Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more

Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more

Another giant paper maché lollipop


Published by Manning on October 13th, 2018

I made this giant paper maché lollipop with a spiral design (the one on the left, duh) as part of a group of giant candy decorations for my gingerbread house Halloween party. Here’s how I did it…

Paper mache Halloween lollipop decorations - finished

Paper mache spiral lollipop - foam board circles

I started by drawing a 16″ circle on foam board, twice, and cut ’em out with an X-acto knife. See my article about drawing precise circles!

I designed a 16″ spiral shape in Photoshop and printed it out. I cut out this shape and laid it on a sheet of craft foam (a soft rubbery foam you can buy at any arts and crafts store). I covered the whole printout with a layer of heavy duty shipping tape. I then flipped over the craft foam and covered the back side with shipping tape as well. Then I flipped it back over and cut out the spiral with scissors. The layers of tape were a quick and easy way to add a little more thickness to the spiral; I want it to have a nice raised effect on the lollipop.

Paper mache lollipop - adding the spiral pattern

I taped the spiral in place on one of my foam circles.

I then made a bunch of little triangular supports out of strips of foam board, bent and taped closed. I taped these supports on the other foam board circle.

I then laid the foam circle with the spiral on top of the one with the supports, and used a few pieces of masking tape to attach them all the way around.

I cut out a long strip of poster board and taped it in place around the edges of the circle to create a sort of wall. (I forgot to take a picture of that step! You can see this same step in my article about my paper maché peppermint candies, third photo down.)

Paper mache giant spiral lollipop - WIP

Now that the base for the candy part of the lollipop was done, I applied two layers of paper maché over the whole thing; it’s outside drying in the pic above. You can read about my paper maché process and materials here. The short version is: I use Roman PRO-543 universal wallpaper adhesive (paid link) and alternating layers of newspaper and brown wrapping paper.

Paper mache giant lollipop - making the stick

I made the stick out of brown wrapping paper that I rolled up into a tube and taped closed. I stuffed this tube with crumpled up newspaper to help it be more sturdy, using small pieces of newspaper and packing them in with a broom handle.

I covered the stick with three layers of paper maché. It’s easier to work on the stick and the candy part of the lollipop separately and attach them later.

I attached the stick and the candy part with lots of masking tape, and I added a little ridge around the connection point with a strip of craft foam. I covered this whole connection area with five layers of paper maché.

Painting

Spray painted giant candies drying

I spray painted the lollipop with a light gray primer coat, let that set, and then I used masking tape and newspaper to protect the stick part so I could spray paint the candy part green. Here it is drying along with a jack ‘o lantern lollipop and three peppermints.

Paper mache Halloween lollipop decorations - finished

I hand-painted the spiral pattern with acrylic paint and a brush. Done! Whew! Here’s the finished lollipop along with my jack o’ lantern lollipop. On to the next project…

Interested in commissioning a piece from me? Please see my page about custom paper maché pieces. Please email me; don't put your request in a comment below.

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