stick and bucket tree

what you need
polystyrene ball 8cm for small, 10cm for medium, 12cm for large
dowel stick (45cm x 10 stick roughly £5 off the bay of e)
plaster of paris
selected colour ribbon (to dress dowel)
bucket
choice of sweets

1. first start by wrapping your dowel rod with selected ribbon and seal either end with tape to secure it.
2. make plaster of paris in your bucket then stand dowel in the centre you can secure until set by either using the inside of a pair of scissors balanced on the bucket, elastic bands (3-4) wrapped from top to bottom over lapping, or hold until set ( you could be there upto half an hour lol)
3. once plaster of paris is set punch a hole into your ball before sliding on dowel as you make find some resistance try to keep the hole roughly the same thickness as dowel so it is not slack.
4. with your selection of sweets either use frosting, chocolate covering, glue gun cocktail sticks or pins to add sweets to the ball.
5. be careful if adding sweets to the bucket as plaster of paris is damp and can cause sweets to go mouldy so use a layer of clingfilm or tin foil then tissue paper over the top.

hope this helps ladies heres another ferrero 1 done with glue gun x

this is brilliant just what i needed too thanks xx

Brilliant,always wondered how to make these brilly xx

Omg they are cute! I will definitely be taking tips on how to make these! Xo

Thank you for both guides I am lovin the tree idea x

I'm doing sweet trees but trying to get sweets that are in my colour theme of fuchsia can anyone think of any pink sweets in wrappers ? :-)

Just a little advice, don't make them too top heavy. My son and his girlfriend made us one for Xmas and it was very unsteady as it was overloaded a bit on a small pot.

GF the buckets from ikea arnt too small hun so the plaster of paris keeps them weighted but I know what you mean thats why I love the vases instead xx

Kel just try a trial one hun and mess with it until you have it the way you want it its much easier then making them all then deciding ya dont like them or want to change them hun xx

Would sweet trees be too much if i have a candy cart as well???

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

oh i cant remember now, theres a few.... its all the retro sweets though.
I suppose i could do something chocoaltely... i really wanted to do the sweet trees as i wanted to do them myself lol

velcro you could maybes make the trees with aero bubbles and maltesers or lollies then keep the cart retro hun xx

thank you mrsm xx

I think I will stick to the sweet trees thinking about it. as we're getting married later on (4pm) we're only having a hot buffet and some nibbles later on, so it will give people soemthing extra to graze on throughout the evening

And Im more than happy for people to take them home if they dont all get eaten

Look at me, well trying to justify it to myself hahaha

Aw, they are just far too amazing to not do!!!

Claire is very pleased lol x

Fantastic! Like Micky, I've got a fuschia theme so I'll be trying (I mean tasting really ha!) all sorts of pink sweets and see which I like best x

Oh good idea. I'm going to source sugar paper now, I have so many tabs open at any one time lately lol x

Wicked, saves me hours of hunting x

green smarties, green skittles, may be make some green (white chocolate buttons) green jellybeans, choclate limes x

Rebecca, I can see that you may be buying lots of packets of sweets and eating the other colours! x

heres another tree you could also buy coloured foil to recover so the match you colour scheme

Thanks so much for this brily. I sent h2b out at weekend to get the balls and he ended up coming home with the ones that spilt in half would i still be able to use them?

X

Thanks hunnie.

Thanks ladies I v done my first try of a sweet trees will post pics soon I used love hearts on first one, not sure to do the others the same or use different sweets:-)

Brilly do you think a sweet buffet would be to much, we were thinking of having one :-)

Micky they are really popular at the moment hun but comes down to amount of guests and choice really, if you have a small amount of guests then the trees should be enough but if you have a larger amount of guests then a buffet could be the way to go hun so theres plenty to go round but its all down to personal choice xx

Rosy dont be afraid to try them hun the ones pictured are really simple to do I promise x

Micky the 1st is always nerve racking hun but the more you do the more at ease with it you become and practice makes perfect :) its all about trial and error xxx