eye candy

Remember ribbon candy? Every Christmas my parents received a box of it from friends or a family member. There was never very much of it in the box, especially when there's thirteen people all hoping to get a taste. I actually didn't love eating ribbon candy, I just liked looking at it. The colors were eyepopping and each piece was so unbelievably delicate. They shimmered like glass ribbons and I used to open the lid of the box every time I passed by just to get a glimpse.



For one of our crafts this month, I decided we would make some ribbon candy ornaments. I didn't think it would be all that hard. What I thought would be the easiest part of this project was actually the most difficult; finding the right ribbons. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for. The ribbons we used were Christmas colors and ribbon candy uses more tropical colors but I figured they would do. This craft is only for the preschoolers or older. Besides the ribbon (I used wire rimmed ribbon) you will need pipe cleaners, pony beads, adult scissors and a hole punch.

To prep for this activity I first cut lengths of ribbon. I actually made a test one first to work out the kinks and I found a ribbon about 18" worked well. Then starting from one end I punched a hole about every 2". This was also difficult. My hole punches had a hard time coming through the ribbon. I actually broke one (the spring release mechanism broke). If you can think of an easier way to punch the holes through the ribbon, please share! For each ornament, thread a bead onto a pipe cleaner all the way to one end and twist it onto the end. Now you can let the kids loose with this.

It's actually very simple. I told my 4 year old and 5 year old you work in a pattern...poke, bead, poke, bead, poke, bead, poke, bead. And as they worked they chanted "poke, bead" to themselves. The children poked the pipe cleaner through the first hole in the ribbon and pulled it all the way through and then took another bead and threaded that on and pushed it all the way down. They continued to do this until they ran out of holes in the ribbon. Add one final bead and then using the excess pipe cleaner twist it to make a loop. Cut off the extra pipe cleaner, fluff up your loops of ribbon and voila!