Made flexible and soft, pipe cleaners are easy to cut, bend, shape, and twist together to form a variety of designs. Kids with a creative eye can transform them into toys, jewelry, and even Christmas ornaments, with the help of a few basic craft materials and a little imagination.
These projects are perfect for a wide age range, since several of the projects are simple and little adult supervision is required for most of them. The wire strands can be cut with safety scissors and glued to sturdy cardstock using standard liquid school glue and craft varieties.
Cool Christmas Crafts
Create unique Christmas cards using pipe cleaners for decoration. Curling green wires become Christmas tree branches, while miniature pieces of white can overlap and twist together to form imaginative snowflakes. Even the youngest crackers can shape a simple square gift box and overlapping "bow" from strands. Glue the pipe cleaner creations to folded pieces of cardstock and add glitter, sequins, or other decorations.
Make a mini Christmas tree by twisting together green pipe cleaner around a wooden dowel or skewer. Trim the branches to create the layers of limb and curl the ends to hang ornaments from them. String beads on wire for Christmas balls or make mini pipe cleaner candy canes by braiding mini red and white strands together.
Easy Jewelry Designs
Weave a bracelet in vibrant colors using three or more pipe cleaner strands. Metallic colors, bright shades, and pastels twine together to form close-fitting designs or chunky bangles. Trim the ends to the desired size and bend them together to lock the strands together.
Make an easy choker strand to support a charm or pendant by threading a glittery pipe cleaner through the hole and bending the wire in a smooth curve. Flex both ends into close hooks; interlock them and press closed to fasten the choker necklace in place.
Substitute beads for the charm and make an easy bead necklace using the same technique. Simply string craft beads (with large center holes) onto the wire and twist the ends in a loop before hooking them together.
Simple Game Ideas
A simple ring toss game is easy to make from pipe cleaners and wooden dowel. Glue the dowel to a wooden stand or substitute a similar object, like a ring tree or empty CD-ROM disc stacker. Form rings of all sizes from strips of pipe cleaner, the ends wrapped in a braid so the circle remains intact. Bend and curve some into unusual shapes for a more challenging toss.
Make a simple pipe cleaner "bowling ball" by braiding the ends of pipe cleaners into a close fit and looping them into a sphere shape. Despite the braided ends, the ball should still roll easily (tie the top and bottom intersecting lines with thread if necessary).
Form the bowling pins by forming large loops at the bottom of short pipe cleaner strands; make a smaller loop at the top, then bend the wire so it stands up using the base loop for balance. Line them up and roll the ball to see how many will fall.
With designs both simple and silly, pipe cleaner crafts can fill an otherwise boring afternoon with creative fun. Encourage young crafters to add their own unique touches to the various projects in order to personalize their creation.
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