Here’s a great way to enjoy the beauty of candy in your holiday decorating. Examiner.com has a craft to make a heart-shaped Christmas tree ornament. This makes a great frame to display a child’s photo or another loved one’s photo. Not only that, but once you decide to take the tree down, you can easily recycle this frame by munching on the peppermint treats, thus giving you a little snack to enjoy during your labors.
What do you do with candy canes? Simply hang them from the pine boughs or do you have a craft like this you like to do?
Materials Needed
- Foam ring (12-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch, etc. – decide what size you would like your wreath)
- Pastel candy pieces – we like speckled malted milk balls, gum balls or candied almonds
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks
Optional materials:
- Spray adhesive
- Easter grass or shredded packing paper in coordinating color
- Ribbon
Directions
- Decide the pattern and theme for your wreath. You can use all colors, as shown in the wreath using candied almonds, or choose a color scheme. You also might decide to use a variety of sizes as shown in the yellow, green and white wreath above.
- Warm glue in gun and apply a small amount to your first piece of candy. Press it firmly but gently against the foam ring. If you are using a variety of sizes, start with the largest pieces.
- Continue gluing candy pieces to the foam ring being cautious not to group too many like colors in one area. Cover the foam ring with candy. If you are using a variety of sizes, be certain to leave gaps to fill in with smaller sizes. When you have used all of your largest sized pieces, begin filling in with smaller pieces.
- When the surface of the wreath has been covered, glue additional pieces to the top to give the wreath dimension and cover spaces.
- To finish, you can add a ribbon that coordinates with the theme of your wreath.
Optional:
Before gluing candy to the foam core, you can cover the surface with Easter grass. Follow the directions below and then continue with the directions above.
First, spray the wreath with spray adhesive in a well ventilated area. Next take a small handful of Easter grass or shredded packing paper and press it to the wreath. Continue pressing grass to the foam ring quickly before the adhesive dries. You can shake off or trim excess if necessary. You are now ready to add candy to the wreath.
I know you want the new occupants of your gingerbread house to move in quickly, and I am sure they will feel comfortable enough to have you install some snowmen for decoration. Okay, maybe I take candy’s feelings too seriously, but as soon as you build a house for a candy creature, you have already given it a personality, right? At any rate, let’s make some decorations and we can talk about our various neuroses later.
Supplies:
Marshmallow Snowmen
- large marshmallows
- small drink stirrers/straws or toothpicks
- icing
- small candy pieces
Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 (16 oz.) box of confectioners sugar
Directions:
- In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Beat several minutes with an electric mixer until smooth. The icing should be thick. Use food coloring to achieve the desired color effects.
- The icing will harden quickly. Store in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away. While you work with the icing, keep a damp cloth over the unused portion.
Instructions:
- Trim the toothpick or drink stirrer to the exact height of two marshmallows stacked one on the other.
- Insert the trimmed toothpick or drink stirrer into the two marshmallows.
- Use icing to adhere candy pieces to marshmallow to create fun faces, scarves, hats and buttons.
The nice thing about gingerbread houses is that you don’t need to be an architect to design them and they take up very little real estate to build one. Plus, there has never been a better time to own a gingerbread house than right now. Even in this economy we can all afford this sweet little treat mansion.
Do you like making these? Some families have a whole tradition of making them together. This is also a great activity for a party. My friend Jody used to add an element of friendly competition to her gingerbread house parties by dividing us into groups and having us try to build the most creative structure. The winners always got something fun as a prize and the competitiveness drove us to pull out all the stops. The “residents” of the houses were gummy bears and had to be featured somehow, and the houses did not have to make structural sense, as long as they could be held together with icing. It was great fun.
Send us a photo or a link to a picture of your gingerbread house and we will post it here. Here’s how we do it at NCA.
Gingerbread Recipe
Ingredients:
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2/3 cups shortening
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 eight-ounce container sour cream
- 2 eggs
Directions
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