Halloween Crafty Fun with M&M;'s #MMsGetCorny #CBias

As a member of Collective Bias, I had the opportunity to shop and try new M&M’s Candy Corn White Chocolate candies.  I'll freely admit that I dislike traditional candy corn--mostly a texture thing, which is not unlike soft plastic to me.  However, I don't mind the taste, and was curious about M&M's Candy Corn White Chocolate candies.

I've always liked M&M's, especially that there are so many tasty varieties (almond, peanut butter and pretzel ones are my favorites).  I wondered how the Candy Corn White Chocolate ones would taste.  In addition to tasting the new M&M's, I was challenged to use them in some kind of craft project.

Here's a peek at what I made (tutorial is later in the post).

I headed out one evening by myself to Walmart to search for the candy corn M&M's. Luckily, our local Walmart carried them, as I've heard that they're a little hard to come by.

While I was at Walmart, I liked moseying about, checking out all the Halloween stuff.

After all, as the mama of an infant, I don't get out much so I was savoring this solo shopping trip.

Lots of pumpkin paraphanlia

Plus I love Halloween, and enjoy seeing what costumes are out this year (pirates continue to be popular).

I finally found the M&M's Candy Corn White Chocolate candies--not amongst the Halloween candy, but with in the candy aisle of the grocery area in an end cap display.

$2.48 is not a bad price for trying out these new candies, so I picked up 2 bags plus a bag of Chocolate M&M's in harvest colors, and headed to the crafts and home departments to buy some items for the craft I wanted to make with them--a M&M's mosaic.

First stop, picture frames.

Quite a selection with pretty good prices.  I liked the Better Homes and Gardens ones best.

I picked up a 5x7" white one and headed to the crafts department for some hot glue sticks.  I didn't want to use wet glue due to the M&M's color running off.

I then headed to the checkouts to finish the shopping trip and head home to make the mosaic.

Once home, I got out all the materials needed for the craft--M&M's, frame, stiff paper, scissors, hot glue gun/glue sticks, and pencil--and went to work.

I started by cutting my stiff paper to fit into the frame, then tracing the area that is on the inside of the matte, where the mosaic would go.  I also took out the glass, because the M&M's are too thick to fit underneath it.

Then I sketched out a candy corn shape to guide where I'd place the M&M's.

Next, I opened the M&M's--which incidentally, are actually pretty good with their subtle vanilla flavor.  I probably ate more as I was working than I used in the mosaic!

Then I sorted the colors into their respective areas of the mosaic.

It's better to sort them and lay them out first rather than gluing as you go, just in case you need to rearrange them.

Once I finished the candy corn shape, I moved onto the background, which would be brown.  I picked the brown ones out of the autumn colors bag--a pretty mix of reds, yellows and browns which are deserving of a craft of their own.

In retrospect, I would have used a black paper instead of white, just so the candy corn shape would "pop" more.  But with a border of brown M&M's, they still looked nice.

Next. I used the hot glue gun to work on gluing down the M&M's row by row, however I found that it dried too quickly for me, especially for how long it took me to line up the M&M's just right.  So I tried another method--Glue Dots, which I had in my craft stash.  They worked perfectly.

Once I had all of my M&M's tacked down, which didn't take as long as I thought it would, I popped it into the frame to see if I had to tweak any of the M&M's.

Perfect! And none of them fell off when I stood it upright.

And take a look at all those (mostly) perfectly lined up "m"s on the M&M's.  That takes patience!

I think it looks very festive hanging on our kitchen wall, and appropriate for the candy holiday known as Halloween.

Now to just keep my preschooler from snacking on it!  If I made this again, I think I'd go larger. I think it could really make an impact in a poster-sized frame.  However, with a newborn, I just don't think I'd be able to do all that gluing in an evening.

I do like how it turned out, and think it's a perfect seasonal addition to our home.

Plus I think the M&M's Candy Corn White Chocolate candies will be making an encore appearance in our pantry.

You can check out my "moment" on This Moment too. And I'd be thrilled if you'd vote for my craft on the M&M's Get Corny website when the polls open on the 7th.

It's a competition between bloggers to create items with the M&M's candy corn in categories of crafts and recipes.  I can't wait to see what the other bloggers have cooked or crafted up!
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias. All opinions, as always, are my own.