Broomstick Treat Bags
Once again, I turned to the High Holy Priestess of Halloween, Ms. Martha Stewart, for the treat bags I decided to make for our Halloween party this year. I've seen these broomstick bags in her magazine for a few years, and decided to finally give them a try.
They are pretty simple, but take a lot longer to put together than I had anticipated. By the time Practical Magic was over (1 hr. 44 min.) I had only finished 15 "brooms". I had also run out of treats, so I moved on to The Craft (I was really feeling the 90s witch-vibe) and a nap.
First, gather sticks from your (or your neighbor's) yard, and have your nice, handy, man cut them for you. I found that a more substantial, thicker stick looked better, but use what you can find.
Bonus: This totally counts as yardwork, or at least that's what I told myself.
Push the bottom of one bag out, while keeping the sides folded in. Cut the bag into strips, stopping short of the bottom. This part frustrated me at first, because you're cutting through multiple layers of brown paper and it gets pretty shifty and tries to make your life hard.
I found that keeping a hold on the cut parts while you cut the rest, and constantly re-aligning your pieces is the way to go. Also, if it's not perfect, it doesn't really matter in the end.
Cut some fringe in the top of another bag, and set it inside of the shredded one. Fill with treats, and insert your stick handle.
Gather the shredded strips around the inside bag, and tie tightly with string. I wrapped it around a few times to look like a broom handle.
Place in a box, and keep away from cats until your party.
I'm pretty happy with how they turned out; I just hope they last until the 29th ā for some reason Mozart has felt compelled to chew on every one of the stick handles she can reach.
Side note: the bags ended up a lot larger than I had thought they would be, but it makes them more realistic/impressive looking. Be prepared to use a lot of candy in each one (and make sure you have some extra for yourself, you've worked hard).
