Moana Party Inspiration: Candy Leis

I am in love with these candy leis!  They are inexpensive to make, and are the perfect take away favour for any Luau or tropical themed party.

When my daughter first mentioned wanting a Moana party a couple months ago, I immediately began looking at and saving party ideas to Pinterest.  These candy leis came up and I knew they were definitely something that I wanted to try and make for my candy loving kids.

I made my candy leis from clear plastic cellophane, wrapping ribbon, a dollar store flower lei  and, of course, candy.  For candy, I chose to go with a selection of wrapped candies including Laffy Taffy, Lifesavers, Jolly Ranchers, Ring Pops and Fruit Chews.

To make the leis, I started by cutting 2 strips of cellophane approximately 5-6 inches wide.  2 strips were required to get the length I needed.   I overlapped them in the middle and began with a Ring Pop, wrapping the cellophane around it and tying tightly in place with small pieces of ribbon.

I continued working out from both sides of the Ring Pop, wrapping and tying 2 or 3 candies in each section of cellophane.  When I got to the ends, I overlapped the cellophane again and secured with ribbon to form a finished loop.

For decoration, I added pink and green fabric flowers from a dollar store lei I had cut apart.  They had small holes in the middle, but I had to use a wooden skewer to poke through and make the holes bigger to fit onto the ribbon.  Once they were tied on, I curled the ends of all the ribbon by running my scissors edge along it.

Although we decided to take a family getaway instead of hosting a birthday party, I still went ahead and made a few of these for the kids.  The candy filled leis made for a fun surprise during our family birthday celebration, and fit perfectly with the other Moana themed treats and cake I brought along to enjoy in the hotel room.

You can customize these with any candy you like and change out the ribbon and flower colors to match your theme.  They are big impact without much cost, and a unique twist on the usual candy-filled loot bags.

They are a bit time consuming to make, but are totally worth the effort.  What kid (or adult) wouldn’t want to wear home a big necklace filled with candy?!