Beaded Pipe Cleaner Snowflakes

And we’re back. Don’t you hate it when you make an announcement to the world, and then you can’t follow through because life gets in the way? Yup. It’s been one of those weeks! My publisher sent me the printed pages of my craft book to edit, mark up and send back… so I had to read through 192 pages of crafts and instructions to find any mistakes. But I am ridiculously relieved to say that that was the FINAL edit and I won’t see those pages again until it goes to print this summer. Crazy and so exciting!

I photographed these beaded pipe cleaner snowflakes weeks ago! They are so simple to make and they look adorable! This was one of those easy peasy crafts that I did with my 5 year old and 7 year old over the Christmas holidays. One morning my oldest daughter woke up and said “Can we do a craft Mommy?” and I said “hmmmm………..”.

Mind you, at the point, I don’t think I had finished my coffee yet, so I’m not sure I was overly receptive? I’m trying to teach my kids that if I haven’t finished my coffee, it’s probably safest to not ask me to do anything. (and if it’s still dark outside, please please please don’t even bother asking! lol) But the kids were dressed, they were fed and to be fair, it was my second coffee, so there was really no reason that we couldn’t start a little crafting adventure. So off we went to raid the awesome craft supplies I have leftover from writing my craft book!

Lately, craft time with the kids has involved me choosing a craft, me making the craft, and then the kids watching me while I make almost the entire thing for them. These snowflakes are like the jackpot of kids crafts because the kids can actually make them by themselves. Or at least mostly by themselves. They might need a little help twisting the pipe cleaners together, but after that, it’s smooth sailing! I was inspired by the adorable snowflakes from Early Learning Ideas.

Beaded Pipe Cleaner Snowflakes

Here’s a list of what you’ll need. The affiliate links below will take you to products on Amazon that are similar to the supplies I used:

• 3 pipe cleaners (6″ length, or 2 regular length pipe cleaners, each cut in half)


• 30 to 36 plastic pony beads


• 6 snowflake beads


• 1 sticker rhinestone (about 3/8″ wide)

I found a bag of assorted pipe cleaners at the craft store that were only 6″ long – That’s half the length of regular pipe cleaners – and they make it really convenient for simple crafts like this! No cutting and no scraps to deal with!

Start by taking two 6″ long pipe cleaner pieces and crossing them at their mid points:

Take the right side and wrap it tightly around the top to the left side:

Then take the left side and wrap it tightly around the top to the right side. As long as you go over the top once with the left and once with the right, they’ll stay in place securely.

Add in the third pipe cleaner and do the same thing. I didn’t twist or tie anything, I just crossed each side of each pipe cleaner tightly over the top and to the other side to hold them in place:

Shape the pipe cleaners so the space between each point is even:

Start sliding on the pony beads and pushing them to the center. I used 6 pony beads per side:

Then add one snowflake bead to each of the ends:

Take each pipe cleaner end, bend it over and poke the end into the middle of the snowflake bead, pushing it through enough to keep it in place. If it’s big enough, you can open the little loop at the end a bit to help keep the beads from sliding off.

Then add a medium sized sticker rhinestone to the middle where all the pipe cleaners cross. Oh sticker rhinestones! They are seriously one of my new favourite craft supplies! I get them at the dollar store and seem to use them on everything lately!

Push it in place and you’re done!

Aren’t they pretty? They turned out so well!

I made mine in blues, pinks and purples. The girls made theirs in rainbow colours… Excuse the blurry phone picture on our messy kitchen table… You’ll notice below that bending the pipe cleaner ends tightly over the snowflake (as opposed to poking it back into the bead) also works to hold the beads in place and is a great alternative for little hands!

The sticker rhinestones stick pretty well to the pipe cleaners in my opinion.

If you plan to turn these into Christmas ornaments that might see a little more wear and tear over the years, you might want to considering adding a glob of hot glue behind the rhinestone to keep it in place. The glue will also help keep the pipe cleaners from coming undone.

These beaded pipe cleaner snowflakes are such an awesome low mess winter craft idea! They’re so easy to make that the kids will actually be able to make them by themselves! They make fantastic Christmas ornaments, and you could even hang them in the window.

If you’re looking for more fun winter craft ideas be sure to check out our glittery snowflake window clings. Making window clings is probably one of my all time favourite crafts to make with the kids!

Source : onelittleproject.com
Read more...