Easy DIY Gingerbread M&M Holiday Favors Craft (#HolidayMM #shop #cbias)

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This Gingerbread M&M shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.  All opinions expressed are my own.


If you've always thought about making your own party favors, gift toppers, or tree ornaments to gift for the Holidays, but were worried that it would be too time-consuming, too costly, or too difficult, then I have an easy and fun craft for you.  Using Gingerbread M&Ms (exclusively sold at Walmart), some inexpensive golden cord and wired bows I found after raiding the Holiday gift wrap section at Walmart, and a few little one-dollar glass bottles I had picked up in a craft store, I made these festive and sweet favors.

Craft Project:  DIY Gingerbread M&M Favors

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Gingerbread M&Ms (whole or finely crushed)

small corked glass bottles

golden cord

golden wired twist-on mini bows

hot glue gun

hot glue sticks

scissors

Step 1.  Fill your bottles with crushed or whole Gingerbread M&Ms.  Be sure to tap the bottles lightly on a hard surface so that the candy can settle.  Then make sure to fill the bottles to the top, leaving enough room for the cork.

Step 2.  Heat up your hot glue gun.  Then lay your M&Ms out on your work surface so that they are easily accessible during gluing. (I tried to select M&Ms that were uniformly shaped.)

Step 3.  Apply a small amount of hot glue to the backside of an M&M and place the candy immediately in the desired position on the bottle. (The glue cools almost instantly, so be sure the placement is accurate.)  Some ideas for designs would be initials, wreaths, hearts, candy canes, and patterns.

Step 4.  Using scissors, cut approximately 8 to 10 inches of gold cord.  Tie the cord around the lip of the bottle, while trying to make the ends somewhat even.  Tightly double-knot the cord.  (NOTE:  These bottles also work well as favors without the hangers.)

Step 5.  Knot the ends of the cord together to create a hanger for the bottle.  Trim off any excess cord at the ends.

Step 6.  Shape a wired mini bow, as desired.  Then tie the bow onto the bottle by wrapping the attached wire around the bottle and twisting it 5 or 6 times until the bow is tightly secured.  Then trim off any excess wire with scissors.

The results are these Gingerbread M&M favors that can also be used as gift toppers and tree ornaments.  How wonderful would these look displayed on a mini Christmas tree for guests to take on their way out the door or sitting at each place setting on the dinner table?

The crushed Gingerbread M&Ms are perfect for flavoring hot beverages, such as coffee, hot cocoa, and even tea.  It could also be sprinkled on top of whipped topping, decorating a dessert or ice cream sundae with festive color.

What would you use Gingerbread M&Ms for . . . to bake gingerbread cookies or to decorate a gingerbread house?  If you would like to try this easy craft or to experiment with creating a gingerbread recipe, click on the banner below to grab a coupon for $1.00 off one bag of Gingerbread M&Ms!

Join in on the Gingerbread M&M Instagram contest . . .

“If you need some festive holiday decorating ideas check out these fun Gingerbread M&M's crafts. If you have some creative ideas of your own, participate in the Gingerbread M&M Instagram contest to win a great prize!”

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Upload an original image to Instagram with inspirational ideas and creations using Gingerbread M&M's to decorate and craft during the holidays, caption that image with the hashtag #HolidayMM, and share on Twitter (an “Entry”).

DIY Reusable Advent Calendar Boxes

Last year, I made these DIY Advent Boxes and I am happy to say that our children just loved them.  If you recall, I had put a piece of Holiday candy for each child in every box along with pieces to a jigsaw puzzle.  Every day in the month of December, they would open a new box to retrieve their candy and to find more pieces to the puzzle.  I will be using these advent boxes again to countdown to Christmas with my children, but I made two changes . . .

The first change is that I included 4 pieces of candy in each box instead of 3.  Why?  Because my husband jokingly complained that there was no candy for him each day, thus guilting our children into sharing their candy with him.

The second change I made is to use a more difficult puzzle.  Last year I used the 100pc Crocodile Creek Robot Travel Puzzle.  I was able to put 4 puzzle pieces in each box.  Although the puzzle was just slightly challenging for our then nearly 5 year old twins, it was far too easy for their big brother, who was nearly 8 at the time.  So this year, I chose a more challenging puzzle . . . the Disney Circle of Friends 150pc Puzzle.  I thought this puzzle looked neat because it is circular in shape, plus it has all our children's favorite Disney characters on it.  Well, it turned out that the puzzle was even challenging for me.  I had to assemble it in order to put the puzzle pieces into the advent boxes in an order that made sense.  Hopefully, our now nearly 9 year old son will be able to help the twins with adding their pieces.  Since there are 150 pieces in the puzzle, most of the boxes have 6 puzzle pieces in them, which I think will be more fun for each child to be able to add more than one piece to the puzzle per day.

Go here to learn how to make these DIY Reusable Advent Boxes.