How to Make a Starburst (or Bubble Gum) Wrapper Chain

You can easily make a chain out of starburst or gum wrappers. I'm using starburst wrappers since I ate some today, but gum wrappers work just as well.

I just made a chain from one package of starbursts, but if you get enough, you can make a longer chain and turn it into a picture frame or something more fun. Use your imagination!

Step 1: Supplies

A bunch of starburst or gum wrappers. A great idea: buy a package of starbursts and eat them as you go!

You could also use small pieces of colorful paper, but you'll need to figure out the necessary dimensions - they should generally be much longer than they are wide.

Step 2: Fold 'em Up

You'll need to fold each piece up as follows. You can do this as you go (useful if you want to eat them as you make this) or you can fold them all first.

1. Fold the wrapper in thirds lengthwise. I've found this width works best for the starburst wrapper, but you might need to adjust for gum wrappers or paper. (Pictures 1 & 2)

2. Fold the wrapper in half lengthwise (Picture 3). You will end up with a long skinny wrapper with no raw edges or insides showing.

3. Fold each end (width-wise) in to meet in the middle (Picture 4). It helps if you fold it in half first to mark where the middle is.

4. Fold in half where you might have folded it in step 3 (Picture 5).

Repeat for each wrapper. It will all make more sense when you try to put them together and then you can adjust your folds as necessary.

Step 3: Put Them Together

Now all (or two) of your pieces look like V's. I'm using a red one and a yellow one and I will refer to the two initial pieces as such. The yellow one will be the first piece in our strand.

Notice that if you look inside each V, there is a side that has a bunch of edges of paper facing you and the other side has smooth ends. The smooth ends are important because you'll want to insert from this end, since it won't get stuck.

The first few are tricky until you get the hang of it.

If you hold the pieces like the ones in the first picture, you'll want the smooth side of the yellow one facing your right and the smooth side of the red one facing down. Insert the red tips into the opening in each of the yellow tips. After it's pushed through all the way, it will look like the fourth picture below.

Now for the third piece. This one is probably the most difficult. The third piece in my strand is pink. You'll want the smooth side of the pink one facing the yellow piece. Insert the tips of the pink piece through the open tips of the red piece, starting from where the yellow one is. This way when it is pushed through it will look like the last picture below. This piece will probably need a bit of maneuvering, but once it's started, the pieces will line up better and they will be easier to work with.

Keep adding to the chain until you run out of starbursts. To make a corner, you can insert a piece from the opposite direction. To finish a square, you'll have to play around with inserting a piece that's partially open and then threading it back through.

Step 4: ADDED: Close the Ends!

It was requested that I explain how to close the ends. The easy answer is: use a safety pin or glue or something like that.

I would rather not have an end on my starburst chain. You can close the ends without any extra supplies. (But I had to eat more starbursts to make a bracelet).

1. Make sure that your first and second-to-last pieces line up like in the picture. This way the final piece will connect them in the correct pattern. For the purposes of this step: my first piece is yellow, the second-to-last piece is orange, and the last piece is pink

2. Fold up your last piece just like the others

3. Un-fold the ends so it looks like the picture

4. Insert the last piece into the second-to-last piece as if it was a normal piece (but twice as long)

5. See the picture - the extra ends of the final piece will go into the unused end of the first piece.

6. Put each side of the last piece's long ends through each side of the open end of the first piece. There is a division in the middle of the first piece, you'll want the last piece to go on either side of this.

7. If you split the ends of the last piece, it should look something like the picture. That piece in the middle is part of the first piece and is actually 2 ends.

8. In the picture for #8, you can see the two ends of the inner piece

9. Insert one long end between the short ends.

10. Repeat for the other long end. Stuff these all of the way down. This took a couple of tries for me, I ended up folding them a bit so that they would fit.

In the end, you shouldn't be able to tell where it connects. I asked my boyfriend and he couldn't figure out which one was the end!