Blooms and Butterflies – Fun Pipe Cleaner Crafts

by SUSAN BOYOUNG BAILEY SCHABACKER

Celebrate summer with decoratable and wearable art for kids and kids at heart with colorful pipe cleaner DIY crafts. Draw inspiration from gardens with beautiful blooms and butterflies, handcrafted with pipe cleaners.

ROSES

Use a full-length pipe cleaner for larger roses and longer stems. For mini roses, cut a pipe cleaner for the bloom and stem in half. Put both halves for the bloom and stem together, and wrap the end of the stem part around one end of the bloom part. Wrap the bloom part around in a spiral. Tuck the other end of the bloom part around on the outside of the petal, so the sharp end is obscured underneath on the inside.

For the stem, cut to desired length and fold the sharp end over. Another option for the end of the stem is to create a small base, rolling into a spiral and then shaping the stem upward. Pipe cleaner roses generally stand up better if stems aren’t too long. If desired, use a glue gun to glue the roses to paper or cardboard.

For leaves, fold half a pipe cleaner in half around the stem where you want the leaves to be, twist once and pull ends, so they are equidistant and horizontal. Fold the ends over to cause the leaf shape to be more pointy. Wrap the end around the base of the leaf, and press the sharp end down.

“Yellow Roses” – Dolly Parton (lyrics snippet)

Yellow roses, the color of sunshine

You loved me at one time,

why did you have to go

Yellow roses, are you sending your new love

My bright yellow rose buds I still love you so.

DAISIES

For four (or more) petals, fold pipe cleaner in half twice, and cut into four pieces. For a long stem, place a pipe cleaner in the center of the petals. Create the petals by holding each of the four pieces in half, with and bunch together evenly with the ends facing up.

For the stamen (center), wrap the end of the stem of a full length pipe cleaner around the upper part of the petals and fold the end over top, and mask down to conceal the sharp end.

Without a stem, your daisy can be wearable as well as decoratable. Thread another pipe cleaner through two of the petals horizontally.

To obscure the sharp ends, fold back or twist the ends around a few times. You can add a bead to the ends and wrap around once or twice to secure.

“Blue Sky Through My Branches” – Susan BoYoung Bailey Schabacker (lyrics snippet)

You are my daisy in the meadow

Turning my face towards the sun

You are the blue sky through my branches

Reminding me another day has begun.

BUTTERFLIES

For larger butterflies, use a full pipe cleaner. For mini butterflies, cut two pipe cleaners in half for the top and bottom sets of wings. Take one half of the pipe cleaner and fold the two ends in, as evenly as possible, like a pretzel. Fold both ends together under once. Do the same for the other set of wings.

For antennas, cut a pipe cleaner in half. Place the two wings together (top and bottom), and fold the third half of the pipe cleaner over in the middle. Twist the two ends (facing up) together. Roll each of the ends in a small spiral facing in, in a heart shape.

Take a fourth pipe cleaner and wrap it around the middle. Twist around and pull the ends in the opposite directions, horizontally. Roll the sharp edges of the ends in or add a bead and twist ends over.

“Butterfly” – Mariah Carey (lyrics snippet)

Spread your wings and prepare to fly

For you have become a butterfly

Oh, fly abandonedly into the sun

If you should return to me

We truly were meant to be

So spread your wings and fly

Butterfly.

Whether a bouquet of long-stemmed flowers wrapped in tissue paper, tied with a ribbon or put in a vase (no water needed) or wearable art that makes for great gift giving – pipe cleaner flowers are easy to make and recreate.

Happy summer!

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Susan B. B. Schabacker

Forsyth Magazines writer since 2018. Susan Schabacker was blessed to be adopted as a baby and made her journey from South Korea to Massachusetts where she arrived safely into her adoptive mother’s loving arms. She later moved to New Mexico and, after a few years, moved to Winston-Salem, NC, to study classical ballet at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts from the eighth grade through high school. Susan has lived in the Piedmont Triad area for nearly 20 years and had the opportunity to travel to Budapest, Hungary; London, UK; and Beijing, China, where she studied abroad through Elon University. In Stockholm, Sweden, she had a marketing internship at Hachette-Filipacchi, publisher of Elle and other magazines. She graduated with a B.A. in Corporate Communications and a minor in Dance from Elon University. Susan loves writing and is pleased to have written for Winston-Salem Journal’s "Teen Page," Triad Living, KernersvilleMagazine, and of course, Forsyth Mags. She is a co-author of a children’s book, Huckleberry Robin, based on a three-generation true family story. Susan is grateful for her faith, family, and friends and is happy and excited to be part of the Forsyth Mags team. She spreads the word about Forsyth magazines and enjoys reading and sharing them with her family and friends every month.

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