how to make candy party favors

How to Make Candy Cane Reindeer

If you have little ones, let me introduce you to the amazingly wonderful Candy Cane Reindeer. These nifty things are guaranteed to bring a smile to any little ones face.

They are wonderful little gems and have been used around my house for the following:

stocking stuffers
tree ornaments
attach to packages as extra bling
goody bag items for classroom holiday parties
make and sell them in your holiday store at school

Here is what you’ll need:

candy canes
brown pipe cleaners
red pom-poms
glue gun
googly wiggly eyes (I like the self sticky ones)

Use glue gun to apply glue to the pom-pom…

Picture taken by my eleven year old! Awesome, hua?

…place the red pom-pom on the candy cane to represent the reindeer’s nose. Then, add the wiggly eyes.

Eleven year old photography strikes again. He rocks!

Take your pipe cleaner and fold it in half to make a ‘v’ like this:

Twist the pipe cleaner multiple times to secure it to the candy cane. You can add a small dot of hot gun glue where the pipe cleaner and candy cane meet if you want.

Shape your pipe cleaners to look like antlers and you are good to go!

So simple and it makes a great family project! (Obviously parents would need to operate the hot glue gun.)

Happy Holidays!

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Halloween Marshmallow Lollipops

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 5 Comments

Are these not the cutest things ever?

These are great to send to school for the fall festivities.

Or, make them and sell them as part of a PTA/PTO function.

Or, just make ’em and eat ’em!

Here is how…

Using chocolate wafers from your local craft or cake supply store and a double boiler, melt your chocolate.

I did a batch of green (and lightened it with some white wafers) and a batch of purple.

Make sure you’re melting the chocolate over a low-med heat. I set the dial at about 3-4. If you get your chocolate too hot it will harden during the melting process.

Chocolate that is melted at a high temp can also melt the marshmallows when we are ready to dip them.

Take three marshmallows and poke them onto a lollipop size stick.

Make sure the stick is not poking out of the very top marshmallow.

Dip the marshmallow lollipop in the melted chocolate.

Twirl and swirl in the chocolate to coat evenly.

Use your spatula as need be to coat all three layers of marshmallow, including where the marshmallow and stick meet.

Sprinkle with your favorite festive goodies.

I used two different varieties- silver jimmies and bat mix jimmies.

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My 11 year old son took this picture. Is he good or what?

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To let these dry use a block of florist foam.

It is very important that you angle the marshmallow pops in a tilted position (away from you).

This will keep the hot marshmallows from sliding down the lollipop stick as they dry.

This is what you do not want to have happen.

This is from drying them in an upright position and also from letting the chocolate wafers get too hot which resulted in melting the marshmallows during the dipping process.

Ugh!

Wrap them in treat bags and seal with coordinating colored ribbon like we did for the Ghost Treats and Witchy Fingers.

Halloween Witchy Fingers

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 37 Comments

You loved the Ghost Halloween Treats last week didn’t you? These are just as much fun and super simple! A salty and sweet treat that is super yummy!

You need:

pretzel rods
green chocolate wafers (Wilton has a Spooky Green for Halloween)
sliced almonds
pretzel bags
ribbon for tying (you can use the twist ties that come with the bags, but I like to spruce it up)
scissors (for cutting and curling the ribbon)
double boiler (for melting chocolate)
cookie sheet covered in foil, wax paper or parchment paper

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Melt your green chocolate wafers in a double boiler over a medium heat. (If the heat is too hot your chocolate will get hard during the melting process.)

Dip and twirl three fourths of your pretzel rod in the melted chocolate. Use a rubber spatula to help coat the pretzel if need be.

Lay the pretzels flat on a cookie sheet covered in foil, wax paper or parchment paper.

Add one sliced almond to the top tip of each pretzel.

Let them cool 100% before removing them from the cookie sheet- about an hour.

Pretty, hua?

Once 100% cooled, place the witchy finger in one of the pretzel bags.

Seal with the ties that come with the bags or spruce it up a bit with festive ribbon.

If you’re giving them as party favors you can easily add a piece of card stock, hole punched and stamped with a message, when adding the ribbon.

Are these awesome or what?

Perfect to give as party favors at a Halloween party, Halloween-time birthday party or as favors for your child’s school fall party.

Fun Birthday Party Favors on a Budget

By Crystal VanTassel-Lopez 12 Comments

As I’ve shared before, I am a kids’ birthday party kinda gal.

I heart a fun birthday party. My favorite things are making the invitations, making the cupcakes and fun party favor ideas.

Now that we have enough children we could make our own football team, as you can imagine, birthday parties must be done on a budget. Especially since the twins’ birthday is literally six weeks after Christmas, and then the other childrens’ birthdays all just weeks after that.

Here is an awesome homemade (stay with me) candy (you still there?) birthday party favor. As we know the party favors can break the bank. Not these- they are totally budget friendly.

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This is how you make them… so simple!

Using a double boiler melt chocolate wafers. You should be able to find these melts at any craft store or cake supply store. You can get them in many colors and some are even flavored.

You know what a double boiler is right? It is a metal deep pan that you place on top of any saucepan that has boiling water in it. This allows you to melt the chocolate pieces without them touching the flame or burner directly- preventing scorching of the chocolate.

Once the water in the saucepan is boiling, dump one package of the wafers into the double boiler.

See, it’s like magic…

Pour the melted chocolate into the candy molds. I bought number molds… ‘4’ since it was their fourth birthday. I purchased my numbered trays for about $2.00 each. I grabbed two to make the process go a little quicker.

Once filled pop them in the freezer until they are hard.

Once they are hard (about 30 minutes to an hour) they pop right out of the mold.

Put them in cellophane favor treat bags. Instead of using the twisty ties that come with the bags, tie ribbon that matches your party theme around the top to seal the bag. Use scissors to curl the ribbon.

Pair these with any dollar bin item (like a large bottle of bubbles, kite, sand pail, etc) and they are sure to be a hit… on a budget!

Looking for a cake supply store or craft store with candies and molds? If you are here in the DFW area try one of the following:

Elizabeth’s Cake Supply

Cake Carousel

Michael’s

JoAnn’s

Don’t forget to check the dollar bins at Target for fun favor ideas!