DIY Lollipop Holders for Holidays & Gifts: Unicorn, Chick, Butterfly, Present

Materials

• 12" x 12" Assorted Cardstock 65 lb — each design requires 2-6 colors
• Craft Glue — I used Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue
• Lollipops — I designed these holders to fit the Original Gourmet lollipops available at this link
• Design #379 — My free SVG/DXF/PDF files (available in my free resource library—get the password at the bottom of this post)

Tools

• A method to cut your cardstock — I used the amazing Cricut Maker 3 but you can also use the Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore Series, or Cricut Joy
• Cricut Blue LightGrip Machine Mat 12″ x 12″ -OR-
• Cricut Green StandardGrip Machine Mat 12″ x 12″
• Brayer
• Scraper
• Spatula
• Tweezers
• Scoring Stylus — optional, for the file version with score lines -OR-
• Cricut Single Scoring Tool — optional, for the file version with score lines

Instructions

STEP 1: GET MY FREE DIY LOLLIPOP HOLDER SVG FILES

First, download my DIY Candy Holder SVG/DXF/PDF files from my free resource library. It's

STEP 2: PREPARE YOUR DESIGN FOR CUTTING

In this tutorial, we will make the unicorn candy holder, but the steps are basically the same for the others. I will point out any differences at the end.

For now let's delete the other three designs.

First, separate the designs by clicking “UnGroup” at the top of the Layers Panel.

Next, click and drag a bounding box over the unicorn design and drag it to the side. Then, select the other designs and click the "X" circle at the top left of the bounding box to delete them. You should be left with just the unicorn design on the Canvas. Your screen should look similar to mine.

Note: If you are cutting the "no-scores" version, skip down to "Check that you have the right machine selected..." to proceed. If you are cutting the "scores" version, let's make the necessary changes to our unicorn.

Now, since we want to fold our unicorn, we need the Cricut to add Score Lines in the correct spots. My file includes them, but Design Space requires a few steps to get them perfect.

Look at the Layers Panel and select the Layer with two faint lines. Under "Operation" in the top menu, click "Basic Cut," scroll to "Score," and click again. The lines are now dashed to indicate the machine will score instead of cut them.

If we don't attach the scores to their correct layer, when it's time to cut, the lines will appear by themselves on a separate mat on our Prepare screen. So, with the Score Line layer still selected, scroll down the Layers Panel until you see the layer that shows an upright unicorn with a horn. Hold down the shift key and select that layer. Click "Attach" at the bottom of the Layers Panel.

Design Space moves newly-attached layers to the front, but nothing is lost! Click and drag the unicorn with the score lines to the side and you'll see that the rest of the design is still there.

Now, we're finished on the Canvas.

Check that you have the correct machine selected at the top right and click "Make It." If prompted, click "On Mat" and "Continue."

You should see seven mats on your Prepare screen. If not -- and you're using the "score" file -- it's possible the Score Lines didn't attach correctly. To fix that, just press "Cancel" at the bottom right to return to the Canvas and follow the previous steps again.

Make sure that the "Material Size" field below each mat reflects your material choices.

If you see seven mats, that's great! Now, we could click "Continue" and cut all seven mats, but here's a tip and this is one of my favorites.

TIP: Combine your cuts to use fewer mats, saving time and material! I'm going to move the cuts from Mats 5, 6, and 7 to Mat 4. First, note the intended colors of each mat so you know which color cardstock to use for each object. If you changed Mat 4's Material Size, return it to "12" x 12"" so that the Cricut knows you want to use the entire machine mat area.

Select Mat 5, click the three dots to the upper left of the first object, and choose "Move Object."

A "Move Object" pop-up will appear displaying thumbnails of your mats. Click on Mat 4 (orange horn and flower) and hit "Confirm."

Your view will switch to Mat 4, with the object you just moved from Mat 5 added to it. Drag that piece to the top right corner of the mat.

Repeat the process for the objects on Mat 6, placing them in the bottom left corner of Mat 4. Then, move the objects from Mat 7 to the lower right corner of Mat 4.

Now, your Mat 4 should look similar to mine.

Instead of seven mats, now you only have four mats to handle! Cut your different cardstock colors for each group of objects so that it covers all of them. When Design Space prompts you to load Mat 4, place the right color card stock in each corner. Don't overlap your cardstock and make sure it's well-adhered to the machine mat.

