Lollipop Bouquet
Choose a container for your candy bouquet. Be creative and personalize the container to fit the person you're making the bouquet for. A sand pail makes a great container for a child's bouquet. Use a parfait cup, coffee cup, or a soup mug for a friend, co-worker or teacher; a vintage tin for an antique collector; a small tackle box for an angler; a clay or plastic flower pot for a gardener or a popcorn bucket for a movie buff.
Stock up on a good supply of candy. Choose candy that you or the giftee loves, as well as candy that looks visually appealing and stands out. You should stock up on a variety of wrapped candies such as bubble gum, small candy bars, toffees, or chocolate kisses. Any securely wrapped candy will work. Choose colors appropriate for the occasion, such as bright primary colors for a young child, pink and blue for a baby shower, gold or silver for an anniversary, black and orange for Halloween, red and white for Valentine's Day, green and white for St. Patrick's day or red and green for Christmas.
Use a glue gun to secure a chunk of Styrofoam to fit tightly in the bottom of the container. Trace the bottom of the container onto the chunk of Styrofoam and then cut out the shape you've made and glue it to the bottom of the container, putting glue on the sides and the bottom of the shape. Wait a few minutes for the Styrofoam to dry completely before you put the candy in -- unless you'd also like to glue the candy to the sides of the container.
Wrap a wooden skewer with green floral tape and stick it in the center of a Styrofoam ball. You can also use a thick popsicle stick instead of a skewer. Anything that is long and thick enough to hold up the candy will do. Insert the skewer into the center of the Styrofoam base, securing the skewer with a dab of glue. Put a small amount of glue on the other end of the skewer, then poke the glued end into the center of a Styrofoam ball. Use a Styrofoam ball appropriate for the size of your container. As a general rule, a ball the size of a tennis ball or baseball works well for most arrangements. You can also wrap the Styrofoam ball with green tape or paint it green, for an added effect.
Use floral pins to attach the wrapped candy to the Styrofoam ball. Pin one or both ends of each wrapped candy. Continue pinning the candy to the ball one at a time until it is completely covered with wrapped candies. When you've done this, you can also stick the skewer into the Styrofoam at the bottom of the container.
Pin silk leaves between a few of the candies. Alternatively, use small bows and loops tied from narrow, ¼-inch ribbon. Pick any design that would make the candy bouquet look even more festive and visually appealing.
Camouflage the top of the container with shredded paper or dried sphagnum moss. This will make the bouquet look more finished and will hide the Styrofoam bottom. You can also stick a few candy canes or pieces of candy appropriate to the occasion into the bottom of the basket. Finish your candy bouquet by tying a big, colorful bow around the container.
Candy Bar Bouquet
Use a glue gun to glue boxes of candy around each edge of a Styrofoam block. Get a Styrofoam block that is about the size of a brick and glue a box of candy around each of its four sides. Put the glue on the block and then stick the boxes to the glue. Using boxes of candy like Hot Tamales or the boxed M&Ms or Sno-Caps you can find at the movies are perfect for covering the Styrofoam block. Turn the box sideways, so the long way is facing up, and make sure that the top and bottom do not have candy bars glued to them.
Glue at least 6-8 candy bars to popsicle sticks. Glue a variety of candy bars, like Snickers, Hershey's, Crunch bars, or Butterfingers, to popsicle sticks so that about 2 inches (5 cm) of the popsicle stick is glued to the candy bar.
Stick the popsicle sticks into the top of the Styrofoam block. Once the glue on the Styrofoam block has dried, you can stick the popsicle sticks into the top of the block so that the candy bars are evenly spaced.
Glue tissue paper around the edge of the block. Glue some tissue paper around the top edge of the block so that all of the Styrofoam is covered and the candy block has a more bouquet-like feel.
Cookie Candy Bouquet
Glue a Styrofoam bottom into a large mug. Pick a mug that is festive for the occasion, whether it's around Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Valentine's Day. Trace the bottom of the mug over a piece of thick Styrofoam and cut the Styrofoam and place it snugly into the bottom of the mug. You can even try to glue the Styrofoam into the bottom of the mug, but then you -- or the person you're giving it to -- won't be able to use it once all the candy is eaten.
Bake a tray of cookies on popsicle sticks. Make the dough for chocolate chip, gingerbread, oatmeal raisin, or any other cookies that you like. Before you put them into the oven, cut a small hole in the bottom of the cookies and insert a wooden popsicle stick in each one. It's a good idea to bake a few extra cookies in case some of them break or don't stay on the popsicle stick. Give the cookies at least 10-15 minutes to cool off and harden before you try placing them in the bouquet.
Stick the popsicle sticks with cookies on them into the Styrofoam at the bottom of the mug. Spread the cookies out evenly so they stick out neatly above the mug. They can stick out at different angles and heights, as long as the bouquet looks visually appealing.
Fill the mug with candy and brown tissue paper. Place wrapped candy that goes well with the cookies, such as Reese's peanut butter cups or individually-wrapped Milky Ways, into the bottom of the mug, and place some brown tissue paper on top to cover the candy and Styrofoam.
Comments
0 comment