Candy Graduation Lei

Cole's 5th grade class had a graduation (or I guess they call it promotion ceremony) to leave elementary school and head to  middle school . He of course is not fazed by this at all, I'm the one having the hardest time with it.  I was running like a mad woman with work and of course trying to make Caden's cupcakes to celebrate his summer bday in class before school ended. But I wanted to do something special for Cole, Thank God I found a cool and easy thing to make! 

I did a google search and several Candy Lei ideas came up but I then found a great tutorial on Laughing Stock Papercrafts. This was so easy to make and Cole LOVED it, he got several compliments on it.

What you need:

Celophane

Mini Candy (I went to Dollar Tree and picked up a few)

Curling Ribbon (Or ribbon of your choice)

Heavy duty Tape (I used packing tape)

Card Stock (I made a tag to hang off if you want) 

Step 1:  Cut your roll of cellophane the length you want your lei to be. I did like her recommendation to lay out the candy before cutting the cellophane to gauge how long I needed it to be. I also doubled up the candy per each round. 

Step 2:  Lay out your candy down the length of the cellophane, leaving a small space in between each piece so you'll have room to tie your ribbon.  (This is where I doubled the candy).

Step 3:  Fold over each side of the cellophane until you've got one long tube around the candy.  It doesn't have to be really tight to the candy so don't worry if the cellophane looks loose, mine was loose and worked perfect.

Step 4:  Begin tying in between the candy, starting at the center of the lei and working toward one side, then starting back at the center and work toward the end of the opposite unfinished side.  That way if your candy shifts and you need to remove a candy at the end to make room to tape the lei shut, you can do that more easily than if you randomly start tying.  Make ribbon about long enough so that can have curled ends.  I also used curling ribbon in my son's school colors but you can use whatever ribbon you like.

Step 5:  Overlap your ends and wrap a piece of heavy duty clear tape around it to hold the lei in place.  The candy lei can end up heavy and you don't have to worry about them falling apart when using heavy duty tape (I used packing tape).

 Step 6:  Tie a bow around the taped end.  You can add lots of curling ribbon here to mask the taped end.  I also like to add a cute tag here to dangle with the ribbon along with a thing of pop rocks to go with my saying "Congratulations Cole 5th Grade Graduate 2015 YOU ROCK!! Love Mom, Dad & Caden. 

Make one you'll be the hit of the graduation class!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.