“Trunk or Treat” (not to be confused with “Trick or Treat”) has become as popular as the traditional begging house to house, probably because Ohio inevitably has AWFUL weather on October 31st every year. So, families start mapping out Trunk or Treat events in the weeks leading up to Halloween. The majority of the events around here are sponsored by churches, and volunteers decorate their car trunks in the parking lot and hand out candy ~ keeps the treating to a confined area, usually lasts about an hour, and the volunteers get to be creative in designing their car trunk. I love it! Eli’s school opted to have a school-wide Trunk or Treat event this year rather than individual class parties, and it was a resounding success. Naturally, the crafting diva in me filled out the volunteer form and had that baby turned back into the school in record time with our chosen theme – Candyland. Sooo many things you can do with this theme, it’s friendly for all ages, and I could use household items to create “candy” in all shapes and sizes, making this especially easy on my budget (huge bonus because volunteers had to supply their own candy for 300 kiddos!). The only thing I bought for this entire display was a clear painters drop cloth to tie around the balloons, which set me back $3. Seriously! Here are some easy examples of how you can turn your car (or van!) into Candyland central next year!

Every Candy Land needs lollipops, so this was my first project. I gathered 3 pool noodles, 3 rolls of ribbon, my trusty cordless hot glue gun, and 3 sturdy white sticks. To make a lollipop, cut the pool noodles down the middle and hot glue 2 ends together. Wrap the ribbon around the pool noodles, securing with glue every so often. You can use any color of ribbon to really customize the lollipops. I wanted to use what I already had on hand, so all of my lollipops had white stripes. After wrapping the ribbon, tightly roll up the pool noodle, again securing every so often with glue. Poke a hole near the end and insert a painted dowel rod or other sturdy stick. Secure with hot glue. Easy peasy lollipops that make a great wow factor! We had so many families stop to get pictures of their costumed-kids with the lollipops.

Now that you have a few lollipops, you definitely need some chocolate. The iconic Hershey’s milk chocolate bar is an easily recognizable candy, and super simple to make. I went to Costco and got a large sheet of cardboard ~ free! It’s my go-to place for cardboard and the cashiers are always so interested in what I’m making. They said teachers come in often for cardboard sheets and boxes 🙂 Anyways, I cut the cardboard sheet in half and then folded a sheet of foil around each end. After securing with a bit of glue (I do love hot glue!), I wrapped a piece of brown bulletin board paper around the middle, leaving about 4-5 inches of foil showing on each end. If you’re not familiar with “bulletin board paper,” it’s long rolls of paper often used by teachers to cover large bulletin boards. Go to any craft store or teacher store and they can direct you to the many colorful rolls! Or, if you know any teachers, ask if they have some paper left 🙂 I used my Silhouette machine to trace the Hershey’s font and cut out the letters on white cardstock. I love how these bars turned out!

I needed something to hold the lollipops upright, and planned on just covering any box with paper. Then, low and behold, my dad bought a new paper shredder that happened to come in a box that instantly made me think “Nerds!” I taped the box closed and then wrapped half of it in colored bulletin board paper. The Wonka logo and Nerds log were both cut on my Silhouette machine. The thing that really makes this box, are the little “Nerds” scattered on each side. I traced and cut the basic outline and then used a black Sharpie marker to fill in the details. They are so cute! Since I wanted this box to hold my lollipops, I cut 3 small holes in the top (through the paper so I wouldn’t need to wrap the box around the sticks) for them and secured with hot glue. Oh, and that adorable Tootsie Roll??? I wrapped paper around a shipping tube 🙂