Candy Sticks

Yes! I am still alive! The summer is nearly over which means I can breathe life back into my blogs. So here is a little start.
I made some vintage looking candy sticks for easy Halloween decor if you like that sort of thing. Toss them in a black goblet or apothecary jar. Top them with puppet heads (or shrunken human heads). Here's how to make your own:


I used 6 long dowels from the craft store that were just under 1/2" thick and cut them in half, making them about 12" long and sanded the ends a little (Thanks, Dad). Then painted them with craft acrylic paint.
TIP: It's easier to paint dark colors on light vs. the other way around. So I painted all the sticks orange and white.

Do it with a smile, folks! Here is my accomplice, Jess, in crafting cahoots with me.

Next take a long strip of masking tape (I used 1" width) and lay it on a cutting mat. With a ruler and an Xacto, cut the tape in half length wise. Remove one half of the cut tape and wrap it around your stick. This will mask the current color and create a stripe when you paint the second color. In this example, my second color was black.

Once dry, remove the tape to reveal your stripe. Fabulous!
TIP: Experiment with different tape widths. I would cut my length into 3/4" or 1/4" widths to create some of the variety you see here.
ANOTHER TIP: Wrap your tape in alternating directions so you don't end up with all your stripes going one way.

FUN TIP: Note the far right stick with three colors. I did this one last and wish I had done more like it. It was a white stick with two strips of tape close together that I painted orange (like the stick next to it). Then I painted that thin area between the tape with black.
They could have been finished here but they were a little to bright for me so I watered down some brown paint and put a dirty wash on them. Naughty little sticks....now they are perfect. If you click the bottom picture here you can get a closer look.

My Mom had some mica flakes that I tried out on some. Could work with glitter as well. Many options. Do experiment. It was fun!