Assembling Your Pool Noodle Lollipops
It’s time to get your materials together and begin creating your pool noodle lollipops!
Finding the ideal appearance for the “candy” piece is the most crucial aspect of creating pool noodle lollipops. You’ll want to take care in these first few steps.
Please remember that improper use of hot glue guns can result in burns. I NEVER advise letting kids handle hot glue, regardless of the temperature.
Step 1: Connect Your Pool Noodles
Connecting your two pool noodles end to end should be your first step.
Attach the second pool noodle here by applying a generous amount of hot glue to one end of the pool noodle. Hold the two noodles firmly together for a few minutes to allow the glue to solidify.
Next, strengthen this connection by attaching a piece of duct tape to the connection point that is the same color as the pool noodle.
Pool Noodle Lollipops: What You’ll Need
The beauty of this project is that it doesn’t take a lot of hard to find items to make it happen. We found everything we needed either at our local Dollar Tree, on Amazon, or already laying around the house.
The following ingredients are needed to create a single enormous pool noodle lollipops:
Finding pool noodles outside of the summer can be challenging at times. For the most part of the year, my neighborhood dollar store carries them, but if you’re making these in October, November, or December, you might have trouble finding them.
I was able to find pool noodles on Amazon.com year round to create my lollipops. Unfortunately they’ll likely be more expensive there when they’re out of season.
Two pool noodles are required for each lollipop that you wish to create. You could use one, but it makes a much smaller lollipop, and I thought the larger ones actually had a more visually appealing appearance.
For the colored duct tape, I have also been able to find this at my local dollar store, but you can always find duct tape on Amazon.com.
Although duct tape comes in a wide variety of colors, I really enjoy using white for the candy stripes on this project and matching tape to join the noodles in the pool. The students loved mixing up the colors.
For the stick portion of your pool noodle lollipop, there are several options available to you. I like using wooden dowels, but you could also use a broom handle, or just about anything long, straight, and sturdy enough to hold up your pool noodle.
You should definitely use a low temperature glue gun for this project. If you use a high-temperature glue gun carelessly, the pool noodles may melt and develop large holes in them.
I love using a cordless dual temperature glue gun. It’s so versatile for all sorts or projects!
While you can use any glue sticks you like, I HIGHLY recommend using Gorilla Brand Hot Glue Sticks! I’ve found that Gorilla brand sticks are far superior to the cheap brands and hold MUCH better for difficult projects.
I’m sure you’re wondering why this project needs ratchet straps, but I can assure you, these are KEY to making pool noodle lollipops quickly and efficiently.
You might be wondering what is a ratchet strap? Sometimes called tie down straps, ratchet straps are commonly used for tying items down in the back of a vehicle. They have a wenching system that allows users to make sure the straps are tied securely to whatever they’re attached to. Home depot has a great tutorial on their site on how to use ratchet straps.
I’ll explain why you might need them for this craft later in the instructions.
And finally, if you want a really finished look for your pool noodle lollipops, using cellophane wrap to finish them is a nice touch.