Click back on Mat 1 to make sure everything still looks good and then click "Continue" to load the Make screen. Under Set Base Material, select "Medium Cardstock - 80 lb (216 gsm), change Pressure to "More," and click "Remember Material Settings" if you're using the same paper for each mat as I am.

If you are using the "no-scores" file like I am in the video, proceed to Step. 3.

Note for "scores" file crafters: As noted on the screen, we will need a scoring tool for the first mat. The machine defaults to a Single Scoring Wheel, but I suggest using a Scoring Stylus so you don't have to swap tools. Click "Edit Tools," select "Scoring Stylus" under Score, and click "Apply." Place your Scoring Stylus in Clamp A and make sure your Cricut Standard Fine-Point Blade in Clamp B is clean.

STEP 3: CUT YOUR DESIGN

Place your first mat's cardstock on a blue Cricut LightGrip or green Cricut StandardGrip Machine Mat and use a brayer to adhere it well. Load your mat and press your machine's Go button.

Once the mat is finished, unload it, flip it over on your workspace, and gently roll a corner back to release the card stock. This helps prevent curling and ripping.

Complete the process for the rest of the mats, making sure to prep Mat 4 and its multiple colors correctly.

STEP 4: ASSEMBLE YOUR UNICORN CANDY HOLDER

Let's start with the unicorn's front piece. Find and fold the score or dashed cut lines on the bottom tab to the back.

When gluing, I hold each piece in a place for a few seconds to make sure everything sticks. Make sure to do your best to line everything up too.

Next, take the black head piece, add glue to one side, and place it behind the front piece, leaving the top part of the ears showing.

Now glue the white head piece on top of the front piece.

The unicorn's features fit together like a little puzzle to help get their placement correct.

First, add a bit of glue to the back of the horn and line it up with the same shape on the white front piece. Then, glue the smaller flowers just under the ears. There are small bumps where the ears meet the unicorn's head. Line up a petal of each flower with that curve and you'll get the correct placement.

Glue the pink ear pieces on next, lining up the bottom curves with the small flower under each ear. Align then glue the large flower so that its top petal matches the bump under the horn. The last flower will overlap with the horn and smaller flowers, but a bit of white will show between it and the ears.

Next we will add the eyelashes. I used tweezers to hold my lashes while I added just a tiny bit of glue to the back. Then, place them one at a time just under the flowers on each side.

Glue the oval teal pieces to the center of the unicorn's hooves sticking out to the sides. Then, glue the crescent-shaped back hooves to the matching curves at the bottom of the body.

And finally, I will add a little glue to the tab piece we folded earlier on the front piece and attach that to the back piece of the unicorn. Hold that in place to make sure it's dry. And that's it for the unicorn.

Like I mentioned earlier, you can follow the same basic steps for the other designs.

Two things I wanted to point out on the baby chick design are the beak and the eyes. The eyes are actually made up of three layers of cardstock. Mine are black, blue, and white in that order with the black layer in the back. I designed these layers as hearts so they would stack just so.

Once they are glued together, place them behind the cut-out eyes to line them up and glue them in place.

I designed the beak piece to be 3-dimensional. There are little cut-out pieces or perforations along each side.

Bend the beak a little down the middle, add a tiny bit of glue to each side, and glue them on the back of the head piece with the beak poking through the front. Once it's all in place and dry, you can give the beak some shape.

And finally, a note about the butterfly design. Before you glue the pieces together, I found that it helps to poke a lollipop stick through the slits on the front. That gives it a little lift. Then, put glue on the back of the head and body and attach it to the back piece and you are ready to go!

STEP 5: SHOW IT OFF!

Now, just add your favorite lollipop and this sweet little gift is ready to give. We noticed in our Facebook groups that the most popular lollipop is the “Original Gourmet” brand. It’s available at various retailers including the The Dollar Tree. We found them online, too. You can get 120 for $60 or buy them for 50 cents a piece. 

They fit right into the hole in these designs. All you need to do is add a dab of glue to the top, pinch the sides together, let that dry, and you are ready to go!

Here are my finished DIY lollipop holders!

Notes