Here is the finished ornament and as you can see it is very cute, but very simple.
First to gather your supplies you will need:
1.) red peppermints, green spearmints, or both
2.) Pipe cleaners
3.) ribbon cut into about 6 inch lengths
4.) red-hots
5.) LOW temp hot glue gun
6.) glue sticks
7.) spray can of clear shellac clear coating
First take five mints of either red or green and arrange into a circle. Then put a dot of glue between each mint until are all attached together.
You are looking at the backside of your mint. Now you will take you pipe cleaner and cut of a piece long enough to make a circle large enough to glue to the back of the mint circle with out showing on the other side. Then criss-cross the ends of one of you 6inch long ribbons making a look to hang your ornament by. The picture below shows what it should look like after both of these steps.
Finally you will glue one red-hot to the center of each mint.
Lastly once all of the glue had dried very firmly you will spray a coat of shellac over the entire mint area. Again here is the picture of the final project.
Each student made one of each color and they are too cute. When we were finished we had quite a bit of the supplies left over so I decided to get creative (with the teachers permission of course) to make a mint wreath for the classroom.
I started by making a large circle alternating color of mints and gluing them together.
Next I grabbed some long pipe cleaners
and attached them together on one end. I didn't not make a circle since I wasn't sure just two would go all the way around the back of the wreath
I started gluing it around the back of the wreath in the center of the mints. .
Then I started another circle of alternating colored mints on the inside of the first circle. I glued them together and to the outside circle
Then I glued a pipe cleaner around the back of the inner circle of mints
Then for extra stability I took a couple more pipe cleaners and glued them in a zig-zagg pattern between the two circles of pipe cleaners.
After that dried pretty well I flipped it over and admired my handiwork. I decided that to add red-hots to it after having the alternating colored mints made it too busy looking. It wasn't done since after the teacher sprays it with shellac I am going to wrap a wide red ribbon completely around the top/through the wreath and tie it in a bow to hang bye. She was going to spray everything down over the weekend so a truly final picture will be posted next week, but I just couldn't wait to share this project since it would be super fun to do with your kids over the weekend if you are looking for such a project. Until then here is how it turned out minus the shellac and ribbon to hang it by
I cant wait to finish it up on Monday.
I do have a few pointers for you if you decide to do it yourself. Low temp hot glue was the only glue that would stick together and dry quickly enough for a children's project without melting/liquefying the candy. everything else made the red-hot slimy or just didn't stick the mints together. Also you NEED something on the back for stability and pipe cleaners is just what we came up with. You can try something else if you like but this did the trick for us.
Overall, it was a fun day spent with my daughter class and was very productive. I hope you like this simple, quick, and cute project, and if you decide to make it or another variation I would love to see a picture and hear all about it!
Merry Christmas!
Have a great Day and God Bless!
