Wise Men Felt Candy Holders

“We three kings of Orient are…” – I love that song, and that’s what inspired these wise men. Last year, I did some felt candy holders (a santa, reindeer, tree, and elf), but this year, I went with a more Biblical theme. So let me introduce you to your new felt friends, from left to right, Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar.

So traditionally, the wise men are said to be from Ethiopia, Turkey, and Arabia. Caspar was said to be the first to kneel to Christ, and offered the gold. He was followed by Melchior, who gave frankincense, and then Balthazar, who had the myrrh. On that note, I filled these guys with Hershey’s nuggets, which look like little treasure boxes, and come in mixed with silver, gold, and purple. I gave the gold to Caspar, the silver to Melchoir, and the purple to Balthazar.

These guys are pretty easy to make, and you don’t even have to sew – you can just hot glue the bases together. The tutorial below is for sewing, but if you want to see how to do this with hot glue, I made a video for the Christmas tree holder last year, and the method is exactly the same (it’s also helpful for the sewing method if you find my instructions on how to put the base together confusing). Just click the link, and scroll down to the tree tutorial.

Anyway, these guys make an excellent neighbor gift and are nice and cheap, so you don’t have to break the bank this holiday season.

And without further ado, here’s the tutorial for our wise men:

Putting together the base

Materials

2 pieces craft felt (green, blue, or purple)

base template

sewing machine and thread OR hot glue gun (click here for glue gun tutorial)

The Process

Start by printing off and cutting out your pieces. You will need two body pieces, and one base all cut from the same felt color.

Next, take one of the body pieces, fold it half, and snip it across the back. This will become the hole where the candy goes in.

Then, pin the base piece to the curved bottom of one of the body pieces.

You’ll sew along the curve there. Don’t worry if it doesn’t line up exactly – you can fix this with scissors later if you need to.

Then, pin the other body piece to the other side of the base and sew across it.

Notice how my edges don’t line up? Totally okay! Mathematically, the pattern works, but I never get it sewn quite right, so I have perfected the art of lopping off the corner without making things look bad, and you can too!

Before you start lopping corners, though, pin around the edges and sew up each side.

Now’s the time to cut off anything that doesn’t line up, and once that’s done, you’ve got a base! Time to decorate it so it looks like a wise man.

Balthazar (Green)

Materials

brown felt

black felt

purple felt

red or pink felt

brown pompom

wiggle eyes

2 sequins

feather

template

The Process

Start with a sewn base. I used green for mine, but you are welcome to use any color for that part. Next, you’ll need to cut out the following pieces:

face – brown
beard – black
mustache – black
hat – purple
mouth – pink or red

I like to position my pieces on the base so that I know what my final product will look like, then peel off each layer until I get to the bottom and glue up. On that note, start by gluing the face piece.

Next comes the beard…

And then the face. I do the mouth first, then the mustache. Then the pompom nose and wiggle eyes. That helps me get the right spacing on each element.

Your last step is the hat. I put it at a jaunty angle, then glued on the feather and covered the glued on stem with the sequins.

Clean him up, pull off those glue strings, nurse that burnt finger, fill him with candy, and here’s what he looks like:

Melchior (purple)

Materials

brown felt

pink felt

red felt

yellow felt

pink pompom

sequins

wiggle eyes

template

The Process

Start with a sewn base. I used purple for mine, but you are welcome to use any color for that part. Next, you’ll need to cut out the following pieces:

face – pink
beard – brown
mustache – brown
crown – yellow
mouth – red

Next comes the face. Glue the mouth, then the mustache, then the pompom nose, then the wiggle eyes.

And last but not least comes the crown. Glue it to the top, then decorate with the sequins.

And here’s what he looks like cleaned up and filled with candy:

Caspar (blue)

Materials

tan felt

pink felt

red felt

yellow felt

pink pompom

large sequin

wiggle eyes

template

The Process

Start with a sewn base. I used blue for mine, but you are welcome to use any color for that part. Next, you’ll need to cut out the following pieces:

face – pink
beard – tan
mustache – tan
hat – blue
hat band – yellow
mouth – red

Next comes the hat. Position the blue part of the hat over the top of the base and glue it on. You can trim anything that sticks out later. Next, glue the yellow hat band to the bottom of the hat. Then stick a nice big sequin right in the middle of the yellow like a jewel.