Medieval cannon wedding favour boxes are unusual and look really nice at a medieval theme wedding. I wanted to make medieval wedding favours something special, and really look the part. I found lots of organza wedding favour bags on the internet and velvet pouches which do look medieval, but nothing that was ‘different’, a medieval wedding is a bit over the top and I wanted wedding favours that were a bit bonkers too. I had the idea to make medieval cannons that went bang. Cannons were becoming popular in Europe during the end of the medieval era, so that all fitted, and I thought that cracker snaps would provide bang for my unusual wedding favour boxes, and from this starting point I designed the cannons.
Medieval Cannons do take a while to make, and there is a lot of preporation work, so you either need to start early, or only make them if you have an small number of guest – 50 or so.
The cannons dimensions are: Height 6.5 cm, Length 10cm, depth 7cm
To make a Medieval Cannon Wedding Favour Boxes you will need...
A print out of the cannon parts (click the pattern on the right and save image)Thin black card,
PVA glue,
Cracker snaps,
Black tissue paper,
Wing back paper fasteners,
Silver Glitter Glue,
Chunky lolly pop sticks (you can buy these from craft shops),
Trinkets to put inside the cannons – I added, chocolate gold coins, ‘Thank you for coming’ poems and medieval looking rings for ladies and medieval key rings for the men.
Stick the print out onto card and cut it out – use this as the cannon stencil and draw out one of each pattern part for each cannon and cut them out. I found it easier to keep all the parts separated so that instead on making one cannon in turn, I could have a conveyor belt of tasks and make all the cannons in stages together.
Take the cracker snaps and write ‘Pull >>>’ about 2cm from the end, then paint some glitter glue on the same end about 5mm or so to the end. Leave to one side to dry.
Cut your lolly pop sticks to be just shy of 10 cms. You will need one lollypop stick for each cannon.
Now all the parts are prepared, you can begin to build your cannons.
Stage One – The Barrel
Always make sure that any pencil marks that are left over from drawing around the stencil end up on the inside of the cannon where no one will see them.
Take the body part and apply PVA glue to the tab, curl the other straight edge around to stick onto the glued tab. This makes the barrel of the cannon. Close pegs are great to hold the card in place whilst the glue dries.
Stage Two – The Wheels
First you need to make a hole in the spindle part of the wheel spokes. Put a blob of Blue-tac on the table and push a sharp pencil through the card on to the Blue-tac, and voila you have a neat hole.
Next turn back the tabs on the wheel spokes and apply some PVA glue to each, then take the wheel rim and wrap it around the spokes to form a wheel. Again Pegs are really useful here to hold the ends of the rims whilst it sticks.
Stage Three – The Cannon Stands
Again the stands need some prep work. Make holes in the stands on the cross. There should be two holes in each stand. Also the fold lines need scoring to make sharp folds later on in the process. Use a compass point and a ruler to score all of the fold lines.
Then take a wheel and push a paper fastener through the hole of the wheel and through one of the holes of the stand and open the wings of the fastener up at the back. Add another wheel in the same way to the other side.
Stage Four – Adding the Cracker Snaps
Run some PVA glue down one side of a lolly stick. Onto the lolly stick add the non glittered side of a cracker snap – at the other end make sure that the pull writing is face upwards. The bang part of the cracker snap should be about 5mm away from the end of the lolly stick.
Apply more glue onto the lolly stick and then turn it over and fold the glittered half of the cracker back onto the un-glued sided of the lolly stick. Then stick the stick to the inside of the cannon barrel over the seam where you glued the barrel sides together.
The glittered cracker snapper should be sticking out of the top of the wide end of the barrel.
Snip off any excess cracker snapper (non glittered end) from the lolly stick.
Stage Five – The Cannon Ends
The cannon caps fit onto the slim end of the cannon where a cannon ball would shoot out. You can leave a hole because the trinkets inside would fall out.
Make some of the snips in the sides a bit deeper as this will help when you slot it into the barrel. Then fold each on the tabs inwards and then push them out again so that they stand up. The caps back into the cannon ends leaving a small ridge, with this in mind, apply glue to the out side of the tabs. Then push the cannon cap into the cannon and press firmly so that the cap tabs stick to the barrel.
Snip off any surplus cap tabs that over hand the barrel.
If you make a bit of a gluey mess on the black card, wipe off straight away with a damp cloth and it should be fine.
Stage Six – Filling the Cannons
The glitter end of the cracker snap will be sticking out of the cannon and will start to get in the way at this stage, so just fold it where the top of the cannon touches it so that it bends over the barrel. The cracker snap should run diagonally from the front bottom of the cannon, to the top back of the cannon.
Find something circular which is about 5mm bigger than the end of the barrel. I used a small wine glass. Fold up the black tissue paper and draw around the wine glass on to the tissue paper and cut out. These circles close the end of the cannons.
Put your trinkets inside the cannon, and then apply some PVA glue around the outside of the cannon where the opening is. Then lay one tissue paper circle on the top of the cannon opening, and fold down the edges of the tissue paper on to the glue. Leave the cracker snap end to stick out of the back of the cannon.
Apply glue to a cannon rim, and starting at the bottom where the barrel seam is, stick on the rim to cover over the untidy ends of the tissue paper. The rim goes all the way around the end of the barrel and meets back at the seam at the bottom.
Stage Seven – Finishing Touches
Fold the wheel stand and apply some PVA glue to the top parts of the stand that hold the wheels. Note that the highest part of the stand is at the back and this should be stuck next to the Cannon Rim on the back of the cannon. Stick these parts to the barrel but allow the barrel to be elevated somewhat. If your trinkets are heavy you will need to point the cannon downwards otherwise it will tip that way and the wheels will be up in the air.
Then add a final bend in the glitter part of the glittered cracker snapper, bend it in half so that the end points to behind the cannon.
There you have a very unusual wedding favour box which not only looks fantastic but also provides some fun with the bang when your guest pull the cracker snapper tab.
