Mommie Do: How to Make a Candy Lei

It's graduation time and we just celebrated my oldest child's graduation from high school. Lots of grads get flower leis or ones made of money but the candy lei seemed to fit my son's personality best. He LOVES candy! They are really simple to make and don't cost a whole lot either. I had a ton of candy left over from the Candyland birthday we had for our daughter and the cellophane and curling ribbon cost me about $7! My son's school colors are green and gold and it just so happened that the store only had green cellophane left! So I went with that and gold curling ribbon. You could do clear cellophane and use the school colors in the ribbons.

The supplies: cellophane, any color and you could even use plastic wrap. Curling ribbon and candy and scissors.

Step 1: measure how long you want your lei to be. I took the curling ribbon, measured around my neck and cut the length that seemed right. Mine was about 67 inches long, my son is tall. I then cut it to about 8 inches wide. I also cut my curling ribbon at this time to about 14 inch lengths. I think I used something like 29 pieces of ribbon.

Step 2: Lay your cellophane out, grab you candy and start piling it in small groups down the whole length of the cellophane.

Step 3: Next fold each side of the cellophane over the candy. I found it easier to work with putting a weight on one end while I tied the ribbons on the opposite end. I happened to have a pack of wipes nearby!

Step 4: Start tying the sections of candy off. I double knotted the ribbon and used two ribbons on each section.

Step 5: Curl the ribbon with your scissors. Be careful not to pull too hard or the string might break. I did this several times. Oops. Its okay, no one will notice.