about shop patterns projects printables extras sponsorship wild olive twitter flickr pinterest subscribe

25 crafts of christmas // pipe cleaners



Today's supply for the 25 Crafts of Christmas is an oldie but a goodie. In fact, I chose it for its very vintage qualities, as you'll see shortly. Pipe cleaners, or chenille stems as they're sometimes called, can be used for lots of good Christmas crafts. Think tri-bead candy canes and wreaths, crystalized snowflakes, and more.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

We bought a nice big supply of these sparkly wires for making garland for our tree this year (as my sister was working with them, she exclaimed that she was covered in Christmas!). I'm seriously crushing on glitter pipe cleaners this year. But I chose another type so that we can get back to the vintage I was talking about.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

This charming little guy has been sitting in my workspace all year. Yes, all year. And yes, I did listen to Christmas music in the summer. But I digress. I love this elf-ish Santa so much that I decided I needed to try and replicate him. And what is he made from? Pipe cleaners!

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

The type used in the vintage Santa is the bumpy kind. He was made when pipe cleaners were a lot nicer, and definitely fuller, but the new kind will work well enough. For one Santa, you'll need 2 full bumpy pipe cleaners, plus an extra bump.

You'll also need to download and print out some Santa faces, and grab some craft glue.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Fold one of the bumpy pipe cleaners in half. Pinch the fold a little to form the top of the hat.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

At the skinny section, twist the pieces together a couple times. These will be the arms.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Take the second pipe cleaner and fold it in half, twisting it around the "neck."

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Fold the head toward the back, then up and around through the two loose stems.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

At this point, if the arms seem extra long, wrap each across the front to shorten them a bit. Twist the two loose stems at the skinny point, forming the torso and legs.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Fold the legs toward the back, then through the torso and back into the correct position. I've now made a bunch of these (for our tree!) and sometimes I found that it helped to repeat this step twice to get the the legs looking right.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Fold the ends of the arms back so they aren't pointy, and fold the feet up like little elf shoes.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Take the extra "bump" and use it to fill in the torso. Simply fold the ends to secure it through the hat and between the legs. Pose him to give it some character.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

Cut out a Santa face and attach it to the body using craft glue. You don't need much, and I recommend that you put the glue on the pipe cleaners.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

If you want this to hang as an ornament, add a string hanger through the hat.

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

He's part Santa, part elf, part tomten (a Scandinavian thing that creeped me out as a child, but that I love now!), all kitschy cute!

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners


Not quite the same as the original, but I love it's happy Wild Olive face!

25 Crafts of Christmas // Pipe Cleaners

And since we're decorating our tree in non-traditional, retro colors, I'm making my Santas in pink! Cute, right? They'll nestle in all over our tree, which is currently waiting outside until we move furniture around. Christmas is coming, and I've got lots of crafting to do!

What's your favorite project that uses pipe cleaners?

14 comments:

  1. This is soo cute and a great idae!!
    Lauren
    ohhayblogs.blogpsot.co.uk
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is adorable! Where did you get the bumpy cleaners?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I think these came from Hobby Lobby, but you should be able to find them at JoAnn or Michaels too.

      Delete
  3. The arms and legs added to my miniature pine come elves.

    Santa's sweet!

    Happy week,
    Kelley~

    ReplyDelete
  4. These Santas are really cute. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, Mollie, in response to your request to pin my "Thanks" embroidered cards, pin away my dear! {I searched for your E-addy, but came up empty. Hope you don't mind my replying here.}

    Happy week,
    Kelley~

    P.S. I see that I didn't double-check my iPhone's spelling on my comment (above): pine cone, not pine coMe. :o)


    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my goodness! He's adorable, that face!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the cute pink santa, he puts a much needed frilly spin on Christmas decorations.
    Claire xx
    http://somewhereyonder.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  8. I absolutely LOVE your Santa. Thanks so much for sharing the tutorial. I can't wait to get to the store and get pipe cleaners..
    cheers
    maggie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your cutie pie santa makes the original look much more creepy than it did in the top photo haha... It's adorable, I love it :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love Santas! This is one of those projects that is so cute AND Easy that we may end up with excessive numbers of Santa around the house! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  11. My Christmas crafting experience with pipe cleaners is making the candy canes with pony beads strung on them. Loving the Santa idea!

    ReplyDelete
  12. My friend is really into My Little Pony, so for their birthday I made a pony bouquet gor them I got 2 packages of small mlp figurines, and made pipe cleaner stems for them. Then I put paper around it like a real boquet. They really liked it!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I teach 8th grade Latin and we do a mini-unit on the Roman holiday Saturnalia, which happened in December. Romans would give gifts to each other, like we do, and one of the popular gifts were little dolls, or "Sigillaria." I made this with my 8th graders as "Sigillaria" as part of the unit. They LOVED it!! Great craft.

    ReplyDelete

I often reply to comments in the comments...check back if you have a question!