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Remember when I said I was posting Mexican food today? Yeah, just in case you couldn’t tell from the title, this isn’t Mexican food. It’s Friday. I’m tired. It’s been a long week filled with those “Aw, crap, I’m a grown-up now” moments (believe me, when I was 18 and told my parents I couldn’t wait to move out, applying for a new sewer tap was not #1 on my list of things I envisioned myself doing). I am highly motivated by sugar, cuteness, and easy food-related crafts and de-motivated by marinating pork loins and cutting up whole pineapples. I’m a promise-breaker, what can I say?
In case you didn’t know, unless I’m struck by magic craft lightning, I glean pretty much all of my crafty ideas from other people. That’s okay as long as I fully acknowledge that fact, right? I saw these little St. Patrick’s Day rainbows here at Maple Memories and decided to make some of my own. My kids thing they’re pretty dang awesome, even if (okay, especially that) they contain about 10 days worth of sugar in one little package.
You’ll need Rolos, Rainbow Twizzlers, crafty cellophane treat bags, and green ribbon.
I also made some “clouds” out of cotton candy,
but because I live in a freaking unventilated shower stall, unspeakable things started happening to my cotton candy. They were cute while they lasted. They didn’t last for very long.
The awesome thing about the Rainbow Twizzlers 
(and Twizzlers is not paying me with money or Twizzlers for saying this) is that they are actually in equal amounts of rainbow colors–like you really do get your red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet
(which was a tough pill to swallow for a girl who grew up thinking the rainbow colors were red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue). And, because you have equal numbers, you can make a whole bunch of your own little complete rainbows.
So…these are super tricky. Totally my kind of craftiness. Now…you can use cotton candy here if you want, either as a little cloud at the bottom of the rainbow, or as a backdrop for your rainbow. Then take a handful or Rolos and pop them into a cellophane treat bag. With the bag laying flat, fold the purple piece of licorice into a rainbow shape and slip it into the bag. Repeat with the blue, green, yellow, orange, red pieces of licorice, making your rainbow.
Tie the bag with a piece of green ribbon…
and voila! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In 15 days!
If you want to make these extra cute, check out some of these rainbow printables that you could cut out and tie onto the bags (some of them may need to be re-sized):
Simple as That
It Is What It Is
The Swell Life
Happy March! Happy spring (I know it’s technically not spring, but March is spring in my book)! Have a great weekend!
Oh my goodness! What a trip down memory lane with the sing a rainbow song. I learned that in first grade and colored every one of my rainbow pictures like that. It wasn’t until high school that I surrendered to the roygbiv rules. So great to see I wasn’t alone! 🙂 I still randomly sing that song…its one of those that easily gets stuck in your head!
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who colored my rainbows wrong up until high school. I remember being so disappointed when I found out pink wasn’t even a rainbow color! What a great song though; it’s fun to see that other people know it too!
Oh, my cuteness. These little rainbows are adorable. I am positive that my littles would think that I am the coolest mom ever if I make these. 🙂 Happy Friday!
Yep, I’m making these – I think for BOTH of my sons’ classes. These are adorable!
Silly question…where did you find the twizzlers? I’ve looked all over for them for my daughters rainbow theme birthday!
I just found them at our grocery store, but you can buy them in bulk on Amazon.
What a great idea. I have two teenage boys, 13 and 16 and even now, they will love this! Thanks for sharing and happy spring!
Cute! Cute! Cute!
Thanks to you and Sara for all your efforts in sharing your amazing ideas!
Love it. Being an Irish dancer, I love St. Patrick’s Day.
Before I even got to the part where you mentioned the song, I was totally singing this inside my head! ha ha
So cute!!
Can you tell me what size bags you used?
Did u ever find out?? I bought party favor bags but are too small 🙁
I’m looking for the size as well!! 🙂
Seriously, I can remember the shock (and denial) of finding out pink isn’t even an official color of the rainbow. (See look Daddy, there is pink in that rainbow up there, and no red. That’s why I know I’m right). ROYGBIV really was a devastating fact.
This would be super cute with gold chocolate coins as well!
I can sing a rainbow! That song has been in my head all week, and I sign it too, so when you mentioned it in your post I was laughing so hard. These are super cute, I love all the colors of twizzlers!
