Craft Stick Ballerina Craft

This ballerina craft is lots of fun, and the supplies are so simple! Use craft sticks, popsicle sticks, cupcake liners, and a few other basic supplies from your craft stash to make some adorable ballerinas.

My 6 year old daughter absolutely loved this project, and she was able to do quite a bit of it by herself. She has been playing with her ballerinas ever since!

We saw several different versions of these ballerinas on Pinterest, all which used a cupcake liner for the skirt. The designs that we saw all had just one craft stick for the feet, but we decided to modify that and give the ballerinas two legs. It makes it easier for young kids to draw the shoes themselves, and it just looks more natural.

Ready to make some craft stick ballerinas? Follow the instructions below.

Supplies Needed:

• Craft sticks – 1 per ballerina, the ones that are wider than popicle sticks
• Popsicle sticks – 3 per ballerina
• Cupcake paper liners
• Yarn
• Sharpie markers – we used oil-based paint markers
• Googly eyes
• Scissors
• Hot glue

Step 1: Grab one craft stick and three popsicle sticks for each ballerina. Cut one of the popsicle sticks in half. OR, use short mini popsicle sticks in place of the one stick cut in half. I ran out of short ones after making two ballerinas, so then we switched to cutting regular ones. Either way works great!

Step 2: Cut off a little less than half of the craft stick. Glue the remaining segment to two popsicle sticks.

Step 3: Fold your cupcake liner in half. Use scissors to cut a little opening at the waist. Then slide it onto the ballerina and glue it to the craft sticks.

Attach the arms to the back of the body. Then add some yarn for hair. To make the “bun” hair, I wound the yarn around in a circle and then pressed it into a little blob of hot glue.

Step 4: Use a Sharpie to draw the leotard and shoes. Glue on some googly eyes, and draw the mouth. Your ballerina is complete!

Then make more ballerinas in different colors!

Janie’s ballerinas were having all these conversations, and listening to her imagine with them was just hilarious! “I’m 14, how old are you?” “I’m turning 13, but right now I’m 12.” “My mom was going to put ribbons in my hair, but she never did.” And on and on. So funny!

We gave one of our ballerinas longer hair with pigtails, and I love how that one turned out! I tied a little piece of string around each pigtail.

Need more craft ideas?

We’ve got lots of craft ideas that use simple materials that you probably already have, or can grab from Walmart or the craft store.

Here’s a collection of more than 30 Fun Papercrafts for Kids.

Or try making these adorable Craft Stick Dragonflies!