Candy Garland Instructions

I've had some people express interest in making the candy garland so I'm posting the link to the instructions here.

http://www.hgtv.com/dc-occasions-december/poly-clay-candy-garland/index.html

Here are my two cents in addition to the instructions:

• I didn't use any transparent clay. I'm sure it would make the candy look a little more real, but I didn't want to take the time to mix clays.
• I didn't use any of the special tools that the instructions called for. One thing you do need is a super sharp knife. If you don't have a really sharp knife (we don't have one), then I found floss or thread also worked well for slicing the candies.
• Be sure to wash your hands after touching the colored clay before you touch the white clay. Otherwise the clay will no longer be white. The red was the worst for me. I also had to wipe the surface I was working on after using colored clay.
• I also made candy canes and candy corn (christmas colored - red, green, and white). They weren't in the instructions, but for the candy canes I just did the same thing for the starlight mints but rolled it thinner and then twisted the dough a little. This was a nice back-up plan for me when my mints didn't turn out--they just turned into candy canes! :0) The candy corn I just kind of molded together--it was totally experimental.
  
• Any scraps (because you will have some) I blended and used in the ribbon candy (like mixing red and white to get pink).
• The polymer clay brand I used is called "Sculpey." I bought white in bulk because it was a lot cheaper (and you use more white than any other color), but it was a lot softer than the colored clay so I don't know if I would recommend doing that. Otherwise it is hard to blend the clays together.
• I bought the gumdrop garland at K-Mart. It's a "Martha Stewart Collection." This is the only place I've been able to find it.