Guest Post Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous

Ooooooh!  You are so in for a treat today!   My cyber-BFF Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous has agreed to be my guest for today!   I love haunting her blog.  She has the best ideas and scouts out all the great crafts to share with you.  Right now, I'm having a crush on these grey felt flower embellishments she did.  You have just got to go there and bookmark her site.  You will thank me!   So, without further delay, I want to introduce you to Linda!



Hi everyone! This is Linda, the crazy craft addict from Craftaholics Anonymous and I'm excited to be guesting on Sweet Jeanette today! I love Christmas and I love simple, easy crafts, so I thought what better craft to share with you than my Christmas Lollipops. These cuties are perfect as ornaments, gift toppers, decorations, garlands, etc. Plus, if you have small helping hands around the house, they could help with folding the paper and decorating them :)

So here's the how-to's for Lollipop Ornaments.

Supplies:

• two 1.5"x12" strips of double sided pattern paper (this will make a 3" diameter lollipop)
• two 2" circles of coordinating paper
• button(s)
• 6" hemp or ribbon (to hang it with)
• double sided adhesive
• hot glue gun

Take one strip of 1.5"x12" paper and fold over about 1/2".

Flip over and fold again 1/2" so that your paper starts looking like an accordion.

Fold both strips of paper like this.

Then place the end of one accordion strip onto the end of the other strip. Overlapping one or two folds. Use your double sided adhesive to hold in place. I suppose you could use your hot glue gun for this as well, but I'd recommend double sided adhesive.

Then twist the other ends of the accordion strips around. You will have excess length that you'll want to cut off. Depending on how big your folds are will depend on how much extra length you'll have. I cut off about 7" (I pulled it straight to measure it)and my folds were roughly 1/2". I recommend folding extra because it seems like each lollipop I make the folds are slightly different and I need different lengths. With two 12" long strips, I usually have enough. (if you want really big lollipops, you'll use 3 or 4 strips of 12" paper) Use your double sided adhesive to hold the ends together.

Now squish the circle and try to the center whole as small as possible.

Put hot glue all around the center trying to get inside the accordion grooves as best as you can. (I tried other adhesives for this step, but this is what I found worked best for me. I tried glue dots and double sided adhesive strips, but nothing held for longer than 5 minutes. If you have something that works better, let me know) 

Then attach one 2" circle over the hot glue.

Repeat with the back side.

Attach the other 2" circle to the back.

Hot glue on your button. I threaded my button with DMC floss.

Put hot glue under the front 2" circle and slip your ribbon or hemp into the glue.

There you go! Simple, cute, and inexpensive!

Here's the original Lollipop Ornaments I made:

Thanks for having me over to play, Jeanette! 

Happy {holiday} Crafting!

Linda