Candy Bar Bouquet

I have seen and been wanting to make a Candy Bar Bouquet.  And a co-worker is having a birthday this week so I thought I might make her one, but then I realized that some stores (like Winn-Dixie) already make them and have them ready to buy . . . so I stopped by my local W/D and checked them out.  WHAT!?  The price is $29.99!!  Well sure it's nice, and sure it's already made, but come on!  I can make that for less!

 Plus the ladies at work (and I) have an agreement that our budget for birthday's is $10 so there is no way I could get a $30 candy bar bouquet.  So this is what I did... I went next door to the Dollar Tree (luckily it's right next door) and bought a coffee mug (because the birthday girl likes her coffee!) that was pretty heavy duty (heavy enough to hold the weight of the candy bouquet).  I also purchased a brick of floral foam and some purple (birthday girl's favorite color) basket filler. 

Then I went to Wal-mart (because I was already going there anyway) and picked up a Giant Hershey bar (the birthday girl's favorite candy), a pack of 6 regular size Hershey bars and a pack of 8 mini Hershey bars.

So for $10 in supplies (because I already had the skewers) this is what I had to work with: 

Note- you'll also need a hot glue gun, hot glue sticks and regular glue (not pictured).

Step #1:  Using a hot glue gun, hot glue the skewers to the back of the candy bars. 

When I put the skewer into the hot glue I rolled it around a bit to ensure it was complete covered. 

Here's a close up of the back of the candy bars, to give you and idea how much glue I used.

Note- on the giant bar, the wrapper was loose so I made sure to put glue below the wrapper to 'glue' it in place so the candy wouldn't slide out. :)  While the glue dries move onto the next step.

Step #2:  Cut/trim the floral foam to fit inside your base 

Step #3:  Get out your glue and basket filler.  Using a small amount of glue, glue the basket filler over the floral foam so that you can't see the foam.  You'll add more later so no need to be perfect here. 

 

Step #4:  Start sticking your candy into the floral foam.  If you don't like the placement they can be rearranged.  I start with my largest pieces first, then move to the smallest to fill in any holes/gaps.

While sticking candy bars in, fill in more basket filler to hide some of the empty space between the mug and the candy. 
You can snip off the ends of the skewers to make shorter pieces (like 4 small bars in center of bouquet).

I'd say that the finish product is pretty dang cute (and yummy)!  Not bad for $10 and about 30 minutes!


Just in case you wanted to see what the back of the bouquet looks like. :)

What do you think?  I'd love to hear what you think, or see what you've done!  Send me pictures and I'll post them!

Thanks for looking!!