Making Your Bouquet

• To make your own candy bouquet, you must first choose a container. It can be a cup, flower pot, mug, vase or any other sturdy container. You can choose a pre-decorated container, or even paint and decorate one yourself. Coffee mugs work well if you plan to give the bouquet as a gift. Your recipient will then be able to eat the candy and also reuse the container.
  
  Once you choose your container, fill it with floral foam, available at any local craft store. This will give you a working base inside the container.
  
  Next, use sticks to create a bouquet-like arrangement. You can use chopsticks or bamboo skewers, or if the candy you're using has a stick--like with a lollipop, use floral wire to tie it to the skewer or chopstick. Hot glue also works well to secure candy to the stick because of its gel-like consistency and ease of removal. Another option is to wrap green pipe cleaners around the sticks to make the candy look more flower-like.
  
  When all your candy is attached to sticks and all the glue is dry, arrange them into a bouquet by pushing the sticks into the floral foam. You can arrange the candy any way that looks good to you, but be aware that placing the sticks too far apart may offset the balance, causing the container to tip easily. Also, if the arrangement will be viewed from the back, place some candy-topped sticks in the back as well.
  
  For a fuller bouquet, you can also add silk flowers to the arrangement. Simply place the flowers directly into the floral foam by their stems.
  
  To finish off the bouquet, use decorative garland or Easter grass to cover the foam. Easter grass works well for general occasions, but there are many types of decorative garland available at craft stores as well. A gift bow can also be added for additional decoration.