Candy Hawaiian Lei Tutorial

Want to make inexpensive but seriously fun end of the year gifts for your child's classmates?  These candy leis will be a huge hit!  Candy leis (and they can be stuffed with cash, too) also make fabulous Teacher Appreciation gifts and graduation gifts.

Today is my daughters' last day of school!  My youngest daughter's teacher absolutely loves Hawaii, and that's been a theme in the classroom all year long.  She calls the kids in the class "ohana," how sweet is that?

So my daughter and I decided to make candy leis for all her classmates as an end-of-year gift.

Niamh's teacher gets some extra goodies in her lei, of course:  hibiscus hair clips and cold hard cash.  I was hanging out with a bunch of teachers last week, and they unanimously said they would LOVE cash (or gift cards) as a gift . It's expensive to make a classroom fabulous!

Hawaiian Inspired Candy Lei Tutorial

Many thanks to my friend Alex who introduced me to the concept of candy leis last year!  I'd never heard of such a thing, but I love them, and they're so easy to make.

Materials for Hawaiian Candy Leis:

• 3 inch wide poly tubing
• inexpensive artificial flower leis
• tulle
• candy

Cut the poly tubing in approximately 48" lengths.  Cut the tulle in approximately 12" lengths.  To cut a lot of the tulle at once, I wrapped the tulle around my forearm, from my hand to my elbow (like how you'd coil up a rope), and then cut the tulle where I held it in my hand, and at the opposite end, where it wrapped around my elbow.

Find the center of the poly bag, and tie tulle in a bow.  Fill the bag with candy, tying a bow after each type of candy.

Tie the ends together with the last piece of tulle.

I bought my inexpensive fake flower leis at the dollar store--3 for a dollar.  At this time of year, most dollar and party stores should have lots of inexpensive leis, but if it's the wrong season, you can find similar things on Amazon.

Use a low temperature hot glue gun to glue the artificial flowers to each tulle bow.  I liked a double layer of the silk blossoms--sometimes a single color, sometimes two different colors.  

What's your favorite thing to give (or receive!) as an end-of-the-year teacher gift?