3 candy cane crafts

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I always love the classic look of CANDY CANES at the holidays. They evoke a very warm and comforting feeling, plus I love the red and white addition to CHRISTMAS decor. Not only are candy canes and peppermint disks tasty to eat, but they are fun to create with! I shopped our local Dollar Tree for some budget-friendly candy canes and mints to make three fun holiday crafts to share with you.

One of the most time consuming parts of these crafts is unwrapping all the CANDIES. When I sat down to get started, I hadn't really added in that time, so I felt rushed. Take my heed and allow yourself some extra moments to get this part done. This would also be a perfect task to keep your hands busy while you're watching tv. You could get the candies all unwrapped and ready and then make the crafts at another time.

Of course you need the candies to make these crafts, but the big star of the show (and what will make things a lot easier for you) is a CORDLESS GLUE GUN. The candy cane crafts involve a lot of back and forth with the glue gun and a cord tends to get in the way. Obviously, not having a cordless glue gun isn't a deal breaker, but it will definitely make things easier. Might just be the perfect time to upgrade! 

Other items you'll want to have on hand are:

-A bowl to put the unwrapped candies in

-Something to keep your workspace safe from the GLUE GUN

-Scissors

-BAKERS TWINE (I used red and white to keep things festive.)

-Taper candles (I thrifted mine!)

-Extra HOT GLUE STICKS (it always takes more than you think).

Candy Cane Candle Holders

These are probably the trickiest of the three crafts, but once you get the hang of it, really aren't that tough. You'll want to start by gluing 3-4 candy canes together (upside down), with the sticks angling or fanning out from each other. As you're placing them together, you want to make sure the curved ends are all level, as these are what are going to sit on the table and hold the candle upright. Once you have them glued together, glue the taper candle to them, keeping all of the pieces level at the bottom-test them out before you do the final gluing. After that, you can continue adding candy canes around the outside until you close the gap.

I definitely had better luck on my second candle stick holder, once I understood the spacing that I needed. All CANDY CANES are different and even the size of the taper candles will vary too, so I can't give you a hard number on measurements for spacing or how many candy canes you'll need. The best I can offer is knowing that you might need to make a prototype, if you're really picky, or just live with the slight imperfections like I did. It is a for fun craft, after all! 

The one part of the candy cane candle holders I couldn't handle (with my touch of OCD) was where the canes met at the top. They were all different heights, once making them level at the bottom. So...I added several peppermint disks around them and that did the trick! I love how festive the candle holders are!

Now, you could decide to not burn the candles and then you can keep these as decor, but they're very fun and I think they should be enjoyed, so maybe toward the end of the season, burn the candles and then toss everything away. Easy peasy! I would be careful when burning and have them sitting on something in case wax drips.

Candy Cane Garland

I think this is my favorite of the three CANDY CANES crafts. It looks so pretty hanging in our window and I feel like it's very charming. You'll need to decide how many decorations you want on your garland and make them first, before stringing. For the "hearts" you'll face two candy canes together, gluing the hooked ends together and then placing one of the bottom ends over the other, gluing in place as well. For the opposite design, just place two candy canes back to back and glue. Once the glue dried on both designs, I turned them over and reinforced all the joining spots with more glue. When that was dry, I added the decorative string. I've had this RED AND WHITE BAKERS TWINE for years and it just keeps on going! I wrapped the string around each design twice and finished with a small bit of glue on the back.

After your decorations are done, simply weave more bakers twine (cut to the length you need for your garland) through them. You could use glue to hold them in place, but mine didn't need it. I found that the bit of tack of the candy created enough friction to keep them from moving, once they were hung.

Peppermint Candle Sticks

This is the easiest craft of the three I'm sharing and actually came out of a failed attempt of my original idea. Ha! Isn't that always how the best things come about?? All you have to do for this is decide how many PEPPERMINT DISKS you want on your candle and glue them into place. I did also test out how much of the candle goes down into the holder, before gluing the bottom mints into place. I love the extra bit of pizazz the peppermint disks give to the red candles. You could do green and white mints too to change up the look!

If you decide to make one or all of these CANDY CANE crafts, share a pic on Instagram and tag me so I can see: @hilaryprall.