Candy Birthday Cake DIY

A friend of ours who loves candy had a birthday the week before last and when I came across the idea of a candy cake on Pinterest I knew this would be a perfect gift! (I can't remember the original pin I saw, but if I can find it again I'll add it to this post). This was such a unique and fun gift to make and only took about 20 minutes. I made this the same day as the Housewarming Jar and forgot to take step-by-step photos, but the process was pretty straightforward. If you have questions, leave them as a comment down below and I'm happy to answer!

Here's what you'll need:

• Floral foam or styrofoam base
• Wide ribbon
• Lots of candy in different shapes and types
• Glue Dots
• A little bit of liquid glue
• Cake board or card board

How to Assemble:

• I started with two floral foam wreath forms and stacked them one on top of the other securing them with a small bit of E6000.
• Next I took some wide grosgrain ribbon and tightly wrapped the base until they were completely covered and secured the ends with a bit more glue.
• Now the fun part! Open up all your candy bags and decide on a pattern. Begin securing pieces to the base using the glue dots. I started by placing a repeating pattern of fun size bars upright around the base. Then I did a row of minis above those. For the top I added a horizontal ring of fun size bars.
• To fill the hole in the center of the wreaths, I put some balled up tissue paper in first then filled it with Tootsie Rolls. 
• I finished it off by inserting Blow Pops and Tootsie Roll Pops around the hole to create a decorative ring on the top.
• Place it on or glue it to a piece of cardboard or a cake board and you're ready to gift it!

This would also be super cute to gift in a bakery box. Have you made a candy cake or something similar? Leave a link to your project in the comments, I would love to check out your creation!

Join me at these fantastic DIY Link Parties: Dear Creative, Skip to My Lou, Nap Time Creations, and Homemaker's Challenge.

Update: The post that inspired this project was from Lick the Bowl Good.

Housewarming Gift Idea {Welcome Home Jar}

Two of my good friends just closed on a new house and I was racking my brain for a unique housewarming gift. It was as if the blogging world knew what was on my mom because this Housewarming Jar DIY post from the blog Oh Happy Day popped up in my BlogLovin' feed. I was inspired by hers and decided to change a few things and make my own. I'm sorry I didn't take step-by-step photos, please ask away if you have any questions!

I started with a one gallon Anchor Hocking glass jar. You can find these at Target, Walmart, and on Amazon. After cleaning and drying the surface of the jar, I placed the labels of the words "Welcome" and "Home" on the jar. I liked the graphic look of the different font sizes. I then used a sponge brush and Armour Etch to permanently etch the words onto the jar. I followed the instructions on the Armour Etch packaging to leave the cream on for 60 seconds. This resulted in a very light etching which worked great for this jar (see picture below). If you wanted something that stands out more, I would look into tutorials on different methods or possibly other products. You could also paint the words onto the jar like they did in the inspiration post.

Once you've decorated your jar to your liking using etching cream or paint, then you get to have fun filling it with goodies! For this jar I included: Goo Gone, Super Glue, a picture hanging kit, felt protector pads for furniture, a multipurpose scraper, garden gloves, a flower pruner, and kitchen towels with colorful prints.

I really loved how this project turned out. The best part is that after they've used the items in the jar, the recipient is left with a wonderful cookie jar. I will definitely be making these again in the future!

Do you have other housewarming gift ideas or has someone given you something unique? Comment below and tell me about it!

If you can't wait for some more DIY inpsiration check out the Creative Inspirations Link Party and the Show Me What Ya Got Link Party.

Pinspired: Candy Topiaries

A while back I repinned a picture of a lollipop tree, but it didn't have a source! After doing some searching today, I found out it was from Jill Dubien's blog Meet the Dubiens. You can see her original lollipop tree post here.

With all of the holiday candy floating around, I decided to experiment with this idea myself using different forms and candies. I ended up with two, one similar to the original inspiration and another creation of my own. 

These would make great party centerpieces or gifts. You could even check out your local arty store of candy shop to make these in a favorite color. Each one cost less than $10 and they were super easy to make. Each one took about 15 minutes. 

Have fun experimenting with different styrofoam shapes, types of candy, and containers. So many possibilities!

1. A styrofoam ball (I used a 6 in. ball from AC Moore)

2. A container to serve as the stand (This was a metal flower pot from Dollar Tree)

3. Lots of lollipops! (I used Dum Dums from Walmart, but you could use an kind of round lollipop like Tootsie Roll Pops or Blow Pops)

To assemble:

1. Put the styrofoam ball on top of the the container you've selected. You can glue it down if you're worried about it falling off, but mine stayed on fine without using any. Also, if you don't glue it down and you're thinking about making this for a gift, you could put a small gift in the container and use the topiary as packaging!

2. Next start inserting the lollipops. I found that starting around the bottom was much easier than starting at the top. I inserted the lollipop sticks straight in.

3. Keep inserting the lollipops, staggering them in each round to be sure you fill in all the spaces. Do this until you're topiary is covered!

Here's the finished project. You could also paint the pot, tie a bow around it with some ribbon, or paint a terra cotta pot with chalkboard paint to write a message to the recipient.

For the second one, I used: 1. A taller, vase-like container (again from Dollar Tree); 2. A concial styrofoam form (from AC Moore); 3. Rolos; 4. Toothpicks.

I made this one the same way as the lollipop topiary by using the toothpicks to secure the Rolos. The only difference for this one was that I covered the form first, then turned the container upside down to make it a stand and glued the two pieces together.

As you get closer to the top, you make have to cut the toothpicks in half so they don't poke out the other side. You can see in my picture that I tried starting out at the top. That did not work out so well. It's much easier to start at the bottom so there is support for the candies as you move up the piece.

I was really happy with how these turned out and I can't wait to give some of these out as gifts. Have you tried making something similar? I'd love to hear about it!