All the kids in my Sunday School class graduated from high school on Thursday and I wanted to give them all something so Courtney and I (but mostly Courtney) made them these soda pop candy bouquets to congratulate them.  The idea came from the little “Candy Bouquets” book that I got recently.  Their idea started with a small can of pop covered in soda pop flavored hard candies (which I couldn’t find) so Cort and I stuck with the little soda pop can and covered it with Jolly Ranchers and then I used my Cricut to cut out little graduation caps for the toppers.  Just a warning if you decide to make these, they end up being pretty heavy and break easily so be careful if you need to transport them anywhere.  (Yes, I dropped 2 of them and had to redo them!)

hot glue gun

1 (3 x 2″) styrofoam disk (found these at the Dollar Store)

1 (8 oz) can soda (we used 7 Up and Orange Crush for the color of the cans, if you live near me, Maceys grocery store has these)

1 (1 pound) bag soda poppers hard candies (we used Jolly Ranchers, you could use any hard candy and if you live near me or have a WinCo near you, you can find lots of hard candy choices in their bulk food department for about $1.48 a pound which isn’t bad)

50 – 60 quilters T-pins or straight pins

1  Using the glue gun, squeeze glue on 1 flat side of the styrofoam disk.  Attach the disk to the top of the soda can; let dry for 3 – 5 minutes.

2  Insert a pin through 1 end of the candy wrapper and affix pin and candy to the styrofoam.  Starting at the bottom, place candies in single rows around the outside and top of the styrofoam.  Repeat until top and sides of disk are completely covered.  Alternate candy flavors as desired.

(I used my Cricut to cut out a small graduation cap and tassel and then glued them onto half of a bamboo skewer (like the kind you used to barbecue with) and then pushed it into the top of the styrofoam.)