Scout Candy Cane

Last week, we were looking for another easy Christmas craft that our older Girl Scouts could do and came across this in Hobby Lobby. I love easy, fun crafts that the girls can do in a meeting or less and this was no exception.  

 

You could very easily buy all the parts to this or possibly may have them on hand.  However, if you’re like me and looking for something to add at last minute, Hobby Lobby sells a box with all of the pieces included for 24 candy canes.  With Christmas sales at 50% off, I bought the entire set for $4.00.  If you don’t have a Hobby Lobby near you, I found a similar set with different colors (makes 16) on Amazon located here.  

 

Materials Needed

• 27 Red beads – the beads slide together and remind me of dog bones
• 27 white beads – same as red
• 1 piece of wire
• wire pliers
• 1 piece of ornament string for hanging – any string will do

Instructions

1. Take a piece of wire (about 8 inches) and use the needle nose wire pliers to form a loop at the bottom so your beads don’t fall off.
2. Give each girl 27 white beads and 27 red.  Have them alternate them in a pattern.
3. After the beads are attached, use the pliers to curl the opposite end.
4. The girls can shape the their wire into a candy cane shape, add a string for hanger and Voila! – an ornament ready for hanging.

For our Brownies, I cut the wire and curled the end so they only had to put the beads on in the correct pattern.  Once they had strung the beads, we then assisted them in curling the other end.   

For our Juniors & Cadettes, we let them cut their own wire and do all of the work.  We just assisted if needed.

The result – a super cute candy cane that they could hang on their tree that night.  Even our older 8th grade girls, liked this and several asked if they could do more small crafts.   

The whole craft took about 15-20 minutes for everyone to finish.