Raise your hand if you have a food allergy or know someone who does. Ok...that looks like just about all of you. If you know anything about living with food allergies, you know that it often means feeling left out at birthday parties while everyone else is gobbling up those egg-tainted cupcakes, iced in dairy and rolled in tree-nuts. Boo! That's no fun!
When you start looking closely at ingredients and food packaging, you begin to realize just how many foods contain allergens...or were made in a factory that processes them...rendering those items inedible to the person with the allergy. When that person is a child, it can be heart-breaking to say no to sweets and special treats.
Enter the fruit snack flower bouquet. I came up with this super easy project recently as a birthday treat for a 6-year old with a peanut allergy. He loves fruit snacks, but many of them are processed in factories that also process peanuts. The organic ones I used are safe for him, but become cost prohibitive to buy on a regular basis...perfect for a birthday treat! (Disclaimer: Be sure to read labels and understand your recipient's allergy. What was safe in my case may not be safe in yours.)
Even if you're not dealing with allergy issues, this is a great way to surprise a friend, co-worker, teacher (or anyone) with a relatively healthy alternative to candy. So get your supplies together and get ready to make someone's day!
SUPPLIES:
*assortment of fruit snacks
*silk flower stems - flowers removed
*tape
*tissue paper
*ribbon
STEP 1: Pop the flowers off your silk flower stems if you haven't already. You can leave a few buds on for fun. Save the flowers for another project. (I have tons of these flowerless stems on-hand from my bridal accessories business.)
STEP 2: Tape the fruit snacks to the ends of the "naked" stems where the flowers should be. I taped mine inside the back flap to hide the tape.
STEP 3: Spread out a large piece of tissue paper and arrange your stems into a bouquet. Wrap the paper up around the bouquet and tie with a ribbon.
Voila! Instant gift. Your recipient will feel like Miss (or Mr.) America when you present him or her with this "bouquet."
So, that's the project. If you don't have (or don't want to buy) flower stems, you could get creative with floral wire, bamboo bbq skewers or sticks from your yard. Paper leaves would be easy to cut out and tape to the "branches." No tissue paper? No problem...butcher paper, an old map, newspapers or a brown bag would all work just as well. Have fun with it and be sure to share some pics if you make a bouquet. If you make the project and blog about it, send me the link and I'll add your blog and photo to the bottom of this post. Cheers! XOXO, Cindi
