5 Pipe Cleaner Rings: Mess Free Fun Crafts
Pipe cleaner rings are a fun and quick craft for all ages.
You could make these with your kids, youth group, your girlfriends on a Friday night, or even during an afternoon activity in a retirement home.
I love pipe cleaner crafts because all you need is pipe cleaners! No glue, no scissors, no mess.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make five different rings – two flower rings, a butterfly, a heart and a cat ring!
I did this activity with a group of kids and you’d be surprised at how inventive they can get with the idea of a ring and just a bunch of pipe cleaners.
One kid even made a pawprint ring for her dog!
Hope you find lots of inspiration in this tutorial and enjoy making your own pipe cleaner rings!
Table of Contents
Materials List
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- Lots of pipe cleaners!
Flower Ring
I love how great this flower ring looks – most pipe cleaner crafts look, dare I say it, a bit tacky, but this is one I’d actually wear!
For this ring, you’ll need four pipe cleaners – three of one color, and one green.
You could use three different colors and make different color petals, but I think the uniform petal color looks great for this one – especially the deep red color.
Step One: Make The Ring
First up, you need to make the ring. The size of this will vary depending on whether you’re making it for yourself or someone else.
To make the ring, take the three red (or whichever color/s you choose) pipe cleaners, and twist them together in the center.
Put your finger in the middle (where you made the twist) and make a ring shape around your finger.
Twist the ends of the pipe cleaners on the top of your finger to make the right size.
As you twist the pipe cleaners, the ring gets a bit smaller so keep that in mind when you make it.
Ideally, the ring should slide on and off your finger easily.
Step Two: Make the Petals
Now that you’ve made the ring shape, you can start to make the petals of the flower.
Roll up the end of one of the pipe cleaners and keep rolling to make a spiral.
Repeat this with all the other petals and then arrange them to make the petals lie however you want them too.
You can shape the petals more at this point to make them pointy or leave them round as they are in my ring.
Step Three: Add The Leaves
The last step in this flower ring is to add some leaves.
Turn the ring over and twist your green pipe cleaner around the base of the flower. This should be on the underside so you can see it when the ring is on.
Just as you did with the petals, start to roll the leaves up into a spiral. I decided to make each of the leaf spirals a bit tighter than the flowers, but again, you can play around at this point and see what looks best.
Put the leaves into position, and pinch the tips of them to make them more leaf life.
Finished Flower Ring
There it is! A beautiful flower ring next to some equally beautiful flowers.
You could try changing up the colors in this flower ring and use three similar or completely different colors to get three pairs of alternating petal colors.
Check out my scrap fabric flowers here, they’d make really cute rings too!
Butterfly Pipe Cleaner Ring
How sweet does this butterfly ring look?
For this one, you’ll need two different colors to make the wings, and a smaller black pipe cleaner to make the body and the antennae.
I think two similar colors work better than two contrasting colors for this butterfly, but you can give it a try with any colors you like!
It looks particularly good when the wings are different shades of the same color.
Step One: Make The Ring
As with the flower ring above, you’ll need to start by twisting the two colored pipe cleaners together in the center, and then forming a ring shape.
Follow the instructions in the ring above to make sure your ring isn’t too tight or loose.
Step Two: Make The Wings
To make the wings, take the end of each colored pipe cleaner and start to make a spiral, continuing to roll it up until it reaches the center of the ring.
Do this with each of the other three wings, and you can then play around with them to make sure they’re in the right position.
You can even gently squeeze the pipe cleaners to change the shape of the wings. If you want pointy butterfly wings, pinch the tips of the wings.
Step Three: Add The Body and Antennae
The last step is to add the body and antennae to your ring.
Using the black pipe cleaner, put it under the wings and fold it in half so the folded part is at the base of the wings, and the two open-ended parts are sticking up.
Twists the open-ended parts to secure the body in place.
Make a small spiral at the tip of the pipe cleaners to make the antennae, and shape them so they’re slightly curved.
