Do you ever get an idea in your head and you JUST HAVE TO DO IT?!!!
It all started when I saw these adorable red lanterns on Krystal of Simply-girly.com’s Instagram feed. She said they were from Walmart, of all places. I had never been to a Walmart Superstore and had no clue where the closest one was to our home. So, what does a resourceful, obsessive girl do, I Yelped it and drove straight there after dropping off the kids at school. Yep. On a mission.
Well, I didn’t just come home with lanterns, but I also found an adorable spiral red and white striped “Reindeer Parking” pole sign that I too, JUST HAD TO HAVE! And, if you have a red and white striped pole, of COURSE you have to have red and white candy canes! (This is beginning to feel like “When You Give A Mouse A Cookie”, the children’s book!!!)
(See the striped pole sign?!!! On the left?! Isn’t it adorable?! And at 30 bucks, it had to come home with me 🙂 ! )
Back to the candy canes…
I didn’t want just ordinary candy canes you purchase from the store. Adorable, yes, that light up the walkway! I wanted HUGE, MASSIVE, GINORMOUS candy canes!!!! Something that would STAND OUT! That wouldn’t just get lost in the shrubs that line our walkway.
I had seen giant candy canes last year on my winter walk in Willow Glen, San Jose, CA. I’m sure you remember the post from last year here! They have so many unique themes. I am in awe every time I go.
So, I set off on a mission to make these PVC candy canes. Well…after a trip (or 2) to Home Depot, I realized, there are no 2″, 90 degree joint for PVC pipes. And, after doing some more research online, realized these people most likely used heat and bend them themselves, like this amazing dad here. Oh boy. That was not going to happen here in the Manos household. I had to come up with something easier.
LIGHTBULB! The shepherd hooks I ALWAYS line the walkway with are shaped like candy canes already. I just needed to make them “chunky”. The dad I mentioned above used a small PVC pipe and then covered it with a pool noodle. Well…remember the large spider I made for Halloween (here!)? I still had 4 of those foam pipe covers that were going to be the legs of the second spider that I NEVER GOT AROUND TO MAKING!!! Woohoo!!! There was my solution.
HOW TO MAKE OVER-SIZED CANDY CANES
Supplies:
- 4, 5′ shepherd hooks
- 4, 2″ foam pipe covers (that split down the side)
- 1 roll of white duck tape
- 1 roll of red duck tape
- 4, white wired twinkly lights
How to:
- I wrapped one, 2″ foam pipe cover around each of the large shepherd hooks.
- Cover foam with white duck tape. (Note: I first wrapped, going down in a spiral and it took forever and had a lot of wrinkles.) I taped in a straight line from one end to the next, overlapping when I started the next row, so there was no black foam showing.
- Take red duck tape and (this is a little tricky) but I wanted the stripe to be thinner than 2″ for proportion sake. So, I ripped the end in half and just started taping with only half width of the red tape. With the red, you DO want to tape by wrapping around the white covered foam, mimicking the stripe on a real candy cane.
- Repeat 2 & 3 with all 4 hooks
- Stick them in the ground and wrap with white wire twinkly lights. (Note: I connected them to the swag twinkly light wires so they all lit up together.)
That’s it!
Well,…not really… because… (remember that cookie reference…) If you have over-sized candy canes, you have to have over-sized peppermints to go with it! 🙂
And if you have peppermints, you have to have a Mr. and Mrs. Gingerbread couple to balance all of it out! 🙂 (Rule of 3 🙂 )
From one “more is more” person to another, I am stopping. I really am!!!! 🙂
May your light display be as magnificent (or simple) as you like it!
xo, Meliss
Melissa K Manos Designs 