Crafty Tuesday: Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppets Perfect for Easter

Easter is coming up and the Craft Jr. website posted an easy and fun craft for children -- Easter finger puppets made out of pipe cleaners. Children can even give the finger puppets away as presents.

Here's another fun craft -- .

The crafter who posted the how-to had this to say about the pipe cleaner craft:

"When I had to idea to create some finger puppets out of pipe cleaners, little did I realize what creativity I would unleash in my children. Three packages of pipe cleaners later, I have enough different finger puppet ideas for probably 10 more posts! I had no idea these would be such easy crafts for kids. Pipe cleaners are extremely forgiving and deceptively easy to work with. Anything you ‘mess up’ while bending them is fixable. And by using a hot glue gun, you are pretty much unlimited in how you can attach eyes, limbs and embellishments.

Materials

• Pipe cleaners of various colors
• Mini pompoms of various colors and sizes (you can substitute cotton balls sometimes)
• Googley eyes
• Hot glue gun
• Wire cutters

Instructions: How to Make the Finger Puppet Base

Take the pipe cleaner and wrap it around your finger tightly. The crafter notes that the top of the pipe cleaner coils into a smaller circle, making it easier to glue the pompom head to the top of the pipe cleaner.

Put a tiny dab of glue onto the wire end of the piper cleaner, then stick it straight down into the pompom. Hold it for a few seconds to be sure it sticks.

Easter Bunny Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet

After gluing the white pompom (the head) onto the pipe cleaner body, put a dab of glue on both wire ends of one of the bent pipe cleaner ears. Stick them firmly into the pompom while squeezing the ends together.

Glue two tiny white pompoms on the face as a base to stick the googley eyes. This is optional, as the googley eyes can be glued directly onto the pompom head.

Glue on the pink nose and the medium sized pink pompom for the tail.

Easter Chick Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet

After gluing the white head onto the pipe cleaner body, clip a tiny piece of orange pipe cleaner and bend it into a V shape, and glue it onto the middle of the face.

Glue the two yellow mini pom poms right above the beak to make a base for the googley eyes, then glue them on top of them.

Take about a four inch piece of extra yellow pipe cleaner and bend it into the wing shape. You don’t even need to glue these in. Just slip them onto the body in between the coils and they will stay put.

Spring Kitten Finger Puppet

After gluing the white head onto the pipe cleaner body, clip two small pieces of white pipe cleaner (about 3/4″ long) and bend them into a V. Glue them onto the top of the head.

Glue a tiny pink pompom on as the nose or use a tiny piece of pink pipe cleaner, less than 1/4" long.

Attach the tail by bending it onto the bottom coil on the back of the kitten's pipe cleaner body.

Spring Bluebird Finger Puppet

To make this variance on the Easter chick, omit the mini pompom base for the eyes and add a little tuft of feathers on the top of the head the same way you would do for the kitten's ears. Put the feathers on lengthwise instead of sideways.

The crafter notes that the wings are a slightly simpler version of the yellow wings and may be easier for small children to bend on their own.