Furry Craft Stems
age: 5yrs plus
It’s summertime at last – just the right time to make dragonflies & butterflies!
These ones are very simple and highly decorative. Made from furry craft stems (or fancy pipe cleaners) they introduce the skill of joining things together and spiral twisting to great effect.
Adding folded decorative paper, sequin strip, and feathers, as you twist the craft stems together creates the beautiful wings. Use contrasting coloured stems to make the decorative spiral bodies.
Other more simple versions:
You can cut the wings out of sequin strip and thread the craft stems through the holes. Or just make a very simple folded pair of wings from any coloured paper to insert into the spiral body.
Its good to know:
Younger children will need some help with an extra pair of hands, and you can staple the wings together before you slot them in place.
When you start using furry craft stems, try out different ways of joining the stems together – hooks, twists and loops, and notice how firmly you need to twist and bend them so they keep their shape.
Things you need to pay attention to:
- The sharp ends of each stem – make sure the tips are bent over in case children start to wave them around as pointy swords or wands
- Cutting pieces off the craft stems will wreck any nice scissors, so its a good idea to have some craft snips handy
Special materials/tools you will need:
- There are lots of different kinds of craft stems available: thin, thick, bumpy/wavy, stripy, and glittery – larger packs are much more cost effective, and usually have a good range of colours
- Craft snips
- Decorative materials, tissue paper, sequin strip, and feathers
(a full list is shown on the worksheet)
Where to buy:
Hobbycraft have a big range of colourful ‘pipe cleaners’:
http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/kids/kids-craft-supplies/pipe-cleaners
Click to view PDF Worksheets:
Dragonflies & Butterflies
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