DIY Candy Bouquet Themed--Retirement

This is the final bouquet....as you can see I did have a theme of blue.  I did take this project one step further and printed out on card stock "Because you are retired"....and then applied it to the non candy item.  Here is what I came up with...again trying to stay small to keep a compact bouquet, and trying to stay in the blue theme......BECAUSE YOU ARE RETIRED

• you can play cards more.
• you can help (wife) more around the house---blue scrubbies
• play hockey more--first aid kit
• suduko book--relax more
• gardening gloves--garden more
• Dinner gift card--have dinner on us

I'm sure you get the idea....here are my photo's...not the best picture taker I am...but am learning as I go :-)

laid out my supplies...forgot to tell you I use a pool noodle to stick my items in....way cheaper than floral foam.

filled my cookie jar/vase with hard candy

cut my pool noodle to size

wrapped my noodle with the blue tissue, and turning everything upside down, worked it into the vase as low as I could go...I ended up trimming the tissue, as I thought it looked sloppy...remember I'm not an expert at these...just loved doing DIY ideas.

I'm a quilter so I was able to neatly cut my card stock sayings...I attached them to my purchased items with tape, glue or staples.  I find when preparing my candy it's easier to just use plain tape to pre-stick my bamboo skewers....then I trim my duct tape to size, and secure the skewers to the back of all the items I wish to put in the bouquet.

I prepared some celo just by cutting squares, and folding them in a way that would make a nice spray...also did the same with my blue tissue and made my bow....everything is ready for assembling.

I decided to trim the tissue, thought it would be neater.

Then I just stuck everything into the pool noodle...starting with my largest pieces at the back, and placing them to make a nice compact bouquet.

Ta...Da....finished and admired :-).  Well our neighbour loved it!  We were unable to attend his retirement party because of a previous commitment.  This came together very quickly....wasn't inexpensive...but could be if you used smaller chocolate bars--mine were full size--a recycled container--overall without the gift card, you can easily make this for under $15 or $12.  You could make it even less expensive by using a container that doesn't show....thus not needing the hard candy to cover the pool noodle/foam.  Hope you give this a try.