up the 'stem', scrunch together in the middle and secure with glue/cellotape. Add a few more sheets until you're happy with the size and then cut out some leaf shapes from tissue/normal paper and attach to stem. Unsightly cellotape/glue can be hidden with a nice piece of ribbon. But try it out and get creative! Try different colours and sizes to create a nice single or bunch of flowers! Tissue paper is really easy to find and you can get it on Amazon or in your local craft or card shops.

• Shaped Tissue Paper - easy enough to create from just looking at the picture hopefully! If you really feel like you need a tutorial however then head here! You could also try making the flowers with fabric instead of tissue paper - just an idea but why not give it a try.

• Folded Tissue Paper - again, hopefully easy enough to recreate from just looking at the picture. You could also use things such as buttons or stickers to decorate the middle part of the flower! In the picture it looks flat but it's actually been made with small golf balls to make it 3D (don't worry you take them out after you've shaped the tissue!). You can find the tutorial here along with some other interesting flower ideas. You can even print off a pdf with some templates on.

• Heart Shaped Petal Flowers - cut out little (or big!) heart shaped pieces of patterned paper/card and arrange into a flower shape. I think they're so cute! You can find a nice tutorial here.

• Heart Flowers - look really cute! If you find the right paper then these would make really nice little flowers. You can find a tutorial here. Beads can be found anywhere but here is an assorted listing on Ebay. You may find it easiest to look for 'flat back' beads which, as the name suggests, have flat backs making it easier to stick them onto flat flowers!

• Concertina Flowers - look really easy to make and if you can find pretty paper, should make really impressive results! Again, experiment with different colours to make nice bunches or keep it simple with a solo flower! Click here for the tutorial.

• Fluffy Tissue Paper Flowers - using a similar technique to the one above, you can make some really pretty flowers. Watch the video below for an easy lesson or follow the link here for a tutorial.

• Folded Circular Flowers - again, nice and easy to make with cute results! Click here for the tutorial..

• Quilled Flowers - a little bit more difficult and time consuming but just as cute as some of the other ideas! Click here for the tutorial.

• Folded Flowers - layering a few folded pieces of paper to create cute but angular flowers. Again so easy to make! Click here for the tutorial.

• Ribbon Rose - if you're feeling particularly crafty you may want to attempt this one although it's definitely not one to try if you're prone to giving up easily! Click here for the tutorial.

• Tissue Paper on Card - if you're not feeling too wild you could go for a simple tissue paper flower on some nice coloured card/paper. They're really easy to make and if you pick the right colour combinations can look really cute. You could even frame it to make it extra long lasting! If you think you need a tutorial you can find one here although this tutorial is for freestanding flowers so you'll have to adapt it a little to make one that's stuck straight onto card.

• Cupcake Case Flower - if your girlfriend's a big fan of baking she may appreciate one of these cake case flowers. So easy to make, all you need are pipe cleaners and some cake cases! You might like to get some pretty decorated cupcake cases for that extra jazz! You can get some here and the tutorial can be found here.

• Rolled Petal Flower - this one's a really cute and very easy one. Just follow the link here for the tutorial (you'll have to scroll down a bit).

• Beaded Flower - again, nice and easy. You can find the tutorial here. It also includes templates so you don't even have to draw the shapes yourself! You can find beads all over the place, especially on Ebay. You could even experiment with glittery beads or just plain pearlescent ones which you can find in almost every colour (similar to the bead in the picture below).

• Paper Calla Lillies - these look amazing (might be because they're purple!). The tutorial uses clay for the stamen and tissue paper for the actual petal. You can find a tutorial here with a template and the clay here.

• Paper Roses - look a little bit more challenging to make but look at the results! You can find a tutorial here with templates for all of the petals.

• Heart Petal Flowers - just cut out a lot of hearts and stick them together. Couldn't be easier! You could use the bead link above for some pretty beads to stick in the middle. A really simple tutorial can be found here.

• Basic Flowers - unfortunately i can't find a tutorial for these but the image is pretty clear. I would suggest cutting out one large petal shape for the bottom layer and then 6 individual petals with a small tab on the bottom which you could hide underneath the central shape. Just glue together, allow to dry and then add the 'dotty detail'.

