Do you ever eat conversation hearts around Valentine's Day? Those tasty little heart shaped lumps of pure sugary lexical delight have been around for a long time.....since the 1860s! In the 1860's, Daniel Chase, the brother of NECCO's founder, Oliver Chase, began printing sayings on the candy. He experimented first with hand tools, and then devised a machine in which the cloth was replaced with a felt roller pad, moistened with vegetable coloring, usually red, which pressed against the die. The die printed the words on the lozenge paste and the double purpose machine cut the lozenges into little hearts! I once had a friend in college who use to write X-rated messages on them with a thin red Sharpie! She was a bad girl!.....Yes, Jane, you were bad!
The present day Sweethearts Conversation Heart dates back to 1902.
To meet the demand for its Conversation Hearts, NECCO produces them from late February through mid-January of the following year. The entire production--about 100,000 pounds a day-- sells out in just six weeks. Whoa! That's a lot of hearts!
My friend Carol sent these conversation heart stickers to me today! I had to create a few things with them right away!
Imagine getting kissed by this little rascal!
She's the Conversation Heart Fairy!
An ATC with a little pug........... well, he really is a "cute pie"! So ugly, 
he's cute!
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