Treats in Plastic

No presents this year. A lot of people I know are staying home, having romantic little Christmastimes alone this year. Sometimes things out of our control (like the economy) can force us to remember what times like these are really about... 

Crafts and treats and surprising friends!!

I vowed no presents, but I didn't say I would give random people random little home made treats, just because (wink).

My dear friend Alison and her sweetheart Brent reportedly had a somewhat bare Christmas tree this year. As it is their first Christmas together, they hadn't yet accumulated many decorations. So I had a fun idea.

At the local dollar store I picked up some candy and some plain Styrofoam ball ornaments. Above are Nerds hot glued to a ball in a random pattern. Nerds were one of Alison's favorite candies as a child.

I had some wire that I bent and used to secure 3 Reese's cups together in a stack. The Reese's were for Brent's sweet tooth.

CJ's favorite candy were the dinner mints his grandpa used to give him. I still had some of this wire mesh left over from school project, ahem, 6 years ago.

If you try this yourself, just be very careful. That wire mesh can slice right through flesh!

My SmoreMan's smile ran a little. My advice: Don't use a sharpie for his smile. Instead, use black bead or pins like I did for his eyes and buttons. He now looks a bit like a blood thirsty SmoreMan.

I had a box of liquid polymer coating left over from another project I did a few years ago. So I dipped all my candy creations into the plastic to help preserve them longer. 

Gummy initials dipped pretty well, but they didn't solidify as much as I would expect. They are however smooth and not sticky.

The plastic was going really far and I ran out of things to dip! So I strung some lifesavers I found at the back of the cupboard onto a string and dipped them.

The Nerd Ball worked out very well. 

What I learned: Don't dip anything waxy or greasy. Laffy Taffy didn't hold the plastic. As it dried, the plastic oozed off and didn't coat the taffy much at all. I'm hoping Alison can spray some lacquer on it, but if it goes in the garbage I'll understand. 

Also, my Smore Men worked about half way. The marshmallow worked although was a lot softer than I thought. The chocolate was too greasy and didn't hold all the plastic either. The reason the Reese's worked was because the sides were paper, and the plastic pooled on top of the chocolate.

I packed them up with some old ornaments that we bought for our first tree when we got married, that have slowly been replaced with homemade or gifted ornaments. I sent them away with a little note. I just got an email from her with the following pictures! (She's quite the photographer, isn't she!)

Merry Christmas!