fresh from the Makery, how-to edition: faux swirl lollipops

Three months after the event, I finally had a chance to add the invites I made for my son's Cat in the Hat themed 3rd birthday party to my Etsy shop.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, the party was really easy to plan around that theme and those colors, and in the end I actually edited out a number of projects.  Even if it wasn't Cat in the Hat themed per se, I found myself buying up anything promising that came in red and/or turquoise, like these pipe cleaners and tulle circles.

My original idea was to use the tulle circles in place of tissue paper in the red favor bags to look like the hair of Things 1 and 2 sticking out (but then I found those spiky, squishy balls at Target, which were more fun, anyway).  I had no ideas, really, for the pipe cleaners but after almost buying ridiculously expensive old fashioned swirl lollipops for said goody bags, I thought about making pretend versions to use as decoration.  Well, I never got around to it...until earlier this week.

And in addition to putting them in my shop, I thought, even as easy as they were to make, I'd try my hand at a little how-to.  Here we go...

Step 1: Take one of your pipe cleaners and bend it into a relatively tight spiral.  I thought about adding a line of glue all the way around but a) I don't have enough hands to do that without burning myself repeatedly and b) turns out it's not really necessary - yay!

Step 2: That said, when you have your pipe cleaner spiral, it helps to put a little dollop of glue (I used a hot glue gun - one of my all-time favorite crafty tools) where the end is, after letting it relax just a bit into the shape it wants to be (whoa, this almost turned into a feel-good, self-helpy, motivational post).

Step 3: After the glue cools and the shape is set, apply another line of glue on the side of the lollipop that will be its back, from the center of the spiral out to one edge.  Quickly, before the glue begins to dry, set a lollipop stick (you can get these at any specialty food or craft supply store like Michael's) in the glue and hold flat until it's almost dry.

 

Step 4: Now it's time to wrap your faux swirl lollipop. You could use a square piece of cellophane for this step, for a more realistic effect, but I kind of like the tulle, not only because I had it on hand and I like the color contrast but now it looks like my faux lollipop is sporting a little tutu. Or a veil. A veil and a tutu.

Step 5: Gather the tulle where the lollipop meets the stick...

Step 6: ...and finish with Baker's twine (I'm partial to The Twinery, myself) or ribbon. Yummy!