ROYGBIV!!
Soooo cute – what a fun idea! I pinned this and it has already been repinned more than anything I’ve ever posted. By the way, how do I find you guys to follow on Pinterest?
these are the cutest little treats! my kids would love ’em! thanks so much for linking to my st. paddy’s day printables! 🙂 have a great weekend!
Hahaha! Loved that song!
Loved that song!!!! Best friends Mom used to sing it with us!!!! good memories – and snazzy little packaged rainbows!!!!
I’ve been planning on doing something similar. In fact I bought the Twizzlers about a month ago because I was so paranoid they’d be sold out! I went to get rolos (I seriously cannot find any gold chocolate coins this year!) but Walmart didn’t have them. Really? Walmart? I thought they were supposed to have everything! I was going to use marshmallows as clouds, but I LOVE the idea of cotton candy! Much more ‘cloud-like’! Love you ladies!
Very cute! I have looked for the rainbow Twizzlers for awhile…I have not been able to find them! This is perfect for the kids to give out at school…love it!
I don’t think of rainbows and candy wrapped in gold when I think of St. Patrick’s Day. From my youth I remember candy Irish Potatoes and clay pipes. Now that I am past the age of majority, I think of Irish Brown Soda Bread, Jameson’s Irish Whiskey and Guinness Extra Stout. Then there is always corned beef and cabbage.
Totally making these for my son’s preschool class–so, SO cute!
Weird question probably… what size cellophane bags did you use?
I’m not EXACTLY sure–kind of an average size because that was the biggest size they had at Walmart. If I’d had more time/energy/motivation, I would have run to Hobby Lobby and gotten the slightly larger size, just so there was more room to work with.
Love these! i already bought my twizzlers – i have to get the rolos, now!
love how you made them in the shape of a rainbow!
( i pinned this too! 🙂
What an awesome idea! I love it!
You have such cute ideas! It is always fun to see what you got next! Happy St. Patty day 🙂
You are so funny! I love that you linked to the rainbow song. Cute ideas, love your website, love your cookbook, too, and you gals were really great in Layton at TOFW.
What a great idea!!! I LOVE them!!!
I adore your blog & I think our crafting skills are on the same level (Okay, yours might be slightly more advanced than mine … See? Doesn’t that make you feel good about yourself?). I just wanted to tell you that I don’t have any kids, but I am DYING to be able to send these (and many other) adorable, easy-to-pull-off, themed treats into a classrooms someday. Seriously.
What? No comment from Patti? How could she fail you two? Very cute idea and I love the ‘so easy’ factor!! Thanks for bringing it on even when you don’t want to so much!! 🙂
Yeah, Patti, what up with THAT?!
Love these! Sometimes, easier is better! 😉 (I hate when I’m much more impressed with my culinary creativity than my children are… which is most of the time!)
These are so cute, to give as gifts! I love it!
Love this!!!!! Thanks for this idea.
I love, love,love these. Where can I find the colored licorice? I am having a St. Partrick’s Day party and these will be awesome favors.. Thanks.
I just get it in the candy section of grocery stores, but if you’re having a hard time finding it there, you can buy it in bulk on Amazon.
My wife teaches 4 and 5 year old in Sunday School. She usually makes layered jello for the creation story, now she may resort to twisslers for the rainbow.
Awesome. Bonus is both candies are peanut free and on the Peanut and Tree-Nut free candy list! Perfect for peanut free schools.
Great assortment of candy!
These are great. My kids love St. Patrick’s Day! Weird, I know. We try to catch a Leprechaun in a trap we made a few years ago. So for a week or so before St. Paddy’s Day the Leprechauns are always doing naughty things like dying our milk green (which ends up really grossing me out to drink). On the actual day they decorate our house with green stuff and usually leave something in the trap or near it. I did something similar to your rainbows a couple years ago, but had the licorice going into two mini pots of gold candy (I also like the use of Rolo or Werthers or something, the coins are just too gross for me!). I like this idea of having it in a bag, especially because we’ll be out of town this year. My kids were so disappointed about that! Anyway, I’m sure you wanted to know all about our St. Patrick’s Day traditions! Haha!
