This is a tutorial to make tiny flowers from craft pipe cleaners. When I made the Little Felt Rabbit, I wanted it to hold some flowers in its paws. So I first tried making daffodils with onion paper, but found it rather tricky to cut the tiny petals out of such thin paper. So, I came up with the idea of using craft pipe cleaners instead!
The finished daffodil is approximately 6 cm (2 3/8″) long from the top of the flower to the bottom of the stem.
The materials and tools that you will need to make a tiny daffodil are:
- 1 thin (4 mm) green craft pipe cleaner
- 1 thin (4 mm) yellow craft pipe cleaner
- 1 pair of wire cutters
- 1 pair of pliers
- 1 wooden skewer
- Make a bend 1 cm (3/8″) away from one end of a green pipe cleaner. Likewise, make a bend 3 cm (1 3/16″) away from one end of a yellow pipe cleaner. Then, hook them together, as shown in the photo.
2. Wrap the 1-cm (3/8″) segment of the green pipe cleaner around the long end of that same pipe cleaner a few times.
Make sure that the green pipe cleaner is now firmly attached to the yellow one.
3. Using the longer end of the yellow pipe cleaner, make a 8-mm (5/16″) U shape at the wrapped end of the green pipe cleaner.
4. Twist the 8-mm (5/16″) U shape once.
Now you have the first petal!
5. In a similar manner, make two more petals, spacing the three petals evenly around the stem (the green pipe cleaner).
6. Now, repeat the process, making three more petals, this time under the first set.
Position them so that they are between the first three petals (which are greyed out in the photo).
7. Underneath the flower that you just made, wrap the loose end of the yellow pipe cleaner a couple of times around the green stem, and then cut off the rest.
Then, as shown in the photo, press the wrapped end of the yellow pipe cleaner with a pair of pliers to ensure that it is tightly wound and that its sharp end is not sticking out.
8. On the upper side of the flower, bend the loose end of the yellow pipe cleaner so that it lies flat against the petals, and place the blunt end of a wooden skewer on top of the center of the flower.
Then, wrap the loose end of the yellow pipe cleaner around the skewer, as indicated by the arrows in the photo.
9. Once the coil is made around the wooden skewer, shape it with your fingers to make a nice cylinder before removing the skewer.
10. Bend the green pipe cleaner 5 mm (3/16″) away from the bottom of the flower.
Your daffodil is now in bloom!
11. Let’s make a couple of leaves.
First, to make the stem, bend the green pipe cleaner 5 cm (2″) away from the bend that you made in the previous step.
12. To make a leaf, double over the green pipe cleaner 5.5 cm (2 3/16″) away from the bottom bend.
13. Loosely twist the 5.5-cm (2 3/16″) segment to make a long thin daffodil leaf.
14. Using the rest of the green pipe cleaner, make another leaf. When making this leaf, you may have a bit of excess pipe cleaner at the bottom.
If so, double over that excess and tuck it in between the two pipe cleaner segments of the second leaf.
15. Loosely twist the second leaf.
Lastly, shape the leaves to your liking.
Ta-da! Your tiny daffodil is finished!
Happy spring!