Mother’s Day Gift with DOVE® Chocolate
Have you begun scouring the internet and Pinterest for your own DIY homemade Mother’s Day gift ideas? Scour no further. If there is one thing I know most women adore, it is chocolate. I know I do. I have to admit that DOVE® is my favorite. I lived in England, so I know European chocolate. I’ve eaten tons of brands, but when I am purchasing chocolate from the store DOVE® is always what I grab. It fits perfectly in our advent calendar, so it is what I buy at Christmas every year too. When I was asked to partner with DOVE® chocolate for Mother’s Day gift inspiration, it was a no-brainer. I have no problem promoting what I love. In fact, I do want to let you know there are a lot of campaigns I turn down because I’m dedicated to being honest about the brands with which I partner. You can imagine how excited I was when my box of DOVE® chocolate goodies showed up on the door step. I, of course, needed to open the bags and try a few of each kind to do quality check. You can thank me later. You can actually see a hole in the upper bag in the following picture if you look close enough. I kind of…maybe…broke into it before I reached for my camera. Sorry, Mom! You might be short a few. I created this DOVE® Chocolate flower bouquet and flower pot for Mother’s Day, but it would be great for Teacher appreciation or any celebration. I, therefore, made two message options within the printable – “Happy Mother’s Day” and “You are Appreciated.” The other part of the phrase on the sign is, “Thank you for Keeping Life Sweeter at the Center.” 
Materials Needed for DOVE® Chocolate Bouquet & Flower Pot
~ Your Mom’s Favorite Assortment of DOVE® Chocolate
~ Milk Jug
~ Scissors
~ Colored Sharpies
~ Glue Dots
~ Wooden Cake Dowels
~ Flower Pot (I used a plastic turquoise flower pot from Walmart)
~ Styrofoam (I used a ball)
~ Mod Podge
~ Foam Brush
~ Ribbon
Written Instructions
1. Clean out a milk jug and dry completely. Cut it into sizes that would fit my flower printable, which is 3 1/2 inches square. We made 6 flowers and needed two milk jugs to find enough flat spots. Using a milk jug for this project was inspired by some gorgeous milk jug butterflies I saw at Alpha Mom. I hope you’ll head over and check out how she used a milk jug to create a variety of window art. 2. Print out the printable I created for you. I printed it onto to a heavier weight paper so I could use the flower as a template and the sign would be sturdy in the display. Cut around the flower shape and the sign you will be using for this project. 3. With a black Sharpie, trace around the flower template onto one of the milk jug pieces. Repeat to create as many flowers as you would like. Cut these out. 4. Color the flowers using colorful Sharpies. I imagine you could use paint as well, but it wouldn’t have that opaque feeling where the light shines through. 5. Using a glue dot, attach a DOVE® chocolate onto the center of each flower you created. 6. Attach the flower to the wooden dowel using two glue dots. 7. Unwrap a bunch of the DOVE® chocolate. Eat as many of these pieces as you want. That’s the fun part! Unwrap carefully, as you don’t want the foil wrappers to tear. You will be using these. I always love reading the phrases, which is what inspired the idea for the flower pot container. 8. Using Mod Podge, paint the side of the flower pot, attaching the foil wrappers layered over the flower pot. Make sure the phrases do not overlap one another. Part of the fun is being able to read the sayings. Attaching these foil pieces wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I don’t know if it is the foil that makes it hard to adhere or the plastic pot. I don’t know if a terra cotta pot would have worked better. That said, it does work. It will slide a bit while you are working, but they will stay in place once the Mod Podge begins to dry. We used Mod Podge under the foil pieces and on top to seal it in. I say it was little challenging, but my son (age 3) was able to help the entire time. 9. I decided to do two different approaches to the flower pot since I know Mod Podge isn’t for everyone. I actually liked the outcome of having two different approaches on the final product. One side was the foil wrappers displaying the famous DOVE® phrases. On the other side, I wrote out the phrases on the top and bottom edge of the flower pot. 10. The next step is to fill the flower pot. I added the chocolate bars to the edges and then put in a styrofoam ball. The ball was there so that the flowers sticking out of the pot would stand up straight and stay where I put them. The rest of the pot I filled with the individually wrapped DOVE® chocolate pieces. 11. I attached the Mother’s Day sign to a wooden cake dowel and stuck it in the center. I cut the dowels with the flowers to different lengths and added those to the pot by pushing them into the styrofoam. 12. The final step was to add the ribbon. I used glue dots to hold it in place. I decided to add the ribbon to the sides to hide the seam transition from the written phrases side to the Mod Podge foil wrapper side. I then wrapped the ribbon around the top edge and tied a bow. Use glue dots to hole this bow in place. After complete, I was able to give this to my beautiful mother (final picture). It was great to give something handmade to her that we all helped create. Not only did we make it, but it is edible. She loves dark chocolate and was pretty excited to receive her gift, even though it was a tad early for Mother’s Day. I wanted to include her in this post and thank her for all of her unconditional love, sacrifice and support throughout my entire lifetime. I know I wasn’t the easiest kid to raise, but I love you dearly and as a mom now, am amazed at the grace and patience you have shown me over the years. It took having kids to truly appreciate you. Thank you! I love you!
Visual Tutorial
Can you see the chocolate on my daughter’s face in the picture above? I think we all found it very challenging to resist the temptations set forth in this craft. 
Update – I just received this email from my mom:
“Also, this candy tree has been wonderful. It’s been used for bribery, for dessert twice for company (although Maggie took a whole bar which was against my rule).
Dad keeps digging down deeply to find the milk chocolate, but is developing a taste for the mint dark. Keep telling him it’s a Mother’s Day, not Father’s day gift.
Thanks so much; it’s a gift that keeps giving.”
A Note About DOVE® Dark Chocolate
According to the latest data from SymphonyIRI, Dove is the #1 sold dark chocolate on the market. It is available in four varieties, including the new DOVE® Silky Smooth Sea Salt Caramel Dark Chocolate, Almond Dark Chocolate, Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl and classic Dark Chocolate. DOVE® uses carefully selected cocoa beans to deliver its signature taste and has a special process that delivers the unique, silky-smooth texture. DOVE® chocolates can be found at convenience stores, drug stores, grocery stores, mass retailers, specialty stores, value stores and vending machines.
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Compensation was provided by DOVE® Dark Chocolate via MomTrends. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Dove or MomTrends.
