6 Easy-to-Make Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornaments – Simple Craft Project
These pipe cleaner Christmas ornaments are adorable and incredibly easy to make.
Whether you’re crafting with kids or looking for a relaxing DIY project, these ornaments are perfect for the season.
In this blog post, I show you how to make six festive pipe cleaner ornaments: a wreath, poinsettia, star, Christmas tree, snowflake, and angel.
Each design requires just a few materials, creativity, and little bending.
Hang these pipe cleaner Christmas ornaments on your tree or attach them to a gift package or sack.
You can use a thin metallic thread, Baker’s twine, or ribbon to hang your ornaments.
Watching the video at the end of the post will help you see all the steps in detail.
1. Wreath – Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 2 green pipe cleaners (sparkly or regular)
- 1 red pipe cleaner
- Metallic craft string, jute, Baker’s twine or ribbon
- craft scissors
Instructions:
WREATH
To make this sparkly wreath, take the two green pipe cleaners and line them up evenly, side by side.
- Twist the two ends together a couple of times. There should be about 1/2 inch of twisted pipe cleaner at the end.
- Using your fingertip as a spacer, place your finger between the two pipe cleaners right next to the twist you just made.
- Wrap the pipe cleaners around your finger, then twist them twice. When you remove your finger, there should be a small circle where your finger was.
- Continue to use your finger as a spacer, twisting the pipe cleaners around your finger and making circles. Repeat until you’ve reached the end of the pipe cleaner.
- Leave about 1/2 inch of twisted pipe cleaner at the very end.
Bring the two twisted ends of the pipe cleaner together so it forms a circle. Twist the two 1/2 inch ends together. This will be the main part of the wreath.
Adjust the circles if needed and set the wreath aside.
BOW
- To make the bow, half a red pipe cleaner to mark the halfway point.
- Open it up again after you’ve made a little bend.
- Cross one end of the red pipe cleaner over the bend you made in the center, leaving a small 3/4 inch loop (this will be one-half of the bow).
- Wrap the pipe cleaner around the center mark, ensuring the endpoints are down when you’re done.
- Repeat those steps for the other side of the bow.
You should have two loops and two ends that look like a bow.
- Attach the bow to the wreath to cover the part where the two green pipe cleaner ends were twisted together.
- Place the bow on top of the wreath. Take one red pipe cleaner end and wrap it around the wreath.
- Then, take the other red end and wrap it around the wreath.
- Trim the bow ends if needed.
Your wreath is complete!
2. Tree – Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 1 sparkly green pipe cleaner
- 1 yellow sparkly or gold pipe cleaner
- craft scissors
Instructions:
TREE
- Take the green pipe cleaner, and about 1/2 inch from the end, make a 90-degree angle bend to make the tree trunk.
- Then, bend the pipe cleaner back and forth in a wavy zig-zag, gradually tapering to small zig zags as you get near the end of your pipe cleaner (which will be the top point of your tree). Leave another 1/2 inch at the top of the tree to attach the star.
STAR: This is a tiny star. The photos below show a bigger star using an entire 12-inch pipe cleaner. Follow the same steps for the Tiny Star. Segments for the big star are 2 inches.
- Using the gold pipe cleaner, measure ½ inch from the end and make the first bend.
- Measure another ½ inch and continue making bends that size until you have 5 ½ inch segments.
- Follow the instructions in the photos below.
**** These are close-up photos showing the steps making a bigger star.
Wrap the short length of gold pipe cleaner from behind the star around the green pipe cleaner’s end at the tree’s top.
Cut a length of gold cord, ribbon, or twine and tie it around the top of your tree shape.
Hang your pipe cleaner tree ornament on the Christmas tree!
3. Poinsettia – Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 2 sparkly red pipe cleaners
- 1 sparkly gold pipe cleaner
- craft scissors
Instructions:
- Place two red pipe cleaners side by side and twist the ends together to have about a 1/2 inch of twisted pipe cleaner at the end.
- You’ll use your fingertips as a guide, just like with the wreath, but this time you will use two fingers.
- Place two fingers next to the twisted end between the pipe cleaners.
- Wrap the pipe cleaners around your fingers, then twist the pipe cleaners twice. Remove your fingers.
- Repeat the process: Place two fingers right next to the previous twist. Wrap the pipe cleaners over your fingers, then twist them twice.
