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I have a confession to make….before I began my real food journey I used to make and sell candy bouquets. If you don’t know what a candy bouquet is, it is like a flower arrangement, except it uses candy, or other small packaged snack foods instead of flowers. Kids absolutely LOVE candy bouquets….and so do men, and you certainly wouldn’t ever think about buying a guy a floral bouquet! That business actually did pretty well, but once I started learning about real food, I just didn’t want to make and deliver candy bouquets filled with processed, junk-filled candy all the time. I believe in moderation now. Once in a while, it is okay to indulge.
I still make bouquets on occasion, but now I typically try to use healthier options, such as individually wrapped organic chocolates and small snacks such as GMO-free granola bars, fruit leathers, packages of nuts….well, I think you get the idea.
Candy and snack bouquets look really expensive, but you can put together a bouquet pretty inexpensively….and the best part is that they make very unique gifts that people love to get! I used to charge $25 for a mug bouquet like the one I show you how to make here. But I can actually put together a mug bouquet for $8-$15 depending on what snacks I include (organic snacks and chocolate cost more). In the demonstration bouquet, I used GMO-free Kind granola bars and some organic fruit leathers. I paid $12 for all of the supplies for this bouquet.
And the best part is you choose what goes into the bouquet, so you can customize it for those who may be dealing with any food allergies or intolerances!
Want to learn more about how to make candy bouquets for fun…or profit? Check out my How to Make a Candy Bouquet course! Includes more than 80 minutes of video training on candy bouquet making!
Click here to check it out!
How do you make a candy bouquet?
You need to gather the following items:
Here is one place where you can find these items:
- Colored plastic tablecloth
- Bamboo BBQ Skewers
- Floral Foam blocks (these are the type that I use)
- Floral Pins (this is the brand that I use)
- Clear Packing Tape
- Curling Ribbon (love this brand…it curls really well)
- Fun Size Candy (you will do better if you can find one of these packs with multiple types of candy)
You can use colored tissue paper instead of plastic tablecloths, but tissue tends to wrinkle and rip more easily and is more difficult to work with. Also, you can find colored plastic tablecloths at stores like Walmart and dollar stores for around $1.
You will need a container with some weight. Mugs work really well for smaller bouquets (which is what I used for this tutorial). If the container is too light, your finished bouquet will be too heavy and topple over. One solution is to weigh down a lighter container. You can purchase balloon weights inexpensively at craft stores and party stores. You can find containers at dollar stores, discount stores, thrift stores, craft stores….you are really only limited by your imagination!
What you will do next:
And when I say that you don’t need the squares to be perfect, I’m not kidding. Usually, I get a combination of squares and rectangles and they all work just fine!
Step three:
When cutting the foam, usually a steak knife will do. Once again, you don’t have to be perfect with this. Just look at my example above! It is good if the foam sticks up above the top edge of your container just a bit. It makes it easier to pin the tablecloth squares!
Your container is ready so now you need to:
Pretty easy so far, right? Here’s what is next:
It is best to try to alternate colors when you are doing the above steps. And you can use more than just two colors. I’ve used as many as 5 or 6 colors before when using a multi-colored container and it looked great!
Next, you will need to attach the candy to long BBQ wooden skewers.
I always purchase the long BBQ skewers, although there are several sizes. These can typically be found in the same aisle as the kitchen gadgets at your local big box store. If you need to shorten them while you are adding the candy or snacks to the bouquet, then all you need to do is to break the skewer (they break fairly easily).
Now all you need to do is to start sticking the candy/snacks into the floral foam and arrange your candy bouquet. You will want the candy at different levels….taller in the back and shorter in the front. You can adjust as you work.
Once you are done arranging the bouquet and it looks the way you like, then just use some curling ribbon (make sure you curl it!) and drape it over the bouquet. It just gives your bouquet a little extra bling!
You can also take it one step further and wrap the bouquet in a cellophane gift basket bag. Tie the top with some more curling ribbon and curl.
One word of warning….although kids love these bouquets, they are NOT for really young children. The BBQ skewers and the floral pins are very sharp and can be dangerous for young children. They are definitely not toys!
Here’s what the finished candy bouquet looks like!
To show you some of the large bouquets that you can do and to show you what they look like wrapped in a cellophane gift basket bag, just check out the bouquets that I did professionally below.
I have been looking all over for boxes like the ones you used in your bouquets (the popcorn and happy birthday base boxes) for a craft project. I haven’t had any luck finding them. Where did you find them? And are they called something special?
I get those boxes from Nashvillewraps.com. They are gift basket boxes. They have a huge selection. The only downfall is that you have to order them in packages of 6. There may be other places to order them 1 at a time though. Hope that helps! 🙂
I hope you see this comment and can help me how many candy and snack Bouquet should I make for a Christmas craft fair ????
Hey Jill! The last time I did a Christmas craft fair, I had about 25 bouquets with me. I also did two different sized bouquets at two different price points. The small mug bouquets sold very well!! Hope that helps!
I have seen them at Dollar Tree Stores.
sometimes you can find the popcorn boxes at the dollar stores
http://www.nashvillewraps.com is where I get the vast majority of the supplies I need for my business.
Adorable. Easy. Excellent tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing. Can’t wait to get started.
I think you’ll really love making these! Enjoy! 🙂
how many should one make for a Christmas craft fair
I actually love seeing it when people don’t take an “all or nothing” approach to learning to live a healthy life. I love making brightly colored fondant cakes, and haven’t been able to completely give that up either.
I try to do natural colorings most of the time, but I know that for out planned Lego party this year, we’ll want bright colors again. I figure most people pick the fondant off anyway, and think at least my cake inside is homemade with the best ingredients I can find.
Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean we have to completely give up anything fun!
I was just noticing the change to your blog. It looks great, by the way!
Thanks! I found that when I was trying to be “perfect” when it came to healthy living that I was actually getting really stressed out….and that was actually harming my health more than being less than perfect. So I let go of the notion of perfection and it’s been so much easier! I don’t always buy organic produce, dairy and meat, and I’m still here and healthier than I was before. Glad you like the new site look! It was a lot of work, but I’m glad I did it! 🙂
Awsome work. Keep it up.
Hello Kathryn. I just purchased your candy bouquet course and loved it! Presently I am not in a good place so far as finances go and I gained interest in candy bouquets as a home-based business startup. There’s a lot of info on the internet and is overwhelming to say the least. Your course will help me to get started. I work a temporary job that will end the middle of October. I am kinda desperate to get started because it is hard to find work. So far as a website goes is it expensive because I tried to do it on my own and it is stressful to say the least. Also, how do I put up an online store? Is that the same as a website? Thank you in advance.
Hi Ronie! I’m so glad you loved the course!!! Yes, you can get a website going for no money. Look at sites like Wix.com or WordPress.com which don’t cost anything unless you want to add things like a special domain name. Both sites have options to help you create a store too. Also, don’t forget listing bouquets in places like Etsy.com. It’s only twenty cents for each listing there! And make sure to set up a Facebook page for your business, invite everyone you know to follow your page and encourage them to share it with others as well! Word of mouth is a big deal and the holidays are just around the corner and a prime time to sell bouquets!
If you make a boquet for example with a box should you put someting in the bottom for weight
Yes, that is a good idea!
hi would love to get staryrd with your cabdy bouquet kit
I don’t really sell kits. I have the basic instructions here, but I also have a very inexpensive course also. You can find that here https://kathryn-seppamaki.teachable.com/p/how-to-make-a-candy-bouquet/