Tutorial pipe cleaner bear

I finally figured out how to show all steps in making a pipe cleaner bear.

Here are the pieces you need. The plain wire is just to show the bends. For larger images just click on the pictures.

First take the 3" body piece and fold in half. The fold is the nose.
Using needle nose pliers fold in this shape for the head.
Next fold to make the bear's rump.
For the legs take the 2" piece and fold like this
Insert legs in the fold of the rump.
For the arms take the 1.5" piece and fold like this
Insert arms into upper body and squeeze body closed tightly.
For the ears fold the 1" piece like this
Tighten the curl of the ears to hold in place once on head.
Roll the ends of the hands and feet to desired size and bend at the ankles.
All that's left now is to give him a face. Use one thread of embroidery floss to create a nose. Fold thread in half and knot.
After wrapping thread around wire the desired number of times slip needle under threads to secure and trim of excess.
Use no-hole glass beads for his eyes and glue in with tacky glue.
To make other animals just alter the length of the ears and add tails.
Be sure to use fluffy pipe cleaners so the wire doesn't show thru the fur. Glue on paw pads if desired. I punch mine out of fuzzy ribbons.

I love Swaps

Carolyn at http://fabshabbyroses.blogspot.com/ and I did a supply swap. She sent a 5x5x5 box packed full of mini supplies. And she sent me one of her handmade leather purses. I love it.


I really like doing supply swaps because I like to see all the little things that other people collect to make minis.

More pipe cleaner animals

These are the rest of my mini pipe cleaner animals...
All the puppies


Rainbow of bears


Unfinished animals

mini pipe cleaner animals

As soon as I figure out how to explain how to make these pipe cleaner animals I'll post it on here. I think I'll have to make some mock wire figures just to explain the shapes to bend.

More yard sale and thrift store finds

I was cleaning up my craft room and ran across these interesting decorative balls that I bought at a salvage store a couple of years ago. They had two boxes with 12 each in them so I bought them both. (you can never have too many miniature supplies) lol.

Last night when I went to take pictures of the 3 sets of stamps I bought at the yard sale I discovered that 2 of the sets were exactly the same. Grrr...


I got this digital scale at one of the random yard sales we stopped at for $1

This is the handy little tray table I bought for $1.50. Sam thought it might have food on it.

My last stop of the day was at a wild thift store. They had all sorts of odd things. I'll have to go back there this weekend too. They had a ton of ceramic glazes but I don't do ceramics. I bought a dozen 1 cup size ziploc containers for $1.
I searched thru the toys and games for anything that might be useful and came aross this Italian lite toy for $1.

I bought it just for the light pegs. They look like little bottles already.

I also found this old mathmatics game for $1. I bought it just for the wooden pieces. They are the perfect size for mini presents.

Well that's all of this weekends finds.

Yard Sales & Thrift Store finds

It was a beautiful day for yard sales. There was a 5 family yard sale just a couple of miles from my house. There were hundreds of Barbie dolls still in the boxes scattered all around. I don't think I've ever seen so many Barbies outside of the toy store. I wish I had thought to take a picture (my camera was in my pocket).
I found this paint holder for $3 it holds 80 bottles of paint on each side. I don't have that many but I thought I could put my Gallery Glass paint in it too.

The next yard sale was across town. The couple who owned the house had just sold their home so they were clearing out all the stuff they didn't want to take with them. I spotted this Rubbermaid set of drawers as soon as I hit the driveway.

I went in the garage and spotted this little box sitting under some other stuff. When I uncovered the logo on top I knew I had to buy it. Its the company that my boyfriend has worked at for the past 9 years.

I decided to drive to Hiram to go to the Goodwill store for my weekly fix. On my way there I saw a couple more yard sales that didn't have a whole lot of interesting stuff.
I found a brand new pasta machine out of the box at Goodwill for $8.98.

I bought it but I didn't keep it. I already have one for my polymer clay. My dad asked me to keep a look out for one because he wants to make his own pasta.
I also bought a couple of short sleeve button up shirts for work.
On my way back towards home I stopped by a thrift store that I hadn't been in before. Everything was really cheap there. I found this little ribbon and cross stitch kit that contained all this silk ribbon so I bought it for 50 cents.

I can't wait to go back to that Thrift store again. I didn't get a picture of the little tray table that I bought for $1.50. I'll try to get pictures of all of the rest of my stuff tonight. It was a busy weekend.

Happy Easter

Easter Bunnies

I thought I would share the pictures of the bunnies I've made out of pipe cleaners. All these little guys are just sitting in a box now waiting to be displayed.
Hopefully when I get home I'll still have the energy to set up some Easter baskets. I'll post pictures tomorrow if I get them done tonight.