• Newspaper Roses - these look super cute and are so easy to make although The Times may not make the prettiest craft paper so you might like to search for some alternative patterned paper. You can find a really cute pack of glittery and double sided scrapbooking paper here (tip - search for scrapbooking or patterned paper when browsing). The tutorial's here.

• Paper Ranunculus Flower - pretty easy to make. The tutorial's got the templates too so all you need to do is print them out, cut them out and stick together!

• Paper Carnations - if your girlfriend is a big fan of Carnations (that's a type of flower!) then she'll love these tissue paper flowers. The tutorial's nice and simple although you do need a pretty coloured felt tip - perhaps your girlfriend has one in her pencil case that you could borrow!

• Bead Daisies - a lolly stick, a bead and a paper flower. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! If you want to have a look over a tutorial you can find one here. What I really love about this tutorial is the use of real turf from the garden - it does look amazing you have to admit! If you feel like experimenting rather than using a plain white lollipop stick you could buy coloured ice lolly sticks and vary the colour of the paper daisies. If you use the coloured ice lolly sticks then buying some flat backed beads would work really nicely.

• Paper Dahlias - these are absolutely amazing and such a clever idea! Inside the flower is a dahlia bulb. Depending on your girlfriend's favourites you could go with a dahlia bulb or pick something different. You can find the tutorial here including a template but you'll have to pop to your local garden centre to pick up the bulbs. The flower is really easy to make with just a little tissue paper. You could try buying different coloured bulbs and matching the paper flower with the colour of the bulb inside.

• Crepe Paper Flowers - although part of a tutorial to make a masquerade mask the flowers look pretty cute and if your girlfriend's into things like that then you could even make the whole mask!

• Pom Pom Flowers - no sewing, just simply felt and glue (and maybe a button if you're feeling adventurous!). You can find a tutorial here and some funky coloured or patterned buttons on Ebay.

• Felt Flowers - if you ever learnt how to sew then you may like to try these flowers. The tutorial's nice and easy (scroll down to number 3) and you can experiment with different sizes and colours of felt. Your girlfriend will be particularly impressed with these if she doesn't know that you can sew already!

• Felt Dahlias - these are really pretty. I think it's the colour combination in the tutorial that makes them extra pretty but be brave and experiment with others too! Again no sewing, just gluing.

• Stuffed Fabric Flowers - ok now I might be getting a little bit carried away. These look amazing although do look a little bit more complicated to make, especially if you're not experienced in sewing which I'm gonna guess that you're not. If you do feel like making them however I can guarantee that your girlfriend will be super impressed with one of these instead of a bunch of roses! Check out the tutorial here. Are you willing to accept the challenge?

• Fimo Flowers - you could also make your own flowers out of fimo/polymer clay (you can find a link below). They look really cute and you can get creative making them into a bouquet! You don't have to use fimo clay, you could use any type of clay or plaster of paris in the rose silicone mould (see below). There are two different styles below for you to use as inspiration!

2. 'Edible' Flowers and Chocolates

In this section there are lots of yummy interpretations of flowers (and chocolates). As a side note to all of these, don't forget that you can buy tissue paper and cellophane wrap in many places. Although not the cheapest place to buy it, you can get clear cellophane wrap from Ebay or if you're feeling adventurous they have some pretty patterned and colourful wraps for putting your bouquets together.

• Chocolate Flowers - either bought or melted and shaped by you! You can find a nice rose shaped chocolate mould on Amazon and all you need to do is melt some chocolate in the microwave (1 minute, stir, 30 secs, stir, 30 secs, stir and repeat until melted), pour it into the mould and then put in the fridge to set. Just be aware that once you've melted chocolate like this it melts really quickly in hot fingers so should be kept in the fridge! You could put them in a pretty cellophane bag like this one. You could also put them in a small box similar to one you would get if you bought chocolates from an expensive chocolate shop. From here you can buy some really pretty designs but unfortunately you do have to buy them in packs of 5 or 10 but you can also get them from Ebay individually or personalised. You could also buy some of the lollipop sticks mentioned above and stick them into your chocolate roses before they have set and make them into a little bouquet with a small plant pot, some florist's foam and some tissue paper.

