They're Going To Be THAT House

I had so much fun making the little candy bars recently that I decided to be proactive for getting ready for Halloween! While a couple of months away, I really want to be able to decorate and get this family ready! My focus this week: THE CANDY!

My inspiration on how much to make comes from a neighbor of ours. Years ago, she took one of those big, plastic cauldrons (the ones that are about a foot and a half or two feet deep and at least a foot and a half across) and FILLED it to the brim with candy for trick-or-treaters! And, she had the good stuff in there! It was a bonanza of chocolate that just made your mouth water upon stepping up to her front porch.

The amazing part of this situation is that this sweet lady would gush over the costumed kids and then SCOOP candy out of the cauldron and into their buckets! I mean, this was a two-handed, use-them-like-a-machine-scoop situation, and each kid received TWO such scoops! I remember being in shock watching this happen, and I still remember the kids just gasping and announcing through their squeals and not-put-together exclamations of joy! We actually had to go back home to deposit that candy before heading out to more houses because the buckets were immediately full! Yeah, for a few years, she was THAT house!

Well, that's what I want for Hal and company, and, to do that, I need to get to work! I've printed a mess of what I've already made (Hershey's, Reese's and KitKats), and I love putting those together because they're really quite easy. But, I wanted a variety which just a few minutes on Pintrest afforded me! Look!

Each wrapper is around a small scrap from the Woodpile stuff to give it some durability. I used different thicknesses depending on the candy. And, the M&Ms and Skittles are crimped on their ends with the pliers to give it the realistic-looking seal! Of course, everything was Tim Holz micro glazed and polyurethaned, too.

I LOVE THESE SO MUCH!

These KitKats are actually Halloween wrappers! I found Reese's Halloween
ones, too. I think I need to get to printing many more of these!

Hal is totally double-fisting the chocolate while
Polly enjoys some newly created Goldfish. 😊

That basket shall be full by the time Halloween rolls around if I have anything to do with it! I hope to find a cool cauldron or pumpkin container. If not, I might just paint this basket black and put fun, orange ribbon and decoration on it. The candy is the most important part, though, and I'm glad to have a jump on it!

I am RIDICULOUSLY excited about these candies!

I also made some Life Saver rolls! Originally, they were going to be for the trick-or-treaters you really kind of wish didn't come to your door, but, as I look at them, they are just as awesome! (No they're not as they're not chocolate, but that's a different debate!)

Anyway, here's how these happened. First, I found some printables on Pintrest. I cut 'em out and gave them the micro glaze treatment:

The directions written by these labels said to put glue on the back of them, then roll them up from the white end creating the product. My problem was not figuring out how to start to roll them tight enough to make the middle solid and maintain a nice, round shape. I also feared my fingers getting sticky and ruining more labels than I would roll. So, I used a toothpick as my solution:

This made rolling them super easy taking just enough care to keep it reasonable straight and tight (enough) on the toothpick.. You can see in the pic that there is a little straggle on the right side where my angle went awry. I take care of that in the next step! This is also when I polyurethaned them. Doing so while the toothpick was still in tact let me paint all the way around because I could lean the toothpick on something upright to dry. These are so small that covering most-but-not-all, letting them dry then flipping them like I do all of the other products would just be a pain. So, I fixed that.

After letting these dry completely, I cut the ends:

Using the saw was way better than using cutters because the sawing helped maintain the roundness of the roll. It is here that I cut into the little paper straggles, too. And, if needed, I sanded the ends with an emery board after cutting.

Now, I've not had a roll of Life Savers for ... I have NO idea how long! But, I remember them having silver wrapping on the ends. So, these needed that, too!

After stirring the paint with a stick, I realized it was probably easier to just swirl the ends of the rolls around on the stick than to be super-accurate with a paint brush. I had a little more control over not using too much paint this way, too. And, if a little paint spilled on to the label, it was easy to wipe off thanks to my best friend polyurethane. Whee!

These are just entirely too cute!

Grandma Laura is enjoying a fruity roll with a Pep O Mint roll on reserve in case her sweetie comes out to stargaze with her!

The only thing that would make this stash better would be to have Wild Cherry rolls in there. Remember those? Oh holy moly, those were the BEST!

From here! I have some Fall and Halloween fabric pulled from my stash to make sure the porch pillows are appropriately festive! I also have a mess of food things I printed and have already primed with the micro glaze to make! And, that doesn't even begin to cover the INSIDE ideas I keep having!

SO. MANY. GOOD. THINGS! I'll check back in with the next installment soon!