Flying High Insect Pencil ToppersDesigner: I am always looking for fun projects to create with my kids and came up with the idea of pencil toppers. The pipe cleaners and and foam cupholder were easy to find and very inexpensive. I found that the Wire Winder made manipulating the the pipe cleaners easy and finished product is so much fun! A great way to spend an afternoon doing crafts or something fun to do at a birthday party.
 
 Difficulty rating
Instructions (Print version) To create the butterfly pencil topper start by using a pink pipe cleaner for the antennae. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the Wire Winder Plates Design 5-6, remove and trim the excess. To create the wings wrap a second pink pipe cleaner around the two larger pegs twice and leave the remaining part of the pipe cleaner for later use and remove from the Wire Winder. To create the body, wrap a blue pipe cleaner up and around the top peg and crisscross it around the bottom peg. Do this two times and then remove from the Wire Winder. Leave a 1 ¼” piece of the remaining pipe cleaner. Wrap the remaining part of the blue wire through the antennae to attach to the body. For the wings, wrap the left over pink pipe cleaner around the mid point of the body and wrap what is remaining around a orange pipe cleaner. Using a pencil wrap the orange pipe cleaner around it. Trim the excess and attach eyes.
To create the bee pencil topper, use the Wire Winder Plates Design 5.2 as a guide. Wrap a yellow pipe cleaner around the two center pegs twice. Remove from the Wire Winder and wrap the remaining black pipe cleaner around the middle of the two loops twice. Snip away excess. For the wings, wrap a black pipe cleaner around the two larger pegs twice and remove from the Wire Winder. Using the remaining portion of the black pipe cleaner, wrap it around the center of the wings to secure them and then around the yellow body. Wrap the remaining black pipe cleaner around a second one and wrap around a pencil. Trim the excess and attach eyes.
For the dragon fly pencil topper, weave a green pipe cleaner around the three center pegs one time and remove from the Wire Winder, leaving any remaining green pipe cleaner for a later step. To create the wings, wrap an orange pipe cleaner around the two larger pegs twice and remove from the Wire Winder. Wrap the remaining portion of the orange pipe cleaner around the mid point of the wings and again at the smallest loop in the green body. Trim the excess. Wrap the remaining portion of the green pipe cleaner from the body around a yellow pipe cleaner and then wrap around a pencil. Trim the excess and attach eyes.
To create the pencil holder, cut a 3 ½ x 12 piece of Heidi’s Hearts Pinstripe Paper and wrap it around the foam cup holder. Cut a 3 x12 piece of Heidi’s Hearts Dot w/Hearts Paper and center it on the pinstripe paper. Finally, cut a 7/8 x 12 piece of Heidi’s Hearts Large Heart Paper, attach it to the holder and add the Heidi’s Hearts Large Alphabet stickers. |
