Candy Centerpiece

Did your child get too many suckers for Halloween? Or maybe there's suckers on clearance that you can grab. Either way, ignore your sweet tooth and use those suckers for this super fun, kid-friendly project!!

Here's what you need:
Lots of suckers!!! I bought mine from Dollar Tree. I got five bags with 33 pops in each bag. Little ones like "Dum Dums" probably will work the best. We used about 140 total.
A 9" foam ring, like for floral projects. I found mine at Dollar Tree also (score!)

My job was to cut the sticks so they were about 2-3 inches long. Molly's job (age: 4) was to poke them into the foam ring and create a masterpiece! Keep the suckers close together so there's no gaps in color. We kept the wrappers on because I thought the clear cellophane looked cute with the colors showing through. You don't have to keep them on though - but if you do take them off, spray the final product with a few coats of lacquer so it will last.

Our foam ring actually broke at one point, so I just hot glued it back together. You might want to find a thicker one from a real store. LOL! After all the suckers were in, I gently pulled on each one to make sure they were snug. A few were loose because they had bigger holes, so I put a dab of hot glue on those sticks and pressed them back in. Voila! A beautiful centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table!

This project was inspired by a wreath craft I found in the October 2011 issue of Taste Of Home Magazine. They hot glued all the candy on their wreath, but I wanted ours to be kid-friendly. I also think ours was too heavy to be a wreath so we modified it that way, too. ;O)