- Keep wrapping the pipe cleaners around two fingers and twisting until you get to the end of the pipe cleaner. You should end up with six loops.
- Open up the six loops to form an oval petal shape.
- Open up the six loops to form an oval petal shape.
- Bring the two ends of the pipe cleaners together and twist them two or three times. Your pipe cleaners should now resemble a flower.
Trim off excess pipe cleaner.
FLOWER CENTER:
- Cut a gold sparkly pipe cleaner in half. Save one half for a future creation.
- Thread the gold pipe cleaner through two petals that are opposite from one another, then bend the pipe cleaner upwards.
- Twist the gold pipe cleaner together tightly against the top of the red poinsettia shape.
- Then twist the gold pipe cleaners together all along the entire length of the gold pipe cleaner.
- Pinch the end of the gold pipe cleaner and roll it into a tight jelly roll.
- Then, bend it downwards so it lies flat on the poinsettia.
- Loop a piece of string through one of the poinsettia petals to hang it on your Christmas tree or to attach to a gift package or sack.
4. Snowflake – Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 2 sparkly blue pipe cleaners
- craft scissors
Instructions:
- Cut one of the pipe cleaners into three equal pieces. (If your pipe cleaners are 12 inches long, cut them into three 4-inch segments).
- Take all 3 pipe cleaner pieces and line them up so the ends are even.
- Twist all three pipe cleaners at the center three times so they are joined well.
- Equally, spread each of the pipe cleaners out into a star shape.
- Take the second pipe cleaner and cut it into six equal pieces. (If your pipe cleaner is 12 inches long, each segment will be 2 inches).
Place one of the 2-inch pipe cleaner pieces on top of one of the star spikes and twist it around one of the pipe cleaner spikes about halfway up the spike.
Twist it so there’s an equal length of pipe cleaner on both sides.
Bend the ends outwards to make a V shape.
Then repeat these steps for all 6 points on your snowflake.
Add some string or ribbon to your snowflake and hang it on the tree
5. Angel Ornament – Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 2 sparkly silver pipe cleaners
Instructions:
- Cross the two ends of one of the pipe cleaners to make a small X. Then twist those ends together.
- You should have a large circle shape.
- Place one of your fingers inside the large pipe cleaner circle.
- Wrap the pipe cleaner around your finger, then twist it twice to hold it together. When you remove your finger you should have a small circle the size of your finger.
- This will be the angel’s halo.
- Place two fingers through the pipe cleaner next to the first small circle to make the angel’s head.
- Wrap the pipe cleaner around your fingers and twist twice. You should have two small circles and one larger oval shape.
- Bend the top circle forward to a 90-degree angle so it sits over the top of the second circle – the head – like a halo.
- Bend the lower oval-like shape below the head into a long triangle shape. It should have two long sides and a short bottom to look like the angel’s dress.
- To make the wings, take the second pipe cleaner, cross the two ends, and twist them to make another large circle shape.
- Bring the opposite sides of the circle shape together until they meet in the middle. It should resemble a “squished” circle.
- Slip the “squished” circle over the angel. Center it just under the angel’s head where the “neck” would be.
- Twist the pipe cleaners twice, as close to the angel’s “neck” as you can on both sides of the angel.
- Open up the pipe cleaner wings on both sides of the angel and bend them into wing shapes. They should look like sideways hearts.
- Add some string so you can hang it on the Christmas tree!
6. Simple Star Ornament –
Pipe Cleaner Christmas Ornament
What You’ll Need:
- 1 sparkly pipe cleaner
- Star-shaped cookie cutter
Instructions:
- Make the first bend, leaving a 1/2-inch end. Wrap the rest of the pipe cleaner around the cookie cutter to form a star shape.
- Twist the ends to secure and pinch the bends to make sharp angels.
- Add a piece of twine or ribbon for hanging.
TIP: Make an easy twine loop for hanging.
- Cut a piece of twine about 11 inches.
- Make a loop and thread the loop through the ornament.
- Stick the cut ends of the twine through the loop.
- Pull the twine ends tight.
- Make a knot about 2 inches from the end.
Have fun making pipe cleaner Christmas ornaments!
Step 1: Cutting the Straws
Step 4: Making a Loop for Hanging
Try to keep the holes 1/8-1/4-inch (the size of a head of cloves) apart. The orange will eventually “mummify” and shrivel and shrink, so you need to leave some room for the contraction to happen. You don’t want the cloves too close together.