• Chocolate From Around The World - if your girlfriend's well travelled or has lived abroad then she may appreciate some chocolate from places she's visited or lived. She may even just love to try different things! There are quite a few options for this too. You could collect lots of chocolates from her favourite place although this is the most difficult if you don't visit regularly or know anyone who lives there that would happily post you a big box full. You could also make a small collection of chocolates (and/or biscuits!) she's mentioned as her favourites from certain countries or places. Another option is to create a global chocolate box. That just sounds yummy doesn't it! You could include some Lindt chocolates or a Toblerone (Switzerland), some Ferrero Rocher (Italy), some Mikado (Japan), some Milka (Germany), some Hershey's (USA) and just for fun, some good old Cadbury's, Galaxy or Thorntons depending on her favourite (UK). If she's a fan, you could also add a jar of Nutella (Italy). To make it extra jazzy you could use some cellophane and a basket (cheap/handle/square) with shredded paper to wrap it up. You could also pick up some locally made chocolate from local farm shops among other places. A delicious but not cheap brand that I tried recently was Melt who do some yummy flavours so have a browse and hopefully find something perfect for your girlfriend!

• Chocolate Bouquet - found this picture in google and thought that it was a nice idea. So if you're feeling adventurous then this could be a rewarding present to make! You could either stick ferrero rocher (or similar) chocolates onto sticks and arrange into a bouquet with a plant pot or a 'living vase', some florist's foam (find link above) and some tissue paper. Or you could just make a bunch of different chocolates that she likes (e.g. dairy milk, caramel, curly wurly etc) or buy some chocolate lollipops which you can get everywhere and make into a bouquet. Melt do a yummy looking raspberry lollipop or you could just get some heart shaped ones which you can usually pick up anywhere near Valentine's day.

• Decorated Cupcake - a pretty cupcake decorated as/with a flower is a nice idea. If you're not particularly brilliant at baking then you may want to buy some cupcakes from the supermarket and decorate them instead of your own! There are a few ways of decorating cupcakes to resemble flowers. Firstly you could just decorate the cupcake with sugar flowers which you can easily source on the internet or in cake decorating shops. You could also decorate cupcakes to resemble grass and decorate cookies on sticks to look like flowers coming from the grass. If you need an easy cookie/biscuit recipe you can find one here. You could also use sweets to make flower shapes on the cakes or combine colourfully decorated cakes into flower shapes. Your final option is just to buy some good old fashioned writing icing and draw one onto a cupcake with a white fondant/glace icing base although you'll have to use your imagination for this one because there weren't any pictures in google! If you need a cupcake recipe you can find one here, a chocolate cupcake recipe here, a recipe for fondant icing here and a recipe for glace icing here. You can also find the recipe for the cupcake bouquet here. You can also buy silicone cupcake cases which are shaped with petals on which may be useful for decorating cakes - you can find them here. If you do decide to make a cupcake (or more!) then you could put your work in boxes. You can find boxes for single and multiple cupcakes all over the place but the links I've added are to a website that I particularly like. You can even buy cute little 'wrappers' which sit around the cupcake case for that extra prettiness!

• Chocolate Cake Pops - these are pretty fashionable at the moment. If you're really creative you could fashion them into a bouquet combining the flowers and chocolate idea! For a recipe please follow the link here.

• Flower Cake - if you're a particularly good baker or just enjoy it then you could always try a flower shaped cake! Depending on how daring you're feeling you could create a masterpiece with your decoration or you could go for a nice simple design. You can also buy flower shaped cake tins, here's one from Amazon, or you could just bake a circular shape and cut it out!

• Flower Cookies - again, easy enough to make. Cookie cutters can be found in most places, here is a collection of different size cutters on Amazon. The recipe for cookies (same as above) can be found here. You're free to go crazy or stay simple when decorating these too! If made with sticks they can also easily be made into a lovely bunch of 'flowers'!

• Lollipop Bouquets - you can make these really complicated with different sizes and styles of lolly, depending on what you can get hold of, or really simple with some small chupa chups or drumstick lollies instead.

• Marshmallow Bouquets - easy peasy. Buy some marshmallows, buy some chocolate, some sprinkles and some lolly sticks. Melt the chocolate, dip the marshmallow in and cover with sprinkles. Leave to set and then arrange together in a bouquet!