Finished Butterfly Ring
Here is the finished butterfly ring! How sweet does it look?
Daisy Ring
This ring is very similar to the first flower ring, but instead of rolling the spirals in round circles, you want to roll them in more elongated petal shapes to get that classic daisy petal look.
While traditional daisies are white with a yellow center, you can make these in any color and they will look really sweet!
For this one, you’ll need three pipe cleaners in one color, a green pipe cleaner to make the leaves, and half a yellow pipe cleaner to make the center of the flower.
Step One: Make the Ring
You know the score by now! The first step is to make the ring. If you’d jumped straight ahead to this ring, have a quick read of step one in the first ring (the flower ring) for more tips on how to make your ring the right size.
Very basically, twist the three strands together in the center. Then pop your finger on top of the twisted section, bring the ends up over your finger, and twist the ends together to make the ring shape.
Step Two: Twist The Petals
Make elongated spirals using each of the six ends of the pipe cleaners, and roll them into the center.
Arrange them so that they are all spaced equally.
Step Three: Add the Center
Using half a yellow pipe cleaner, make a spiral which will form the center of the daisy.
Leave a few cm’s at the end of the spiral to thread it through the center of the petals and twist it around the ring, underneath the petals.
Step Four: Add The Leaves
To add the leaves, place the flower in the center of a green pipe cleaner and twist the pipe cleaner around the base of the flower (on the underside!)
Then make two long spirals and bend them into petal shapes.
Finished Daisy Ring
Heart Pipe Cleaner Ring
This is definitely the simplest ring out of the five to make!
You’ll only need one pipe cleaner and you can use any color you like. I think they look best in reds/pinks/purples.
They’re so quick and easy to make you could make a whole bunch of them to give out on Valentine’s Day or at a children’s birthday party.
Step One: Make The Ring
The ring section of this heart-shaped ring is slightly different from the first three rings.
You want to make the circle at one end of the pipe cleaner and twist the small section left over to make a secure ring shape.
Step Two: Make a Spiral
Twist the opposite end to make a tight spiral, bringing it all the way back to the ring.
Then twist the ring section down to make it sit perpendicular to the spiral.
If you were to put the ring on now, you’d have a circle shape sitting flat against your finger.
Step Three: Make a Heart
Gently start to squeeze the circle to turn it into a heart.
The bottom of the heart should be pointy, and the tops more curved.
Finished Heart Ring
When you’re finished, it will look something like this!
If you love heart crafts, have a look at my upcycled scrap fabric heart tutorial!
Cat Ring
This is probably my favorite ring! You could make any animal into a ring. There are loads of animal pipe cleaner tutorials on YouTube, so simply find one that you love and then add a ring to it!
For this tutorial, you’ll also need some glue and some googly eyes. I find that a glue gun works better than fabric glue because it dries so quickly.
As well as the glue and eyes, you’ll need two black pipe cleaners and half a white pipe cleaner.
Step One: Make The Cat Face
To start the cat face, you need to roll up a black pipe cleaner into a spiral, use about 2/3rds of the pipe cleaner to do this.
Using the rest of the pipe cleaner, fold it to make two pointy ears on the top of the cat’s head. You can use scissors to cut around the edges of the ears to make them a bit pointy-er.
Step Two: Make The Ring
Make a circle at the end of the pipe cleaner, big enough to fit around your finger.
Cut the rest of the pipe cleaner off and save it for the tail.
Step Three: Add Tail and Eyes
Roll an elongated spiral for the tail, and attach it to the bottom of the cat’s face.
Use the glue gun to fasten the eyes and tail to your cat.
If you don’t have a glue gun you could always just use the end of the pipe cleaner to thread the tail onto the face and twist around.
If you don’t have googly eyes, try using a pipe cleaner to make the eyes and then twist them on.
Finished Cat Pipe Cleaner Ring
Doesn’t it look purrr-fect!
Which is your favorite ring? Do you have plans to make some pipe cleaner rings?
If you’re looking for other crafts to do with your youth group or class have a look at some craft ideas below!
