As Valentine’s Day approaches, many plan to make a stop into big chain stores and grab last-minute treats from aisles lined with all things red.

Chocolates are perhaps the first things that pop into an one’s mind when they think ahead to Feb. 14. And in the Lakes Region, confectioners are offering a more original version of the traditional heart shaped box of chocolate that is staple of the holiday.

In one case, a framed photo of a couple in love can be part of a tasty treat, made on Route 302 in Windham.

Sunny Quintal opened Picture Chocolate just a few months ago. Located next to Amato’s, Quintal originally planned to open a mortgage brokerage. But with a florist and framer as her workplace neighbors, Quintal said she wanted to try something new.

“I started getting jealous that their jobs were so fun,” said Quintal.

And so Picture Chocolate was born. Quintal said she is the only business in Maine that prints photographs on chocolates, to add a personal touch to a sweet treat.

Using Food and Drug Administration approved food coloring, and a printer made especially for chocolate printing, Quintal can take a photograph and impose it chocolate moldings like lollipops, business cards, and heart truffle boxes, which are purchased from a wholesaler.

Heart shaped lollipops are always a favorite on Valentine’s Day, and year-round said Quintal. But the heart shaped truffle box is what she recommends.

“The chocolate heart box is definitely cute because you can put something else inside it,” said Quintal.

Being able to put a photograph you love on a Valentine’s Day gift is a fun novelty. But for homemade chocolate treats, chocolatiers in Naples and New Gloucester are stocking up for a traditionally busy time of year.

Jim Miller has been churning out chocolate dipped fruit, chocolate lollipops, truffles, and hearts with little mice on top for 30 years. He also creates fancy desserts wedding favors for his client base in Maine and beyond.

Many of Miller’s clients from out of state came up last weekend to pick up orders in time for Valentine’s Day. But although Miller has been busy, he said parents do not buy candy so readily for their children anymore.

“They don’t get candy like they used to for the kids. If they do, they go to Rite Aid,” said Miller. “Chocolates aren’t bad for you.”

Especially if you go with the fruit variety, one of Miller’s specialties. He uses all sorts of fruits, from apricots to cherries, and puts together boxes of assorted chocolate-dipped fruits for customers. But Miller said strawberries dipped in chocolate are the usual favorite.

Miller is has another week of hard work ahead of him as Valentine’s Day approaches. But he doesn’t mind. He has worked out of his home since 1992, and once in a while, brings chocolates to Bray’s Restaurant in Naples to treat employees and customers.

“I just love to cook. I always have,” said Miller.

So does Amanda Whitney, the owner of New England Secrets based at the Pineland Visitor Center in New Gloucester.

Whitney was working in the sales and marketing field when her aunt and uncle created New England Secrets. Whitney helped out with market research at first, but after six months, she bought the business from her relatives.

That was five years ago. When she moved to Maine from New Hampshire when her husband took a job as the cheese maker for Pineland Creamery 2 1/2 years ago, she set up her space at the visitor center.

“People really enjoy coming in and picking out very special chocolates for somebody,” said Whitney.

Customers are surprised when they can pick out chocolates from a glass case, the way they would at a bakery. And although Whitney does not sell what she calls “traditional” Valentine’s Day chocolates, her business triples around Valentine’s Day.

Truffles and bon bons are the most popular gifts, said Whitney. Everything is made by hand, from high-quality French chocolate, and other natural products, like real fruit.

And the chocolates come in all shapes and molds. Perfect little frogs, turtles, and mice are sold along with a wide variety of dark and milk chocolate truffles. Whitney has a rotation of different truffles, using five or six different types each week. But Whitney also takes custom orders. Once, and owner of an alpaca farm asked her to make alpaca chocolates for farm visitors.

“If I can find the mold, I can make it,” said Whitney.

An example of an edible family photograph placed on to a chocolate heart, made by Sunny Quintall, owner and operator of Picture Chocolate in Windham.Sunny Quintall, Owner and Operator of Picture Chocolate in Windham, shows off some of her Valentine’s Day products. Picture Chocolate specializes in placing edible photographs on chocolate candy.Amanda Whitney, owner of New England Secrets in New Gloucester, prepares the ingredients for heart berry truffles at her shop in the Pineland Farms visitor center. Whitney has owned New England Secrets for five years, and says around Valentine’s Day, her business triples.