- Pipe cleaner spider.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA image by Jessica Beeton from Fotolia.com
Pipe cleaners are versatile materials most often used to make kids' arts and crafts projects. These fuzzy lengths of wire are simple to bend and twist into a variety of shapes, including insects, animals, flowers and geometric designs. Pipe cleaners are available in an array of colors, including sparkly metallics. Art projects created with pipe cleaners will hold their shape well over time. - Create beautiful crystal decorations to hang on a holiday tree or to add sparkle to a window with pipe cleaners and a solution of Borax and water. Create a shape with a pipe cleaner; the only stipulation being that it must fit suspended inside a wide mouth glass container with no part of the pipe cleaner touching the sides of the container. A mason jar works well for this project. Fill the container with boiling water and 3 tablespoons of Borax for every cup of water. Stir the Borax into the water. If you prefer colored crystals, add food coloring to the Borax solution. Hang the pipe cleaner by a string from a pencil and dangle it inside the glass container. The pencil should fit across the top of the jar. Leave the pipe cleaner suspended in the Borax solution overnight and crystals will form along the shape of the pipe cleaner.
- Kids as young as 4 years will enjoy creating a heart-shaped butterfly with foam sheets and pipe cleaners. To make the butterfly's wings, cut out two hearts from one color of foam. Cut out two smaller hearts from another color of foam. Using a glue stick, glue the small foam heart on top of the larger foam heart to create the wings. Place the two heart wings tip to tip so that the top of each heart is facing to the side. Glue the two tips together, one slightly overlapping the other. To make the pipe cleaner butterfly body, twist two different colors of pipe cleaners together. Make a small hook at one end of the twisted cleaners. Cut another pipe cleaner in half to make the antennae, curling each piece on one end. Connect the two antennae to the body using the small hook at one end of the twisted pipe cleaner. Bend the pipe cleaners over each other and press down to make the connection. Glue the butterfly body to the wings with a glue stick. Glue google craft eyes onto each antennae to complete the butterfly.
- Create a pipe cleaner garden in a shadow box frame with glass cabochons and sheets of foam. Cut a foam sheet to fit over the backboard of a shadow box frame. Glue the foam to the backboard with a glue stick. Shape different colors of pipe cleaners into five-petal flowers. Make stems for the flowers from green pipe cleaners. Glue the stems and the flowers onto the foam sheet. Glue a flat back glass cabochon into the center of the flowers to add sparkle to the design. Make as many pipe cleaner flowers as you like for the garden.
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