I’ve never been a big fan of pipe cleaners, never mind pipe-cleaner flowers. Even in children’s craft projects, they never seemed very effective to me. Pipe-cleaner crafts just didn’t capture my interest.
So, when someone donated a large assortment of colorful pipe cleaners to me, I stuffed them into a drawer, hoping that one day I’d have a sudden burst of inspiration. A pipe dream, perhaps?
Recently, needing to free up some drawer space, I wondered if I could finally create something beautiful with them. That’s when I came up with Pipe-Cleaner Posies – low-cost artificial flowers.
A Pipe-Cleaner Posy – Picture Tutorial
Pipe-Cleaner Posies, in six easy steps, are a low cost alternative to artificial flowers.
What You Will Need:
You will need 5 pipe-cleaners per flower and a pair of scissors … and that is it!
Step 1
Materials Needed:
- Four pipe cleaners for the petals (any colours you like, so feel free to mix and match).
- One additional pipe cleaner, cut in half. You’ll use one half for the stem and centre piece, and the other half as the fastener to secure the petals to the stem.
In my example, I used two different colours for the halves: white for the centre and green for the fastener.
Step 2
Cut the 4 petal pieces in half.
Cut the 8 petal pieces in half again.
Step 4
Take your centre stem piece and wrap the petal pieces around one end of it.
There’s no need to be too precise with the arrangement. This end doesn’t need to be perfectly level; I will explain why in Step 5.
If your centre stem is not positioned in the middle of the bunch, don’t worry because you can adjust this in the next step.
Step 5
Carefully turn your gathered petals and stem upside down, holding tightly between your fingers so that they don’t move around.
This is where the petal pieces need to be as level to each other as possible, so that you don’t lose any when fixing them to the stem.
Whilst griping the petals and stem firmly, take the securing pipe-cleaner and wrap it tightly around the petals bundle.
Wrap as closely as you can to the end of the petal pieces, therefore leaving enough room to wrap the fixing piece around the petals twice.
Squeeze the wrap to complete, forming a tight, smooth binding.
Step 6
Turn your posy petals facing up. If using different colours, arrange the stems into place, according to where you want them to be. You can now move your centre stem into position also.
When your colour arrangement looks right, start with one strand and pull down slightly, separating it from the bunch.
With your thumb and index finger, pinch the end of the strand and curl it up tightly.
Ensure that you hold your petal strand at the base, thus supporting the angle and ensuring that the petal isn’t pulled out of the fixing, whilst curling.
Once the curled petal reaches the stem, carefully turn it so that it sits horizontally
Repeat Step 6 for each petal strand.
When all your petal pieces are curled and turned, tightly curl and turn your centre strand and gently place and push into the centre of your posy.
And there you have it! It’s as simple as that!
Also, you can extend your stems to represent cut flowers by twisting a full length pipe-cleaner around your short stem.
Alternatively, you could cut the stems and add a safety pin to your flower to make a brooch.
You could also attach it to a hair band or a scrunchie.
Scatter the flowers onto a garland or display them in a bowl.
The options are endless!
Pipe-Cleaner Crafts
Most Pipe-Cleaners are low cost and widely available.
You can pick up a pack of around 50 multi-coloured pipe-cleaners from pound shops/ dollar stores, discount shops and supermarkets.
Also, Pipe-Cleaner Posies are a great project for older kids too.
A great outdoors, garden project during the summer months.
Let me know how yours turn out.
Enjoy!
For more easy craft tutorials, take a look at my collection of free Tutorials
