by Theresa L.
(Ontario)
Candy Valentine Lollipop
How to make a candy bouquet can be a great learning experience and created to suit so many different occasions, holidays and themes.
It's definately less expensive than a store-bought bouquet of pricey flowers, and you can make your own bouquet with recycled items from home.
If you wanted to make a Christmas candy bouquet, use the seasonal colors like red, green, silver and gold. Candy-cane bouquets mixed with used seasonal ribbons come to mind.
A birthday gift? Choose someone's favorite organic chocolate and finish a delicious chocolate bouquet off with a tall "Happy Birthday" balloon or a similarily used
decoration from a cake. Chocolate bar bouquets are very popular, and with those, the bars are attached to the stems with tape.
Kids love lollipops, and so a candy bouquet made up of these colorful candies is a delightful option.
Children will enjoy making this simple craft too, and the great thing is, there is no right or wrong way to do it.
Create a bouquet that's useful as the centrepiece for a table, a birthday gift, valentines day gift or as a get well gift. These edible "flower"
bouquets can simply bring a smile to someone's face even if they aren't quite ready to eat it yet.
You can choose from a variety of items from around the house to use. To hold your goodies in, you could choose any sized spare flower pot, a
coffee mug, an extra vase, an ice-cream sundae glass, or even a jug. Decorate these if you like with beads, buttons, craft jewels, pictures,
or just leave them untouched.
Recycle popsicle sticks as your candy flower stems. Wooden skewers are good to use and adds to the height.
Adjust the height of your candy stems in line with the height of your holder. You don't want your bouquet arrangement to be top-heavy and fall over because of no support.
Thin ribbons can be curled at the ends with scissors and intertwined throughout your candy bouquet for a real pop of color. They can cascade down for a trailing effect. Or tie into small bows and attach with wire on the skewer tops.
Real or silk floral branches, or pipe cleaners can be placed among the candies to act as decorative fillers.
As far as other candy bouquet supplies you will need, the thin wire used by florists will be used to attach your candies to the sticks. A bit of
floral tape or two-sided tape can be used as well. A chunk of florist oasis will sit on the bottom of your holder to stick the stems into.
Recycle these things!
After a floral delivery, don't throw everything out. There are numerous decorative items you can keep from these arrangements especially if it comes in the form of a centerpiece.
In addition to the floral wire attachments the oasis is ALWAYS reuseable for awhile and perfect for making your own bouquet at a later time.
Floral tape to wrap a stem and NOT use a holder of any kind (like a mug) will be used wrap the bouquet in the final step to enable holding of
the candy bouquet properly.
How To Make A Candy Bouquet Using Lollipops
Depending on the size of your bouquet, you will want to use more or less of any decorations and lollipops.
Choose the type of holder for your candy bouquet. If not using a holder, make sure to have floral tape.
Cut the sticks of your lollipops off below the wrapping but be sure to leave at least an inch.
Give your tall items a trim or a "clean up" if necessary. Start to wire these to your sticks or skewers. They can be taped as well, just make sure the tape or wire doesn't show.
Attach the lollipops to the tops of your sticks to make lollipop flowers with the wire by twisting around the stick of the candy.
Do this a few times to make sure it is good and secure and won't fall off. You may need a pair of pliers to cut the wire, and then just press
the wire end tight up against the stick.
Going to make a hand-held bouquet? Place the lollipops in your hand, and spread them out a bit. Keep a bit of a good grip, and slowly insert
your leaves, flowers, or whatever other stick decorations you are using.
Fan out the bouquet for easy placement in a circular shape.
Keep your lollipops evenly spaced between the decorative stem sticks.
In order to make the handle of your candy bouquet, wrap floral tape around the stems all the way down and simply wrap around 2 or 3 times and cut to trim.
Placing your stems in a cup or a vase? Simply fan out and stick in the oasis in the bottom of the cup.
You have now learned how to make a candy bouquet, which can be very enjoyable not only to make but so personalized for the one receiving it too.