DIY Towel Lollipops

Hey, friends! I'm going to take a break from boring you with gluten free posts and post a little DIY for you. Back when all of my wedding festivities were going on, I received an AWESOME towel-lollipop basket from one of my bridesmaids at one of my showers. When it came time for one of my cousins on Ben's side's bridal shower, I knew that I wanted to make something along those lines. Here's a quick step-by-step guide of how I made it!

After watching a few YouTube videos, here are the things I decided that I needed:

- Towels [can be the same or varying colors]

- A container to hold your bouquet

- Rubber bands

- Cellophane gift bags [with twist ties, if possible]

- Tissue paper

- Floral foam block

- Sticks for the stems

- Clear/Scotch tape

I ended getting the towels off of the bride's registry and everything else from the dollar store! Originally, I had planned on putting the bouquet in the pictured Mizzou cup, but after building things, I like the proportions of the mug better. :)

 

 

Before starting, I removed all tags from the six towels that I bought. Depending on your container, you could obviously use more or less towels than I did.

1. I started by flat folding the towel on the longest edge available [ie. if the towel is a square, it doesn't matter which side you fold first, but on a 13x12 inch towel, I began folding on the 13 inch side].
2. Once the towel was in a flat strip, I folded over the edge and rolled until I couldn't anymore. I then used a rubberband to secure the roll. I used green rubberbands to make things quick and easy, but you could seek out clear rubberbands, etc. :)
3. Repeat until you have completed the rolling of all of your towels.

 

 

4. Once you secure your rolls, you have to attach your stick. I chose to use chevron paper straws. While I loved the look of these, they weren't as supportive/secure as say a kabob or popcicle stick may have been. I attached these to the rolls with tape.

5. Once the sticks were attached, I place the rolls into the gift bags and secured them with the twist ties. I ended up trimming the gift bags so that they weren't as long/didn't cover their entire "lollipop stick."

 

6. For me, the most difficult part of this project was arranging the lollipops in the container in a balanced, but not semetrical, way. This was the point at which I decided to use the shorter cup. I placed the floral block in the coffee cup after wrapping it in black tissue paper. I chose to do this so that the whole thing had a more finished look and you couldn't see the foam block. Then I arranged them to my liking.

 

I thought that this gift turned out pretty cute, and when it was shown at the shower it got lots of compliments! I love this as a way to dress up what is a functional, but kind of boring to open, gift! I could see doing this for bridal showers, weddings, and baby showers in the future!

What kind of gifts do you make yourself for your bride-to-be friends?!