Introduction: Easy DIY Candy Guitar

Talofa!

Thank you so much for checking out my very first Instructable!

Recently, it was my brother's 43rd birthday and because his favorite thing is his guitar, I knew that I wanted to construct him something in the shape of a guitar, instead of baking him a cake. So, I ended up on Google looking for inspiration. It was there that I came across a picture of a rock-n-roll guitar made up of Hershey’s chocolate bars and decided that I would make a regular guitar cardboard cutout and place my brother’s favorite candies (Reeses Peanut Butter Cups & Snickers) on it. It was a fun and super easy little project.

Here, let me show you! 😊

Supplies

  • Cardboard box: You can choose to buy one or just use one lying around in your home. Mine was cut out from a box sitting in our garage.
  • Pencil: You will need it to draw out your guitar shape and size.
  • Ruler: (Optional) I wanted my lines to be straight so I used this.
  • X-acto knife: This knife is amazing. It makes cutting out your cardboard super easy and very precise.
  • Glue gun: For me, this is the best and most secure method to stick your candies on the cardboard. (Double sided tape and glue dots didn’t hold my candies).
  • Candies: I tried to incorporate more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups since they're my brother's faves.
  • Ribbon: You'll need to use some to add as strings for your guitar.

Warning: There may be some temptation to eat the candies prior to placing them on your cardboard cutout. Have at it but make sure you have enough candy!

Step 1: Draw Your Guitar

Because my box was about 4.5 x 6 feet, I had to lay the box on the floor to draw my outline.

I looked up a picture of a basic guitar and tried to draw it free hand. I used a random container I had lying around to get a good enough circle for the middle part of my guitar.

I did a lot of erasing and redrawing until I had the shape and look I wanted.

Step 2: Cut Out Your Guitar

Once I was satisfy with my guitar shape, I used my X-acto knife to follow and cut along the lines I drew.

I placed the cardboard box on my table, with the other end on my chair so that I could cut through the box without puncturing or cutting anything other than the box.

Step 3: Double the Cardboard

Even though the cardboard was super thick, I knew that I wanted it to be sturdier. That way, my box wouldn't bend once my candies were glued on.

So I placed my guitar cutout on the same box (to recycle) and traced my guitar to make another guitar outline.

Then I cut that piece out, same as I did the first guitar cutout.

After that, I used my glue gun to stick them together.

Because of the thickness of both cardboard, a simple hot glue line will not hold it. You will need to make pearl size dots to assure they remain glued.

Step 4: Arrange Your Candies

This part was fun.

I dumped out all the candies onto my cardboard and kept arranging and moving them around until they fit perfectly and looked the way I wanted.

Once you feel satisfied with your candy arrangement, you can start hot gluing them to the cardboard.

Step 5: Add Your Guitar Strings

For the strings, I used a single ribbon to measure the length from the top of the guitar to the center.

Then I cut four more ribbons to make my five guitar strings.

I hot glued one end, each of the five ribbons, to the back of the top of the guitar (where you adjust your guitar keys) while the other ends were glue to the center of the guitar.

After that, I glued a Twix candy over the center to hide the ribbons' ends.

Step 6: Happy Birthday!

And with that, you have your super simple and easy to make Candy Guitar.

I think my brother looks happy with it, would you agree? :-)