Graduation Hat Candies & Grad Party Decorations

I have helped my parents as much as possible for my two younger siblings' high school graduation parties whether it be food or decorations or physical and emotional support. When my sister Annie said that she was just going to use the same decorations as my brother's party the year before, I knew it was time to take over. I decided to make a trip to two of my favorite stores, Target and Michael's, to see what I could find. With a few creative ideas and some graduation inspiration, the final pieces were so fun!

I found flower pot tins at Target for $1 each. I grabbed some blue and orange tissue (Annie's future college colors) and weighed the tissue down with a rock in the bottom of the tin. There was one tissue filled tin for every table. Each of these tins had a "2013" cutout glued onto a wooden skewer, stuck into the tissue.

For the second and third tins on each table, I started by cutting some styrofoam balls in half. I hot glued a half in the bottom of each tin in order to keep the wooden skewers secure. I put a grad hat cutout and tinsel pompom in each and filled the bottom of the tin with wrapped candy. I then added grad hat candies to any empty space in the tins (see below for the directions). There were a lot of tables so thankfully, these were a huge hit and I got a ton of compliments on the decorations!

Grad Hat Candies

Supplies:

- Miniature Reese's Cups, unwrapped

- Almond bark or melted chocolate

- Hershey's chocolate bars broken into squares or Ghirardelli squares

- Pull apart licorice strings

- Wooden skewers

Directions:

1. Unwrap all candy and break the Hershey's bar into squares.

2. Using melted chocolate, attach the Hershey's square, smooth side up, to the smaller side of the Reese's. Let sit until secure.

3. Using melted chocolate, attach licorice piece to the top of the Hershey's square.

4. Put in fridge to allow chocolate to harden and set.

5. Using wooden skewer, very gently insert flat end into the bottom of the Reese's. Put back in fridge until served.

Note: I had some extra melted chocolate so using the wooden skewers, I made some chocolate pops. I put a dollop of chocolate on wax paper, inserted a skewer, added some sprinkles and put into the fridge.