CANDY CANE WREATH with Instructions

Here's a cute candy cane wreath I made and the instructions are below.

I first saw this idea when my Aunt sent me a link on fb. Then I did a quick search and found it on Pinterest here. It looked super cute to be so simple that I just had to try it!

And here's how I did it.

First I headed down to the Dollar General Store to buy the candy canes, it takes 22. So I had to buy two boxes. And I needed something roundish to decorate the center and try to hide where they all come together. I didn't see anything I loved so I drove over to the Dollar Mart. And there I found the cute, clear and silver snowflake! It is simply PERFECT!

 

Then I got all my stuff together when I got home. 

You will need:

1.scissors

2.Hot glue gun and stick

3. Twenty two candy canes

4. A centerpiece (round is perfect)

5. Ribbon

6. And e6000 glue (optional)

7. White sparkly glitter (optional)

Okay so here we go. First, I laid all the candy canes out in sets of two, to form a circle,  like this:

And then just shove them together to form a "wreath" circle.

And next you simply just take some ribbon, I chose white, and tie them all together in sets of two, like so:

Simple so far, right!

Okay, next, after doing all 22 of these like that. I arranged them all into a circle again, and took my hot glue gun and glued them all together at the inside center circle. Each one to the next, to make a tight hold. 

I also did this to the top outer parts, where the canes form a heart shape. Just to make a stronger hold.

And then I got my plastic clear, sparkly snowflake and glued it directly onto the center of the candy canes with my E6000 glue, found in the craft section of stores. I'm sure you could probably just hot glue the star on, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn't fall of soon.

(this wasn't the pic I wanted to post, but I couldn't find the correct one where my canes were tied with ribbon! But this one will due.)

Now this e6000 glue takes a while to fully dry, but when it does, it has a strong hold!

Now you could finish up here, if you didn't want to take it a step farther like I did with the photo insert.

But since my Aunt had sent me a photo wanting this, and she recently had a son to pass away in a car accident. I thought I'd add a photo of him in the center for her. It'd be a great way for her to have his photo around during Christmas. And he use to always steal her candy canes off her Christmas tree too. So this is extra special for her.

I chose a photo from when he was younger and printed it off.
I then glued the edges of the photo to the inside of the clear snowflake, from the back side. 
I also smeared some extra glue around the edges on the inside and sprinkled all kinds of sparkly, white glitter in it.
I thought it was a good way to hide the edges of the cut photo, since the center of the snowflake was clear.

Also, this is where I found some little red pip berries in my craft box, and hot glued them to the white ribbon ties.
You could use jingle bells, little fake presents or bows. Just about anything to dress them up a bit.

And lastly, the final step was to simply add a piece of ribbon to the top, to be able to hang it by.

I just tied on a piece like below:

And that is all there was to it!

My Aunt loves it and it is a great way for her to keep her son's spirit around at Christmas.

Hope ya'll like it!

And by typing out these steps, it makes it seem way more complicated than it is.

Believe it, it's simply tieing two candy canes together, hot glueing them and assembling it all.

Very Easy!

If you do give this a try, I'd love for you to send me a link or photo of it!

I gave this one to my aunt but I'm making more that's on the way to my Craft Booth #555 and Etsy where they can be purchased as a great, unique gift!

See ya'll next time,
~Lisa

PRIMITIVE SNOWMEN JINGLE BELLS | Various Styles Over the Years

It's that time of year again! The time that I really start to begin painting more Christmas decorations for my Booth#555 at the Peddlers Mall. I got the Christmas spirit in September, lol.

And today I am starting on a new batch of Snowmen Jingle Bells. I got inspiration for these from the Oriental Trading Catalog. Theirs sale for $16.00 per dozen.

To buy them at $16.00 per dozen to resell wasn't really leaving me any room for profit in my craft booth. So I decided to find the plain jingle bells, same size and paint them. I found a package of 6 at the Dollar General Store for a $1.50. And then after the Christmas sale, I bought all the rest of them for half off! Totally amazing deal! So here's what I have started with:

I seriously buy every box of these I find, especially at the after Christmas sales! I will get around to using them, believe me!

I've came a long way through the years with these. I started making them back in November of 2010. You simply paint a base coat. I hang the hangers on a strip of wire and spray paint a bunch at once. And then just sit and paint on the snowmen in sections. Bodies, heads, arms, clothes, then snowflakes, etc. I do them in sections like that to not have to be changing my paint color much. And a hint is to lay them in egg carton tops, lined with paper towels, to help keep from rolling around. Here's what my first batch ever, looked like:

2010 Batch of Bells

$1.59 each

 

2011 Batch of Bells

Sold for $1.00 each to move faster, it seemed

 

2012 Batch of Bells 

Raised back to $1.59 each since I finished them in wax & began to package them.

These I experimented with dipping them in hot, butter colored wax, after painting. It made a great finish. 

Can't really see it in the pics, but looks pretty good. And the middle one is an old, black crow wearing a santa hat. 

 

Being as I did the extra wax dipping, is why I raised these back to $1.59 each.

2013 Batch of Bells

PHOTO COMING SOON!

Keep in mind, these are great crafts to make and sell. Especially if you find them in boxes of 6 marked down to half price to only $.75cents. That makes you only have like 12cents each in them. Sometimes even less if the sale is bigger. Then just your time to paint with paint you already have, probably. 

They are steady sellers for my craft booth. And with changing the theme a little each year, it makes a great item for people to look for. Sometimes I even put the date on the back of them. When I remember to, that is.

Hope this gives you some ideas to do with those plain ole' jingle bells!

Happy Crafting ya'll,

-Lisa

SNOWMEN JINGLE BELL Ornaments

Here's a group of the first snowman jingle bell ornies I made last year for Christmas 2010. They have various scarves and toboggans and their own different facial expressions. All vary in different colors and styles.

Here's how I started them out.  I buy those sets of 8 jingle bells in the Christmas department at the Dollar General Stores for a $1.50.

Yes, I buy tons of them.

Then I take them outside and spray paint them from hanging them up.

Or sometimes I try to paint them by hand and hang them to dry on whatever I can find inside:

And after they are all dry, there comes the tedious part of painting on the details.
It's really not all that bad though, once you get the hang of it.
I tend to paint the bodies first on all, then the eyes next and so on.
Trying to keep them all about the same in the process, but with different features.

Sometimes I replace the string with a piece of craft wire.

I didn't come up with this idea on my own. However, I did see them offered in the Oriental Trading party supplies catalog. They were and still are about $16.00 per dozen. So I could not have ordered them and resold them for any profit. So I decided to try to make my own.

I've even tried new styles as dipping them in wax to give them a more aged look. And I love them that way!

Limited supply left, found for sale at the Peddlers Mall, Booth #555.

I've priced these for $ 1.59.

UPDATE:
I went ahead and started pricing the new ones for only $1.00 each and cut out the packaging cost.
I then hung them on a
DOLLAR DISPLAY TREE in my booth and they really got more attention. Everyone loves a dollar deal!

Here's some ready to go:

If you'd like to see my newest batch of jingle bells and to see a more detailed tutorial of how to make these, just 

Click Here.

Happy Crafting Ya'll,
~Lisa