Candy Melt Witches

After making my peanut butter graham cracker owls, I was playing around with the leftover candy eyes and candy corn and realized they'd make awesome witches. My witches are green, because I was born after 1939. Fun fact: People who grew up before 1939 grew up seeing witches portrayed with red or orange skin. Affiliate links below. 

Candy Melt Witches

Materials: 

• parchment paper
• green Candy Melts
• candy corn
• large candy eyeballs*
• black jimmies
• black sugar pearls

Steps: 

Put a sheet of parchment paper onto your work surface. Prepare the Candy Melts according to the package directions, then spoon a blob of melted candy onto the parchment. Drag the spoon through it to create a chin. 

Place a piece of candy corn in the middle of the face for the witch's nose. Drizzle additional melted candy over the top. Put the eyes in place, then choose two black jimmies as eyebrows. Push additional jimmies up against the edges of the still-melted candy for hair. Finally, add a sugar pearl wart on the witch's nose. 

Let the candy set for approximately 15 minutes, then peel it from the parchment paper. Every witch is going to turn out a bit different, which is half the fun!

I'd intended these for Halloween, but they would also be fun for a Wizard of Oz themed party. Turn the finished witches upside down, put a lollipop stick on each, then 'glue' the sticks in place with more melted candy for a super fun Witch-on-a-Stick treat. Wouldn't they look cute alongside this famous quintet? (Answer: Yes.)

*Same problem as with the owls. It appears the Wilton candy eyeballs printed with the eyelashes are discontinued. Make your own by drawing eyelashes onto the candy eyeballs I've linked above using a black edible marker. 

Cardboard Tube Cowardly Lion

I've learned some things as I've been making my cardboard tube Wizard of Oz characters. Gluing tiny bits of hay to a scarecrow is NOTHING compared to photographing a reflective Tin Man. Photographing a reflective Tin Man is NOTHING compared to working with faux fur. Henceforth, I will be referring to "faux fur" as Fuzzy Evil.

Ordinarily, this is where I'd encourage you to make your own, but I can't in good conscience tell anyone to work with Fuzzy Evil. If you insist, however, follow the directions below. There are affiliate links in the materials list.

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Cardboard Tube Cowardly Lion

Materials: 

• cardboard tube
• tan paint
• foam brush
• craft glue
• Fuzzy Evil (similar to this; I can't find exactly what I used)
• scissors
• kraft cardstock
• brown inkpad
• googly eyes
• brown pen

Steps:

Paint the cardboard tube with tan paint and let it dry completely. Cut a strip of Fuzzy Evil long enough to just wrap around the tube. It should be high enough to leave the face area exposed. Glue it in place. Cut a second piece of Fuzzy Evil to cover the back of the head, sticking up slightly behind the back of the head. Glue it in place. Add a few random tufts to the inside front of the tube. 

Cut a pair of matching ears from cardstock. Ink the edges, fold a small tab backward, and add glue. Put the ears on either side of the face. 

Glue the googly eyes in place, then use the brown pen to draw a nose, mouth, and whiskers. Then start filling in around the face with small tufts of Fuzzy Evil. Keep going until it looks relatively even. Finally, cut two short tufts and roll them in your hands like you'd make a playdough snake. These will be the eyebrows. Glue them in place, pointing down toward the center, but make sure your lion doesn't look evil. 

Now, take a shower and vacuum the house twice to eliminate as much Fuzzy Evil from your craft space as possible. (Note: You cannot remove it all. It's worse than glitter.) 

 As much as I struggled making this (and cleaning up afterward), I'm happy to have completed the Cowardly Lion. I have a few more items to add to my cardboard tube Wizard of Oz collection. In the meantime, check out the tutorials for the characters I've shared already: Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man.

Who (or what) do you think is coming next??

Cardboard Tube Tin Man

Cardboard Tube Dorothy and Cardboard Tube Scarecrow have a new friend.

While he has a great personality (all heart, that guy), he is not very photogenic. I mean, he has a nice smile and all, but he tends to reflect everything around him, making it hard to see the real him. 

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Cardboard Tube Tin Man 

Materials:

• cardboard tube
• scissors
• silver Oly*Fun (affiliates link here and below)
• scotch tape
• glue gun and Hot Glue Gun Helpers
• googly eyes
• black Sharpie
• small rhinestones
• craft glue

Steps:

Cut a piece of Oly*Fun that is slightly taller and slightly wider than the cardboard tube. Line it up flush with one opening of the cardboard tube and use tape to hold it in place temporarily so it doesn't shift. Wrap the Oly*Fun around the tube, securing it with hot glue. The edges will overlap. Set the Tin Man's body with the flush end down on the table. There will be excess fabric on the end that will be his head. Fold the excess fabric over the top and down into the cardboard tube. Remove the tape.

Cut a 2" high strip of Oly*Fun and curl it into a tight tube with the shiny side out. Glue it closed. Tape the tube to the dull side of a larger rectangle of Oly*Fun (about 2" x 8"), as shown below.

Curl the rectangle to form an open cone shape, as shown below. Put a piece of tape to hold it in place. Now make adjustments. You might need to curl it more tightly or loosely. You might need to raise or lower the tight tube. When everything looks good, secure it in place with hot glue. You can remove the tape or leave it. 

Trim the edges of the cone, then use hot glue to secure it on top of the Tin Man's head. 

Use craft glue to add googly eyes. Draw on a nose and a mouth. Finally, glue rhinestones down the front of the Tin Man to mimic the rivets.  

I chose to glue them rhinestone-side down because the flat side looked more like rivets to me. Not that you can tell in the photo, because they're all reflecting something. 