• Her Favourite Chocolate - nothing says 'I love you' better than receiving your favourite chocolate! So get asking - subtly - and buy her something she'll love instead of generic Milk Tray!

• Cupcake Flower Combination - so glad I stumbled across this blog post. As you can see in the picture below, tissue paper flowers can be attached to cocktail/kebab sticks and poked into cakes. Easy! You can obviously either make a single cupcake with a single flower, or a single cupcake with a bunch of flowers! Alternatively you could make lots of cupcakes with single flowers or bunches or you could even make a large cake with a bunch of flowers. Phew, that's a lot of choice although where cakes are concerned my advice is always, the bigger the better! You can find a tutorial here which is really only concerned with the flowers. You can find cupcake advice above and even pick a flower idea from about that you particularly like and adapt it onto a cocktail stick so that you can poke it into a cupcake. You can easily pick up ribbon from local craft or haberdashery stores if you like the large cake with the ribbon from the picture.

• A Pimped Up Chocolate Bar - www.pimpthatsnack.com is a website I found years ago and features recipes uploaded by people on how to create larger versions of your favourite chocolate bars and biscuits. A fantastic idea for any chocolate lover! I think a giant curly wurly sounds particularly yummy! The best way to find the recipes is to look at the gallery and pick the snack from there. Looking through the database doesn't seem to work too well.

• Her Favourite Colour Chocolates - if you're certain you know her favourite colour then this is a great idea. Although there aren't too many types of coloured chocolates - well I can only think of 2 actually (Smarties and M&Ms) you may be able to create something with this. If her favourite colour happens to be yellow, red, green, blue, orange or brown (I don't think that's likely but for the purposes of fully informing you I've added it in there!) then you're very lucky. Pick a nice box (see above) or bag (either cellophane from above or organza which you can get in local haberdasheries or craft shops) and fill it with her favourite colour chocolates. If her favourite colour is something else, e.g. purple then you have to get creative or travel. You could put red and blue chocolates together and explain that obviously together they make purple! Or you could travel up to London and visit M&Ms world where they have almost every colour on display and I hope for sale too! You can also go on their website and buy small bags that you can personalise with a message too e.g. I love you, but they are pricey and the cheapest option is £28.50.

3. Scented Ideas

If your girlfriend likes scented candles and things like that then hopefully you'll find something in this section that she might enjoy! With scented items it's usually best to check them out yourself to make sure that they smell good first! If you're looking for candles, garden centres often stock a good range and you may also find a shop in your high street if you're lucky!

• Scented Candles - easily available to purchase from places like amazon. You can find Rose scented and Chocolate scented candles - although from experience, chocolate scented candles aren't always the best! Just as a note, Yankee candles are particularly good and are available in different sizes which you could easily create into a bouquet idea with a wicker basket and some cellophane! If you're feeling really lovely you could even run her a bath with some yummy scented bubbly bath (see below!), some scattered rose petals in red or purple and light some scented candles to impress her even more!

• Rose Scented Bath Flowers - perhaps as part of the idea above. You can get them in lots of places, I've found some on Amazon.

• Rose Scented Body Creams etc - Marks and Spencer do a really nice 'floral collection' which includes a rose scented line. Some of the best ideas include a Hand and Nail Cream, a Body, Room and Linen Spray, a Bath Essence and Fragranced Cushions for sock drawers etc! They also have a few other fragrances such as Lily of the Valley and Lavender which all smell amazing, so if your girlfriend prefers one of those scents, then you may prefer to pick that 'flower' instead!

4. Purchased Flowers

This section is really focused on some of the nice and/or fun flowers that you can buy, some of which may be handmade or just pretty funky. If you scour the internet you can find lots of other alternatives but these are just a small handful that I've picked out! You could also buy her a small glass figurine or you may find a nice wine glass/champagne flute with a pretty flower pattern. You can find flowers and flower patterns almost everywhere so get creative!

• Car Flower - quite simply a small vase with a flower in that she can attach to an air vent in her car! I found this one on Amazon.

• Magic Sakura - apparently an 80s fad tree that lasts for about a month. It's actually crystal rather than real flower so brilliant for hayfever sufferers! There's one here on Amazon.

