Valentine's Day Gift or Craft Centerpiece

The Valentine's Day table setting I posted for TT this week had a yummy centerpiece that is also great to make and give as a cute gift. This centerpiece was created in colors of red, pink and silver for Valentine's Day, but you can create the same centerpiece/gift with candy bars in pastel colors for Easter or Mother's Day or for a birthday gift. This also makes a great end-of-year gift for a favorite teacher.



Years ago, I bought one of these "sundaes" for my son. When I was moving everything out of his room to make way for a home office, I came across it again. He had never taken it apart to eat it...what was wrong with that boy?! ☺

I thought it would make a fun centerpiece for a Valentine's table, so I took it apart to see exactly how it was made and then recreated it with new candy. I've put together a little tutorial...you are going to love how easy this is to make.




To make this "sundae" you'll need:
Hot glue gun
1 parfait glass
50-55 small snack size candy bars (in whatever color is appropriate for your needs)
1 four-inch styrofoam ball (cut in half)
50-55 Floral U-pins (available in craft stores)
1 bendy straw (any grocery store should have these)
1 or 2 pieces of white tulle (around 6-8 inches in size) to represent the whipped topping
1 round red candy or truffle to represent the cherry on top
Time needed to make: Around 15 minutes




Here's a little close up of the floral U-pins. Before you get started, cut the 4" styrofoam ball in half.




Start by filling your parfait glass up with candy bars. Next, run a bead of hot glue around the top rim of the parfait glass. (The hot glue is visible in the pic below.)




Press the halved styrofoam ball onto the hot glue. Give that a minute to dry, then you're all set to start adding the tiny candy bars.




Take a floral U-pin and poke it through the edge of the paper on one end of the candy bar. You have to push pretty hard to get the floral pins to pierce the strong wrapper on the candy bar, so I worked atop a thick piece of foam board. A plastic cutting board would work well, also.




Starting at the bottom, stick the candy bars into the styrofoam ball all the way around as shown below. Repeat this process for two more rows. I got so carried away with adding the candy bars, I forgot to take pictures again until I had them all on.




I just went around and around layering them close enough to each other to hide the white of the styrofoam underneath. Three rows did the job, but I added 3-4 candy bars on top to finish it off and to make sure none of the styrofoam would be visible. I ended up using around 46 candy bars. Buy a few more just to be safe. You don't want to run out...plus, there's nothing wrong with a few leftovers for the creator of the sundae. ☺




Once all the candy bars are in place, take your bendy straw and bend/crimp it about 1/3 up from the bottom of the straw. Add a drop of hot glue to where you crimped the straw, then just push the straw down into the styrofoam ball.




Gather your tulle into kind of a poof and add some hot glue to the bottom where it's gathered together. I used two small pieces of tulle. That was easier than trying to keep one larger piece gathered together. Then just stick it onto the center/top of the styrofoam ball. You could probably use the floral pins to attach it, but hot glue worked better for keeping the tulle in the poofy shape I had created.




You're almost done. Just take your truffle or round piece of red candy and hot glue it in the center of the tulle, to represent the cherry on the top of your sundae.




That's it...all done!




When the pastel colored candy bars begin appearing in the stores any day now, you could make one of these for Easter. A candy-bar sundae would make a cute end-of-year gift for a teacher or a birthday gift for a friend or co-worker. Happy sundae making! ☺



You'll find additional Valentine's Day tablescapes, HERE. After you click, just scroll down to the header topic: "Valentines."