This trio of friends will be meeting someone new fairly soon. I am confident he will be less reflective, if nothing else. Right now he is just a piece of faux fur with a major shedding problem. Stay tuned!

Cardboard Tube Scarecrow

When you see this cardboard tube scarecrow, do you think of fall...

....  or do you think of The Wizard of Oz? Because really, it could go either way. 

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Cardboard Tube Scarecrow

Materials: 

• cardboard tube
• scissors
• construction paper (green, brown, black, red)
• craft glue
• burlap
• scotch tape
• light brown yarn
• googly eyes
• black Sharpie
• dried hay bits (plenty of those here, thanks to Trouble!)

Steps: 

Wrap a piece of brown construction paper around the bottom third of the cardboard tube. Glue it in place. Wrap a piece of green construction paper around the middle third, slightly overlapping the brown. Glue it in place. Wrap a piece of burlap around the top third. Tape it in place temporarily. 

Cut two pieces of yarn. Tie one piece around the scarecrow's waist and another around his neck. 

Push the portion of burlap that sticks up past the edge of the cardboard tube down into the tube. Remove the tape from the burlap; it should stay in place. 

Create a hat by cutting a rectangle of black construction paper that is about 2" x 6". Fold one edge up, then wrap the construction paper around the scarecrow's head, forming a cone shape by overlapping one end of the construction paper over the other. Add tape to temporarily hold the cone shape. Remove the hat from the scarecrow, trim the excess construction paper, then add glue along the overlapped section. Keep the tape in place until the glue is dry, then remove it. Put a generous amount of glue on the inside of the hat and glue it to the scarecrow's head. 

Cut a small red triangle and two red squares. Glue the triangle where the nose would be. Glue the squares onto the scarecrow's pants. 

Cut a smile from the scraps from the hat and glue it in place. Add the googly eyes. Then use the Sharpie to draw the scarecrow's legs and the stitch marks on the patches. Finally, glue little tufts of hay (or straw) to the scarecrow. Raffia would work, too.

Yes, of course I have tutorials for Cardboard Tube Dorothy and Cardboard Tube Toto. More characters coming soon!

Cardboard Tube Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and Toto

When I was cleaning out my scraps last week, I came across a blue gingham paper that totally reminded me of Dorothy's dress in the Wizard of Oz. So naturally, I used the paper to make Cardboard Tube Dorothy Gale. (Isn't that what anyone would do? No?)

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Cardboard Tube Dorothy Gale

Materials:

• cardboard tube
• skin tone paint
• brown yarn
• scissors
• white paper
• gingham paper
• coffee filter
• red paper
• red Stickles
• brown paper
• googly eyes
• black Sharpie
• craft glue

Steps:

Paint the cardboard tube with the skin tone paint. Set it aside to dry.

Cut about twenty 6" lengths of yarn. Gather them together, then use two more pieces of yarn to tie the bundle together, approximately 1" from each side. Cut off the excess from the yarn you used to tie knots. Cut two skinny strips of gingham paper and glue them around the yarn at the two locations where you tied it. 

Cut the coffee filter so that you have an arc. It will be the underskirt of Dorothy's dress.

Use the coffee filter to trace the shape of Dorothy's skirt. Extend the inner and outer arcs a bit so that there is enough paper to wrap around the back of the tube. Cut out the skirt. 

Cut a strip of white paper and glue it to the cardboard tube where the neck would be. Glue a strip of gingham paper 1/2" below that. Cut two skinny strips and glue them to the front of the dress to make the straps. 

Wrap the coffee filter around the bottom of the tube, gluing it at the top only. You want the bottom to billow out like a skirt. 

Wrap the skirt piece around the tube, leaving 1/4" of the coffee filter underskirt showing. 

Cut two cone-shaped pieces of red paper for Dorothy's slippers. Add a thin coat of Stickles to the pointed ends for sparkle. Set them aside to dry.

Put a line of glue around the top of the head, then place it upside down on a piece of brown paper. Let it dry, then trim the edges flush with the tube. (This is to give the hair a place to stick.)

Glue the googly eyes in place, then use the Sharpie to add a nose and a mouth. Add a generous amount of glue to the head and place the yarn on top. (In retrospect, it might look better if the hair was in two sections, giving her a part. Up to you.) I used a rubber band to hold the hair in place while the glue was drying. 

Fold the red papers so that they have a 90° bend. Position the slippers so that the sparkly toes are sticking out from her dress and the other ends are flush against the inside of the tube. Glue them in place.

That's all there is to it! "But what about Toto?" you may be asking. You can find that tutorial here. I didn't realize at the time that I was making Toto, but he's perfect to accompany Dorothy!

Should I make more Wizard of Oz characters? It might be a fun challenge...

Two-in-One: Cardboard Tube Bear or Dog

My latest cardboard tube project is a bear:

Or a dog. It's the same tube. I just changed out the ears.

Materials: cardboard tube, paint (dark brown, white), scissors, craft glue, googly eyes, black mini pom pom

Paint the cardboard tube dark brown. Add a drop of white paint to the brush and wipe it on the inside of the tube until no more comes off. This will be the muzzle and tummy. When the paint is dry, cut one of the halves open.

Use that open piece to cut the muzzle and tummy from the light brown interior. Use the dark brown part to make rounded ears for the bear, or pointy ears for the dog. Cut a slit halfway up the center of each ear. Slide the ears of choice onto the edge of the tube.

Glue the muzzle and tummy in place, securing them with a rubber band until the paint is dry. Add the googly eyes and pom pom nose. Done!