• A Crystal Garden - following on from the previous post. Makes a little crystal cluster. Quite pretty and available in a few colours, one here on Amazon. You can also get Crystals in a jar with a little I love you tag on them which are pretty cool! You can get them from Amazon as well as play.com and many other places!

• Flower Buttons - if your girlfriend's particularly crafty then she might enjoy these flowery buttons or alternatively, you could use them as part of the ideas above! Here are some on Amazon. All over the internet you can also find felt flowers or if you find a good haberdashery then you may be able to find some really pretty flowery fabric that she'll love!

• Flower Fairy Lights - easy enough to buy and can make a really cute addition to a bedroom or living room! You can get them all over the place but on amazon I've found some red ones and some purple orchid style ones.

• Wall Stickers - if she lives somewhere where she's able to decorate then she may enjoy these flowery wall stickers. They come in all shapes and sizes but one that I particularly love are these sparrows and cherry flowers on Amazon!

• Magnetic Flowers - self explanatory or what?! There are loads all over the internet but I've found two options on Amazon, the cheaper and the more expensive options.

• Cath Kidston - every girl knows the iconic prints of Cath Kidston so if you're thinking flowery, think Cath. There's a huge range of things from Breakfast Sets to Phone Covers.

• Flower Growing Set - you can also get cute little flower/plant sets in boxes these days with everything you need to grow a plant. You can get loads of different sets including 'Magical Fairy Flowers', A Butterfly Garden, A Sunflower, A Herb Garden and A Funky Veg Kit.

• A Plant - alternatively you could just go to the local garden centre and buy her a nice plant that's going to last her a much longer time than a bunch of flowers would! A particular favourite of mine, and I think many women is an orchid which is a house plant so she can keep it on her window ledge in her bedroom and be reminded of you every time she sees it! Orchids tend to only come in white, pink and purple however you can get plant pots in almost every colour so if white, pink or purple don't happen to be your girlfriend's favourite colour then you might be able to get the pot in her favourite colour instead!

• A Single Flower - instead of buying a whole bunch of flowers and wasting a whole lot of money, your girlfriend might appreciate the sentiment of a single flower of her favourite type (make sure you know this correctly before you go out shopping though!). You can also find artificial flowers quite easily so if you'd rather buy her a flower that will last forever then that's always an option. My favourite flower is a gerbera which unfortunately doesn't come in my favourite colour which is purple! If you have a problem similar to this and your girlfriend's favourite flower comes in white but not her favourite colour, you could try colouring the petals with some food colouring to make a unique and perfect present that you've clearly put some effort into! I would try experimenting before you show her though! If you're not sure what flowers she likes then pop along to your local florist and have a look around. If you're still not sure then ask the florist if they have any suggestions! Another thing to remember is that you don't have to wait until a special occasion to give her a flower. Sometimes it's nice to come home to your boyfriend and a pretty flower just because! Another thing, if you happen to be out walking together and you notice some pretty flowers (especially if she mentions how pretty they are!) pick one and give it to her! (Although I'm not advocating stealing flowers. Picking wild flowers is probably safest as you're not going to annoy anyone by doing that!) Another thing you could do if your girlfriend likes to keep flowers is to either press it (see below) and start a scrapbook or buy a little box that she can store it in when it's wilted. You might even like to design or buy little tags that she can attach to the box with the date and occasion.

• A Flower Cushion - you can find loads of really cute cushions if you follow the links here for rose shaped, rose decorated, turquoise and rectangular cushions.

• A Flower Duvet Cover - I absolutely love this duvet cover from Wilkinson, I'm not a big fan of pink but it looks really cute!

• A Flowery Art Print - you can find them everywhere but Wilkinson do a nice range here. If you're really dedicated you might also be able to find a less commercialised one from a local art gallery (it's going to cost you a bit more though!)

• Flower Wall Art - really cute and modern. There are two really pretty ones from Wilkinson here and here.

5. Jewellery Flowers

This section is devoted to that dangerous area of present giving - jewellery! Don't forget, these are only suggestions, I don't know your girlfriend so can't promise that she will love these ideas! When buying jewellery it's always best to buy something in sterling silver (hallmark 925) or more expensive gold or platinum because cheaper materials will go green and can ruin the thought behind a present.