These are too cute! I’m a teacher, so I’m frequently looking for sweet (but super cheap and easy) crafts to make for my kiddos. I just might have the guts to try this! Thanks for the idea!
how many finished bags were you able to make with only buying 1 bag of twizzlers?
I’m not 100% sure–there were lots of little fingers sneaking pieces of licorice along the way and I don’t have the bags anymore. 🙂 I’m thinking about 6.
One thing you could do, especially for kids, is cut the licorice in 1/2–that’s still PLENTY of sugar, haha!
5. There are 30 pieces of Twizzlers and 6 different colors.
So very cute!
Great idea!!! Simple, adorable and my children love Twizzlers so that is just topping of the cake! Thanks for the idea!
Quote: “but because I live in a freaking unventilated shower stall, unspeakable things started happening to my cotton candy.”
Though I live nowhere near you, we must have had the same builder 😉
These are so cute! I am thinking of using them as favors for a Willy Wonka party, and maybe taking them to my son’s kindergarten class for St. Patty’s Day too! 🙂
Just had to laugh about your comment about thinking the colors of the rainbow were that… made me think of the song from Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I had to add, though, that you are missing blue in your list – it’s ROY G. BIV – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Oh and for a less sugar-laden treat, we used food color to dye milk and “painted” a rainbow on toasted bread last St. Patrick’s Day.
I learned the rainbow song when I was little and I have never met anyone else who knew it!
This is driving me nuts. Do rainbow twizzlers really only come in six colors?! It’s the first thing my 3 year old noticed while reading this with me.
I’m pretty sure they’re not going to make the distinction between purple, indigo, and blue and are striking for a happy medium somewhere. 🙂
Love this idea! Super, super cute!!!
What a super cute idea! 🙂
Too cute! I’m going to share your blog out with my peeps.
Wynn
I teach preschool and this is the perfect little St. Patty’s Day treat to send home with them! Soooo stinkin cute!
I live in Savannah, GA and St. Patty’s Day is a BIG HUGE deal down here. Being a non-drinker myself but definitely a sugar indulger, these will be a perfect way to celebrate. 🙂
I would like to send you a recipe to taste test…I just put it together today. Actually embellished on one that I stumbled across….I think it turned out really good and am making your garlic sticks to serve with it tonight.
Picked up what I needed to make these! If you live in Texas HEB has these twizzlers on sale for $1.50 a bag.
Kindergarteners are going to love these!!
I am making these for my cheerleading squad they are soooo cute!!!
Adorable idea!!!
Oh my goodness! Crack me up with the rainbow song! I grew up in Utah, but live in Idaho and started to wonder if I made up a lot of my childhood memories because no one here knew what I was talking about. Thanks for a little validation. Love this craft/snack idea
Adorable! So So cute 🙂
My mom used to sing that song to me all the time. Sometimes I think about that song and could never remember all the words. Thanks for the link and the trip down memory lane.
I already got my rainbow twizzlers (at a great price too!) Can’t wait to make these for my son’s class!
I frequently send care packages to college students (my daughter and her high school friends) all over the country. These will make wonderful additions to care packages! Thanks for all you do!
Thank you, this is perfect for my sons birthday party goody bags!
I have to say these are wonderful. I made them for my Sunday School class (they are teenagers) and they were a hit. This was my first week teaching and I had to have a bribe token. (It worked! Everyone loved them)
LOVE LOVE LOVE !!! My daughter and I “assembled” these last night to give out at school today.(They are on Spring Break during Paddy’d Day) we had a GREAT time and they turned out PERFECT. Thanks for the bonding time !!!!
Thank you!! These are so cute, simple, and fun. Totally making these for my kiddos and know they will love them.
CUTE idea for the holiday! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been in love with this website for over 4 years. I’m so happy for ya’lls success. I’m looking forward to seeing you ladies at the TOFW in Dallas!
I ordered both the rainbow twizzlers and the gold coins on Amazon. Can’t wait to make!!
I just finished 25 of these to mail to my daughter in college. I found that you get 5 rainbows from each pkg og Twizzlers. I found them in the regular candy aisle at Walmart. My Walmart didn’t have Rollos so I used mini Reeses PB cups. They turned out so cute. I also found Wilton Clear Party Bags at Walmart – 25 for $2.00 and bright green ribbon. I know my daughter & her friends are going to love this box when they get it on Friday. I also sent 3 large bags of green popcorn (using lime Jello). Love your ideas!
