Easy! How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Let’s make pipe cleaner flowers today!  Making pipe cleaner flowers is a quick flower craft so easy that kids can make a full bouquet of flowers with pipe cleaners within minutes. Kids of all ages will love this simple pipe cleaner craft and they will be making colorful and unique flowers in no time.

Easy Pipe Cleaner Flowers Craft

Pipe cleaner crafts don’t require much clean up and work well for younger kids and older kids too while playing with development of fine motor skills. Grab a bunch of colorful chenille straws and let’s make some pretty pipe cleaner flowers!

Related: Make a homemade card using pipe cleaners as a beautiful flower arrangement

We love finding easy things to make with pipe cleaners.  Chenille stems are one of my favorite crafting items because it is almost mesmerizing to work with them and see what they can become.

Pipe cleaners are called pipe cleaners because they were originally used to clean pipes…makes sense!  Today we use them for crafting which sounds like much more fun.  They come in a million colors and also can be found under the name chenille stem or fuzzy sticks.

-History of Pipe Cleaners

Flowers Made with Pipe Cleaners

Turn your pipe cleaner flowers into pipe cleaner bouquets!  The only thing that will limit your bouquet-making-party is time and pipe cleaners!

Preschool CraftTip: If you are doing pipe cleaner crafts with younger kids who might get stuck with the end of the pipe cleaner, then add a drop of hot glue to cover the sharp metal end with a little bit of hot glue and let cool to protect little finger tips.

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How to Make Flowers Out of Pipe Cleaners

Supplies Needed to Make Pipe Cleaner Flower Bouquets

• Colorful Pipe Cleaners – different colors for flower petals and buds: yellow pipe cleaners, red pipe cleaners, orange pipe cleaners, purple pipe cleaners and white pipe cleaners are our favorite
• Green Pipe Cleaners – for stems: a green pipe cleaner works great but we have also used brown pipe cleaners
• Container for your Bouquet – or you can create a pipe cleaner flower pot
• (Optional) hot glue gun with glue stick or a little glue

Watch Our Short Tutorial Video on How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Instructions for Pipe Cleaner Flowers Craft

Step 1 – Make Swirls, Loops and Circles with Pipe Cleaners

To make the colorful flowers, we swirled some of the cleaners into a circle shape. The first swirl will be the center of each flower and you can build out from there. 

• When you let go of the wire, and pull lightly on the center of it (to make a cone-like shape) it looks a lot like an orchid (or maybe a tulip). That was my daughters favorite type to create.
• We also made loops and attached the loops together to the middle of the flower creating the more traditional-looking flower shape. This was a bit more difficult for my four year old to create, but she tried hard!

Step 2 – Add Stems with Chenille Stems {Giggle}

When the swirls and flowers were finished, we added stems to create our bouquets with green and brown pipe cleaners.   

(Optional) Step 3 – Make a Pipe Cleaner Flower Pot

The easiest way I have found to make a pipe cleaner flower pot for your bouquet is to use something around the house as a template. If you find a small clay pot, pill bottle or narrow glass from the kitchen that is the size that would work, then grab some flower pot colored pipe cleaners. Wind the pipe cleaners around the item you chose until you have a shape you like, then remove that item and adjust the pipe cleaners as needed.

Pipe Cleaner Flower Bouquets as Kid-Made Gifts

These would make a great gift for Grandma! Or a in-class made gift for mom.  Or a fun move-in gift for a new neighbor…there are so many ways to give pipe cleaner flower bouquets as gifts! These handmade flowers are so colorful and bright and delightfully easy to make.

Fun Alternatives For This Pipe Cleaner Flower Bouquets

You can make pipe cleaner flowers for every season!

• It’s such a simple craft. Use red, yellow, and orange pipe cleaner for fall flowers.
• Use pink pipe cleaners, purple pipe cleaner, and white pipe cleaner for spring flowers, Mother’s day, or even Valentine’s day.
• Use green, blue, yellow pipe cleaners for summer flowers.
• You can use blue and white pipe cleaners for summer flowers.

You can also add pom poms to the center of the flower. These make such lovely decorations. This pipe cleaner flower craft is great for children of all ages. And if you want the flowers to stand tall in a deep vase, you can at the ends of each pipe cleaner step to a foam ball.

More Easy Flower Crafts from Kids Activities Blog

Did your kids love making pipe cleaner flowers and pipe cleaner flower bouquets?What is their favorite pipe cleaner craft?