• Necklaces - a particularly difficult area. If you know your girlfriend has a lot of necklaces from a certain shop then you may like to have a look in there to see if they have any nice ones although make sure that your girlfriend hasn't beaten you to it! We're pretty quick about buying new jewellery from our favourite shops! If your girlfriend is a particularly crafty type then she may be aware of Fimo clay or even use it. They create some really pretty pieces. If you're feeling really brave and dedicated then you could buy some clay and create your own piece using the clay or you could buy a pre-made piece. This is only one example of a flower pendant but if you search the net you can find all types of different jewellery. You can get more independent, handmade work which is always nice to receive or you can get more commercialised pieces. Take a look at necklaces that your girlfriend already owns for a clue as to what she might like! The necklace in the picture below was made by a Canadian designer and she has lots of really lovely pieces of jewellery which you can buy here. I have to say a huge thank you to Natasha Nicholson for finding and showing me this designer's work!

• Hair Accessories - you can get all different types of hair accessories. There's a brilliant website that I'm always finding really cute pieces on but have never got round to buying anything from which sells British made crafts. They have some really nice hairslides and hairclips (which are essentially the same thing) but you can also buy fimo hairclips to match the necklace above.

• Earrings - another thing which is relatively easy to find anywhere. Especially flowery ones. A website whose designs in silver I particularly like sells some cute dangly flower earrings but I've also found some really nice rose earrings which are really nicely priced and come in almost every colour!

• Rings - again you can find Fimo rings easily enough. I'm sure if you have a look around you'll also be able to find some really nice rings with flowery designs!

• Charms - most girls these days have a charm bracelet (although not me!) so it's always a nice addition to be able to add something from a boyfriend! You will tend to need to buy these with little clip attachments like in the picture below. On Ebay you can find lots of really cute charms. Again I've chosen Fimo ones as they tend to be colourful but you can find lots of other types. Some fimo ones available include cookies, chocolate cakes and even a novelty rolo! You can also find lots of other styles of Fimo charms and beads if your girlfriend likes making them. If she also has a particular brand of charm bracelet, for example a links bracelet then you may want to buy a charm from there. They have lots of different ones although the closest they have to either chocolate or flowers is this cupcake charm.

6. Pressed Flowers

• These are really lovely and unique presents. You can either make them yourself or buy them. Either way it's nice to frame them so that they last and can be put up on a wall. If you're interested in making your own then have a look here for a tutorial or if you're not that brave then take a look here to buy some really pretty handmade pressed flowers, site 1, site 2 and dried roses.

7. Other Ideas

This is the random section at the end containing the few things left that I couldn't quite place in the other sections!

• Balloon Bouquet - easy and self explanatory! Either go to the shop and buy helium balloons or blow them up yourself. Don't forget you can experiment with how many, different sizes and shapes and especially colours! Go mad! You could even try balloon modelling! I personally like the love hearts sweets style balloons below.

• Your Last Rolo - firebox do a gold plated silver rolo or a rolo charm bracelet. Pretty funky or what?! If you can't quite afford these quite frankly overpriced items, you can find a Fimo version here.

• A 'Chocolate' or 'Flower' Keyring - there are loads of different types as I'm sure you can imagine! To save you some work here are a few options - a pretty flower keyring in various colours, a Fimo chocolate bar and a flower keycap!

• Some Chocolate Truffles - well some Fimo chocolate truffles! If you purchase the ones with 'nothing' (not hole or clip) then you can pack them in a pretty box (see above) and present them as if they were real, just don't forget to point out that she can't actually eat them! Or you could make them yourself, just search the shops for Fimo polymer clay.

• A Chocolate Fountain - well you just can't lose with this! You could either chop up some fruit to serve with it or some rich tea biscuits or some colourful marshmallows - an easy healthy vs. unhealthy choice there. You can buy the fountain here and all you really need to go with that is some chocolate from the supermarket and some fruit (or biscuits or marshmallows!).

Well that's the last of my tips! This blog was over 12 hours in the making so I sincerely hope you've enjoyed it and that you've picked up some brilliant tips and your 'chocolate and flowers' approach will never be the same again! Good luck! If you do try something out then please comment and tell me how it went! Or if you've improvised on one of these ideas, leave a comment saying what you did! You could also email me at lovefromlila@hotmail.com.

Love from lila xx