This is a fun little way for kids (and adults) to count down the days till Christmas!
Supplies- Candy - 25 pieces, it needs to be the kind that closes on each end so you can tie them together
- Red, Green and a tiny bit of Yellow paper for the sign
- Silhouette Cameo or Printer
- Glue Stick - to put the sign together
- String - I used size 10 white with green sparkles crochet thread. Yarn can work too and would probably be easier for kids to work with.
- Little piece of Cardboard
This is a fairly quick project and doesn't take that much time. You spend most of the time tying them together and that won't even take that long unless you want cute little bows like I did.
Making the Sign
You can find the downloads for both the Silhouette files and PDF's in the original posting (
http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Candy-Countdown/)
I based this off of a candy countdown I made when I was younger. I don't remember what it said, but I know it was this shape. Anything will work
Measurements :
Outer Rectangle: 3 x 5 inches
Inner Rectangle: 2.5 x 4.5 inches
Holes: .1 x .1 inches
Tree: 1.405 x 2.065 inches
Star: .305 x .290
Once you have your pieces cut out, just glue them together!
To support the candy, you will need to paste a piece of cardboard to the back of the sign.
Tie Candies Together
Time to tie up your candies. From my 14 oz bag of Jolly Ranges I was able to get 16 cherries (red) and 9 green apples (green). This makes exactly 25, so I lucked out there. You don't have to use just red and green candies, I just figured I would since I could.
If you want your candies in a specific order, plan that out ahead of time. I would have liked to have mine go every other, but since there wasn't the right amount I tried to make a sort of pattern with the alternating green and reds.
Once you are ready cut off a piece of string or yarn that is a couple inches long. You can simply double knot them together if you want, but it will make it harder to pull off one each day. I decided to tie one knot and then a bow. It was a little difficult to do such a small bow, but I just cut the strings longer to start with and then trimmed off the excess once I had the bow the size I wanted.
Try to get them tied together where the wrapper meets the candy. This will be the strongest connection. Continue to tie them all together until you have them all connected.
Attach the sign to the candies
You just need two pieces of string for this step. No specific length, just make sure one is long enough to tie the candy to the sign and the other is long enough to tie between the top two holes with enough room to hang. You can always trim off the excess.
I tied a double knot around one of the candies on the end. Then I pulled the ends through the two holes at the bottom of the sign, front to back. I double knotted this and then tied a little bow. For the top, get another string and tie each end to each corner. I trimmed off the extra.
Now just hang it up!
Original posting:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Candy-Countdown/