Haven’t looked at Walmart…but I can’t find the Twizzlers anywhere. I bought them last year. Any other suggestions?
I’d just keep checking your local grocery stores unless you want to order them in bulk from Amazon. 🙂
Very cute 🙂 Just found this blog and love it!
I love your page. You had so many cute ideas, I didn’t know which one to do first. I needed at cute snack idea for our T-ball team for Saturday and your rainbow licorice treat was perfect. Thank you.
Laurie
I worked on these last night and they are super fun to assemble. Don’t eat any otherwise you end up 1 band short of a full rainbow! You get 5 rainbows to a pack so plan accordingly. I tried to cut the Twizzlers in 1/2 to get more treats but they don’t bend as well when cut shorter and the treat bags seemed too large at that point. I added a piece of blue construction paper (sky) for a backing of sorts in the bag because the twizzlers are so floppy and that helped immensely and adds to the overall pretty factor. Have Fun!
Hi there,
where would I find the individual wrapped rolo’s? I bought a 4 pack and they are all wrapped in one peace of tinfoil. If I cant find the rolos I will go with the peanut butter rolls, but I also like the “peanut free” idea Thank you !!
*Sarah
Hi, Kate! Mind if I link back to this in a post on teachmama.com? I used your rainbow as inspiration for my own. . . actually, I tried yours but didn’t have the bags and needed to adjust. But I tried! And I love yours!
Thanks so much!
🙂
amy
I’m in California and also having a heck of a time finding the licorice. But in case anyone out there is still looking, we have confirmed by phone that Rite-Aid has them (at least the one I called does!) We struck out at Target, Wal-mart, Winco, Smart and Final, CVS, and Save Mart. Grrrr ….
Great idea! Found my licorice at Winn-Dixie and using mini Twix bars instead of Rolos, because one of my little ones has spacers and chewy caramels will not work. I’m hoping the Twizzlers will not do too much damage, I’m going to tell him to use his front teeth lol. Thanks for the idea!
I made these for our St. Patty’s Day party for kids favors and everyone loved them. I love your idea’s and love visiting to see what’s new.
Thank you
Saw your idea on Pinterest. So darn cute! My kids and I made a Walmart run last Thursday night to put these together as a surprise for their classmates the next day. We added a cute tag too… that said, “I’m so LUCKY to have a friend like you!”. I linked back to you on my blog. Thanks for such an adorable idea and hoping the luck of the Irish is yours 🙂
This is a winner idea for favors for a birthday party for my six year old! I shared this on my blog, with a back link to your site, of course! Thanks for sharing!!!
Love this idea. I plan to use these to give to my 5th grade students on the first day of school. I’ll add the saying…..”Always go for the GOLD!” to encourage putting forth their BEST effort in all they do & since it’s Olympic time it should have more meaning! Thanks for sharing.
I love this idea! I’m going to use it for a Personal Progress mutual activity!
Please if St.Patrick’s Day must be abbreviated at least use the masculine abbreviation and refer to it as St. Paddy’s Day.
Kate, These are adorable. I wanted to let you know that I’m featuring them today in my Celebration Sundays – St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas. Hope you will come visit. Thanks, Nichi – The Mandatory Mooch
http://www.mandatorymooch.blogspot.com
Hi Kate,
Such a Great Idea! You are very Talented, I am So Happy I came Across this, Now my Little Munchkin in my Sunday School Class will be so suprised and happy.
Thanks So Much
Perfect! My 3 year old and I put these together, total hit! She’s so proud she helped! I made extras for friends and family… Thank you!
Love the idea! I did a post featuring St. Patrick’s Day Treasure Hunt Clue printables that I developed myself.
For the treasure, I encouraged readers to visit this post, and used a small thumbnail image of yours.
I hope that’s okay. If you want me to remove the image and link, just let me know! (I figured it would be all right since I didn’t post your directions and encouraged my readers to visit you!).
The post you’re featured on is located here: http://www.thehousewifemodern.com/blog/free-printables-saint-patricks-day-treasure-hunt
Thanks,
Jennie