DIY Pretend Play Candy

 The second item on Tamlyn's Birthday Bucket List was a pretend Candy Shop.

I spent ages going through Pinterest in search of simple pretend candy...

simple pretend candy that DID NOT REQUIRE ANY SEWING!

(I'm hopeless at sewing, stitching on a button is all I can do!)

Here are a few cute, No-Sew Pretend Candy Ideas.

Lets start with the super easy stuff.

 Mini pom-poms became Gumballs,

Drinking straws became Sherbet Straws,

and Cotton-balls become Fluffy Marshmallows.

I used paper napkins to make cones that fitted perfectly into my snow-cone holders.

Just right for displaying our pretend treats.

 The Seed Bead Rock Candy was really easy to make.

All you need is seed beads, glue and lollipop sticks.

Coat the end of the lollipop stick with glue and sprinkle the seed beads onto it. Allow to dry. 

Add a second coat of glue and seed beads. Once dry, tie on a little bow - too cute!

The best glue to use for this project is quick-drying clear glue.

 Next we made Pipe Cleaner Lollipops

 For this sweet treat you need: lollipop sticks, pipe cleaners and a glue-gun.

Twist pipe cleaners around to form a swirl. Paste on little dots of glue and secure the pipe cleaners to form a tight swirl . Add a dot of glue to the back of the pipe cleaner swirl and attach the lollipop stick to the back.

Once dry, wrap in cellophane or simply add a little ribbon... good enough to lick!

The Butterballs loved making the Floam Truffles.

All you needed to do was press little floam balls into mini silicone cupcake cups.

Allow 2 to 3 days to dry.

Felt Candy

 Our cute, felt sweets didn't require a single stitch.

I cut the felt into strips, stacked the strips to form 2 layers and rolled them up.

I secured the roll with little dots of glue from the glue-gun, as I went along.

Once they glue had dried, I wrapped the sweets in cellophane and a bit of twine.

 Next, we set up our Candy Corner Shop

 I made little price tags for each of the sweet treats and the Butterballs used tiny buttons as pretend money.

The prices on the price-tag were written using different colored markers. 

The number told the Butterballs how many buttons they needed to pay the shopkeeper,

 and the color of the writing told the Butterballs what color buttons they need to pay with.

eg. the pom-pom gumballs cost 6 green buttons each.

This activity was great for practicing their counting skills, sorting skills, as well as color recognition.

We used a toy cash register to store the valuable buttons.

We used cupcake cups as candy packets and the shopkeeper served the customer using a pair of tongs.

The Butterballs took turns playing the shopkeeper and the customer.

Tamlyn addressed Ethan as 'Sir' which made him giggle :)

 Beside being lots of fun, using the tongs and playing with the tiny buttons, 

gave the Butterballs plenty of fine motor practice and helps develop pincer-grip.

After playing with the candy shop, 

the Butterballs decided that their button money could also double as M&M's

so they quickly sorted them according to color and added them to their candy display :)

All the pretend candy are reusable,
so I packed them into a container to be stored with all the other pretend play props in the toy box.