These DIY candy crafts are the perfect little handmade gift that will not only engage your recipient but also your kids for a while.
I love making little “thinking of you” gifts here and there and these fall right into that camp. Nothing so big that it’ll overwhelm your gift receiver, just something small to show your appreciation.
These ornament candy cards can be made with almost any card by just cutting out a circle the width of your ornament half but I modified a few of my cute animal card templates to make these animal themed candy cards.
I’ve seen these also made with an iris card template as well which makes it much easier to fill the shells but I find iris cards really tedious to make which takes away the fun of crafting for me. I just keep it simple and added a perforated opening in the back for the recipient to be able to fish out the candy without destroying the rest of the card.
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Materials for DIY Candy Crafts
Ornament Shells – I had a bunch leftover from the holidays but you can get an assorted size set of clear ornament blanks from Amazon. These are probably the easiest way to shell the candy.
Glue – Tacky glue or something similar works best for this craft project.
Cardstock – Medium weight or heavier cardstock is ideal for this project. Here are some of my favorites for card making:
- Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
- Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
- Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
- Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
- Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
- Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.
Cricut – I use a cutting machine to do some of the cutting for this project. This of course is optional but it sure makes things go faster. Check out my reviews for Best Cricut machines for beginners if you’re new to the Cricut.
Templates – I’ve included these animal candy card templates in both PDF and SVG file formats for free in my resource library.
How to Make Candy Cards
First, cut out all the cardstock pieces and assemble your other materials.
Next, position all the components to a card in place.
Glue down all the pieces not touching the shell. Then trace the outline of the shell on the base of the card.
Depending on what kind of candy you want to use, you can either place the glue on the card and then cup the sell on top or place glue on the filled shell then cover it with the card base.
I highly recommend using wrapped candy, that way, you don’t have to worry about getting glue on the candy. Also, you can use one of the round shape cutouts to put a “lid” on the candy filled shell. (Peanut m&ms weren’t the best choice either for unwrapped candy but I had a leftover bag from Halloween that was going to get thrown out anyways. Doesn’t anyone even like peanut m&ms?)
I’ll admit, these animal shapes were not ideal for the bigger ornament shells as you would have to cut the thing super big to accommodate a larger shell diameter. The bottom heavy penguin was the best fit for this project.
However, I have included the perforated line as part of templates so you can customize any other card with this design.
