Candy Cane Wreath Made by James and Nick

Made by Nick and James, Christmas 2011

The boys have been busy trying new Christmas crafts.  This was a success!  They each made a candy cane wreath for us to keep and decorate our home with and this one to give to a neighbor.

Needed:
22 wrapped canes (opt: extra for breakage)
hot glue
ribbon

Directions:

1. Using two canes, hot glue them back to back (with crooks pointed away from each other).  11 pairs should be the result.
2. Next, tie a length of ribbon onto each pair--this is decorative not functional.  Opt: Bows, ties, or, using curling ribbon, curly cues. 
3. Hot glue a pair of candy canes to another creating a "heart" shape" from the crooks.  Hot glue the bottom tips too.  Continue until all cane pairs have been added to the wreath.  Note: we found that sometimes we ended up with too much space at the top and not enough in the middle.  So, as can be seen in the pic here, we glued the last pair on top of the two other pairs where the gap was and used this as our anchor pair to attach the ribbon.
4. After all glue has cooled, use a long length of ribbon to hang the wreath.  We made a bow out of this wreath's anchor ribbon.  We found suction cup hooks at the Dollar Store to attach them to our front windows.

Note:  The more expensive the cane, in theory, the  more uniform the cane pairs will be.  The wreath is flimsy so be careful, but it will hold up once in place on the wall or window.

We are thinking it will be fun to get the mini canes, dewrap them, and make tree ornaments from them.  Probably have to toss them each year as I don't know if that will store-- but then again it might if they were stored in a zip lock  baggie first.

The idea was nabbed from here: http://www.beverlys.com/candy-cane-wreath/