Candy Cane Crafts

Ok, so we are a little under a week away until Christmas. Up this week we have a Christmas favourite, the candy cane! We have some fun candy cane crafts for you but first a little history on this yummy sweet treat.

The candy cane first originated in Cologne, Germany when a choirmaster at a cathedral wanted all the children there to be quiet during a Christmas Eve ceremony. He asked a local candy maker to create a treat for these children to help them stay quiet and he came up with the candy cane. Candy canes are typically white with red stripes and have a peppermint flavour but now you’ll see all sorts of flavours and colourings. The first candy canes were made by hand and eventually a Chicago based company patented the candy cane shape in the early 1920’s and machines started making them.

We’re not making candy canes this week in a cooking sense; we are making them in a craft sense.

Check out the two fun and easy Christmas candy cane crafts that we tried out...

Twine Wrapped Candy Canes

These are super easy.

All you need is a candy cane or two (depends on how many of these decorations you want to make) some twine, hot glue, and ribbon.

Start by gluing the bottom of the candy cane and start wrapping with twine. Periodically put some glue on the candy cane as you wrap it. Eventually you’ll have a fully twine wrapped candy cane.

Add a twine or ribbon bow to the top along with a twine hoop for hanging.

Paper Candy Canes

This is another fun and simple craft.

For this one you’ll need markers, paper, a ruler, scissors, and tape.

First thing you’ll need to do is cut the paper into a square.

Then draw lines around two edges in varying widths and colours. Most we did were four to five lines or you can do three to six. We used a ruler as we wanted straighter lines.

Next turn the paper over and starting on the corner with no lines, start to roll the paper.

Once it’s all rolled up, tape the last corner down. You’ll have a candy stick now.

To turn it onto a candy cane, while flattening as you go, curl over one end with your finger or a fatter marker and manipulate it to a hook end.

Trim the end of the curled end.

Hang them up or display them through your house for the holidays!

Turtlette - Turtle Backpack Tags

We are starting a slow wind down of our Summer theme and this week we are looking at a shade called “Turtlette” by Tarte. I know you’re thinking green but this shade is actually metallic silver. Maybe they had a Silverback Turtle in mind? It’s a nice party shade.

We thought we’d do something for back to school. We had some of our key rings leftover from our Father’s Day post so we decided to make use of those and we are making turtle shaped nametags for kid’s backpacks.

There are a couple designs that we came up with so take a look below and see how to make your very own turtle backpack tag.

The first one is very easy and simple. All you need is a turtle template. We chose this one...

You will also need some green felt and some twine.

We printed the turtle so that when it was cut out it was about 4 inches long. Then we traced the turtle with a felt pen onto the felt and cut it out.

Instead of an eye we made a little hole where the eye would be and we strung through some twine. To make sure that the twine knot is secure, you can put white glue or clear nail polish on the knot to prevent it from coming undone.

Lastly, we wrote a name (with a felt pen r Sharpie) on the body of the turtle.

Our second turtle is a foam turtle.

We found another turtle template and printed that and cut it out. We actually printed it twice (more on that later). It measures about 4 ½ inches.

On a quick shop at the Dollar store, we bought some light green foam sheets and then also found a darker green foam sheet. The darker green was sparkly and also had an adhesive backing.

On the lighter green foam sheet, we traced the outline of the turtle. We used a black felt pen, it smudged slightly but we were able to fix it by wiping it off with a damp paper towel. You can use a regular ball point pen if you prefer or even a pencil might work.

Now cut that turtle out.

Next on that other turtle that we printed, we cut out just the shell pieces. We had six of them.

Then we traced those onto our sparkly foam. To keep track of them all, we numbered them so that we knew where to put them when we attached them to the turtle.

After tracing them all, cut out all of the shell pieces.

Punch some black “eyes” from a black foam piece (you could also use googly eyes) and glue them on with a glue stick and then attach the the foam shell pieces to the turtle.

When that’s all complete, we grabbed some floral wire and pushed that through one of the legs. Then we twisted it like a chain (feel free to use a chain if you have one) and then attached the end to the key ring.

Write the name of your child on the back in felt pen and you’re done.

DIY Key Chains for Dad

It’s the end of May already! Thinking ahead to Father’s Day, we are going to do a couple of posts all for dad, and this week we are going to show you how to make some key chains. We made these with dad in mind but you can make them for anyone at any time!

The first type was painted. We found some wooden cubes.  The ones we chose had holes already in them which was perfect for the last step of our project. You can pick other shapes as well and then drill holes in them before you paint them.

We painted the cubes. Now we decided to do three for each chain but you can do more. The more you do, the bigger the chain so I’d probably stick to 3-5. We chose some nice colour combos for the three chains that we made. Then we painted.

You probably want to do a couple of coats and then let them completely dry overnight.

Next we wrote on the cubes. I always like to lightly sketch the letter/design with a pencil first before I commit to a final design.

We used a Sharpie, but you can use paint with a really fine tip paint brush, and we traced over our pencil.

Write on all the sides or on just one, two, or three. Do whatever you like. We did a mix.

Since it’s for Father’s Day, we did a couple that say dad and one that says “I ♥ U”.

Lastly we attached some twine to the actual key ring, then the cubes together with the twine.

We connected a couple by knotting the twine between the cubes and then the other one we just put them all on a strand and knotted the ends so they didn’t fall off.

For the second key ring that we did we used hot glue!

First of all you’ll need to pick the paper that you want for the two sides. We decided on a pattern piece along with a solid piece that matched the pattern. Pick whatever you like. You’ll also want to decide on a shape and cut that out with scissors, a punch, or a cutting machine. Make sure the shape is slightly larger than the key ring you are going to use. You’ll need two no matter what size and what type of paper you use.

Lay out some parchment paper to glue on so that the glued piece is easy to remove.

Hot glue over the entire shape being careful not to go off the edges, and do that for both of the matching shapes.

Let it dry completely. Ours warped a bit so we flattened them under heavy books.

We then took some floral wire that we had left over from another project and twisted it into a loop with a “tail.” You can use a different easily bendable wire that you have or you can buy pre-made eye hooks.

Once the two sides are flat and you have your wire/hook ready, then put hot glue on the straight part of the wire/”tail” and stick it down on the inside of one of the sides.

Take the second side and put a thin layer of hot glue and stick them together.

Attach the key ring to the hook.

The finished products...