All you need to make this adorable pipe cleaner bee is a few chenille stems and a pair of wiggly eyes. Make a fuzzy little nature friend!
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Bees are small and fuzzy, so they’re the perfect craft to make with pipe cleaners, aka chenille stems. You only need 3 colors to make this tiny bumblebee: black, yellow, and white.
We used wiggly eyes, but you could use beads, sequins, or other craft materials to add eyes to the face. This little guy is pretty simple, so it’s easy to customize it with extra supplies.
Use the pipe cleaner as a handle or wrap it around a pencil to turn this bee into a puppet. It would also be fun to make a whole family of bees and hang them from a mobile.
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How to make pipe cleaner bees
Supplies
- pipe cleaner in black, yellow, and white
- school glue
- 1 pair wiggly eyes
- pencil, optional
Instructions
1. Twist the black and yellow pipe cleaners.
For each bee, you need one black and one white pipe cleaner. Twist each pipe cleaner around your fingers 4 times to create a spiral with both the yellow and black pieces.
2. Wrap the pipe cleaners together.
Next, wrap the black and yellow around each other. This creates the striped pattern for the bee’s body. Make sure all the ends are on the same side.
Hold the double spiral on one side and slide the white pipe cleaner through. Adjust it so that about a third is on one side of the bee and two-thirds on the other. Twist the white pipe cleaner to hold the black and yellow together.
3. Make the wings.
Hold the short end of the white pipe cleaner pointing down and pull the long end up between the body stripes. Twist the long end into a figure-8 and pinch the tip to hold it inside the body. Adjust and shape the figure-8 into wings.
4. Glue the eyes.
After you’ve finished the bee body, choose one end to be the face. Use school glue to attach a pair of wiggly eyes to the face. You may need to hold them in place a minute while the glue beings to set. Let the bee rest until the glue is completely dry, about 5 minutes.
The bee is complete at this point! You can hold the short pipe cleaner to play with it. Or twist it around a pencil for extra strength.
This pipe cleaner bee is a cute addition to faux flowers or other nature crafts. You can even sharpen the pencil and use it with the bee on the end as a pencil topper.
Printable instructions
Pipe Cleaner Bee
Materials
- 1 black pipe cleaner
- 1 yellow pipe cleaner
- 1 white pipe cleaner
- school glue
- 1 pair wiggly eyes
- pencil, optional
Tools
Instructions
- Twist the black and yellow pipe cleaners.
For each bee, you need one black and one white pipe cleaner. Twist each pipe cleaner around your fingers 4 times to create a spiral with both the yellow and black pieces. - Wrap the pipe cleaners together.
Next, wrap the black and yellow around each other. This creates the striped pattern for the bee's body. Make sure all the ends are on the same side. Hold the double spiral on one side and slide the white pipe cleaner through. Adjust it so that about a third is on one side of the bee and two-thirds on the other. Twist the white pipe cleaner to hold the black and yellow together. - Make the wings.
Hold the short end of the white pipe cleaner pointing down and pull the long end up between the body stripes. Twist the long end into a figure-8 and pinch the tip to hold it inside the body. Adjust and shape the figure-8 into wings. - Glue the eyes.
After you've finished the bee body, choose one end to be the face. Use school glue to attach a pair of wiggly eyes to the face. You may need to hold them in place a minute while the glue beings to set. Let the bee rest until the glue is completely dry, about 5 minutes.
Hold the short pipe cleaner to play with it or twist it around a pencil for extra strength.
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