Candy Bracelets: Friendship Symbols or Enemy "Tokens"
By Sylvie DeLorn
The month of June is a terror for all students with a sweet tooth alike. The Easter holiday passed from the sporadic jumping around through March and April, and the closest thing to free candy to come isn't until October. Any remaining secret stash of candy that there might be has to be stretched out in order to last from the final day of stock buying in Honeydukes to the free reign of Halloween.
This month, we'll be looking at the excuse to give in order to confirm the idea of friendship and buy more candy. Any kind of candy with a square-like wrapper that can be kept in one piece will do, in this example we'll be using the popular muggle sucker, Dum-Dums.
Some skills and items needed before beginning this project include:
Wrappers (brand new or saved)
Scissors (or something to cut with)
Your choice of either hot glue, super glue, or a jewelry clasp to hold the bracelet together
Basic folding skills
Prepping:
I) You want to make sure that all of your wrappers are relatively flat. This can be done by either rubbing the wrapper lightly against a table edge or placing it under a book.
II) Now to cut the wrappers in half, this should be done along the longest side of the wrapper. (Parallel to the line at the bottom of the newer wrappers.) For a more precise cut, fold the wrapper in half first and cut along the crease. Each half shall be one link.
Folding:
I. Fold your cut wrappers in half again. The same way you folded your wrappers before.
II. Unfold the wrapper and then take the sides and fold them both towards the center, make sure that they're not overlapping to the best of your capabilities. Afterwards, fold along the original fold from before so the wrapper is long and skinny.
III. Fold the wrapper in half again, opposite of the folds you've been folding before. Crease it.
IV. Just like in step two, unfold the crease just made, fold both sides into the center, and then fold against the fold made in the previous step.
V. Continue these steps for the remaining halves you've created.
Linking:
I. Take one of the links and unfold it along the last fold made. Take a second link and unfold it the same way, then unfold one of the sides another time. Place both links within the other, so they'll refold over each other. If this is done correctly, you'll have a "V" shape.
II. Continue adding links to this chain in the same fashion. As you go, you should have a zigzag pattern. You'll want to do this adding links on one at a time, don't connect separate chains of links and then connect them together, it won't work.
III. Once you finish your bracelet, take your hot glue gun (or super glue) and add one drop onto the end of your bracelet, then attach it to the other end. You could also attach a jewelry clasp to each end.
With this newly-created friendship bracelet you can give it to your best friend to forever remember you over summer vacation, or your worst enemy to sicken over their long awaited break from your ever-powerful might. Whichever you decide and with that...
Happy crafting Slytherins,
Sylvie