Pipe Cleaner Princess Craft

This pipe cleaner princess craft is so much fun! These princesses are a total win because the materials are so simple (your probably have most of them on hand), and the completed princesses are posable and perfect for playing with.

This princess craft was actually a reader request! I received a message on Instagram from someone who was planning a craft for a school class and wanted to make our pipe cleaner superheroes. She was excited about the superheroes, but also wanted to offer a more girly option so that students could choose which they wanted to make. Such a great idea! Janie and I were happy to get to work on a princess version.

It’s so easy to make these pipe cleaner princesses in a variety of skin tones, making it a great craft to do with a class or group. Just use different colors of pipe cleaners, and paint the wood beads used for the heads, if desired. You can also decide what color the hair will be.

We used a poster board to make a fun castle backdrop for these princesses. So fun for pretend play, and drawing and coloring the castle is a great activity all on its own.

Janie wants to use cardboard boxes to make a castle that the princesses can actually go inside, however. So we’ll be doing that soon.

Supplies Needed for this Pipe Cleaner Princess Craft:

• Pipe cleaners – pink, yellow, tan, and brown are good color options
• Plastic pony beads
• Straws – either paper or plastic
• Cupcake liners
• Googly eyes
• Wood beads – 3/4 inch size
• Yarn – in colors for hair such as yellow, brown, and black
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun – we used a low temp gun
• Felt – for the hats
• Paint – for making the wood beads the color of different skin tones. We used acrylic.
• Paint pens or markers for drawing the face

Step 1: Grab 3 pipe cleaners to make the body of the princess. Twist them together, and then fold one up so that you have four strands at the top and two at the bottom.

Step 2: Slide three beads onto the bottom two pipe cleaners. These beads will be the top of the princess dress, so choose your color accordingly.

Step 3: Make the legs. Cut four 1 inch segments from a straw. Slide a straw segment onto one pipe cleaner, then a bead, and then another straw segment. Fold the pipe cleaner over a couple times to make a foot. Then cut off any excess. (I didn’t have any excess here, but you may depending on the length of your pipe cleaners.) Repeat this process for the other leg.

Step 4: Make the skirt for the princess’s dress. Flatten a cupcake liner, and then cut away a little more than a third of it, as shown below.

Step 5: Wrap the skirt around the body and fold it over. Glue the fold with a little hot glue. I also used a dot of glue to attach the skirt to the bottom bead on the body. Then make the arms following the same method as the legs. I used one 3/4″ straw segment for each arm, and then left the pipe cleaner exposed for the rest of the arm.

Step 6: If desired, paint your wood bead to match whatever skin tone you want. Then draw a mouth on the bead with a paint pen. Then glue on two googly eyes. Slide the head onto the top two pipe cleaners.

Step 7: Cut a long piece of yarn and fold it over several times as shown.

Step 8: Glue on the hair. I put some hot glue all over the head, and then stuck on the hair all at one time!

This method leaves loops in the hair. You can cut each strand apart with scissors after the glue has dried. Then give the princess a trim to make each strand of hair the same length.

Step 9: Make a cone-shaped hat or a tiara. Here’s how I cut the cone hat from felt. I also cut three ribbons to hang down from the tip of the hat.

Roll up the felt into a cone and glue it. Then add the ribbons with a dot of hot glue for each one.

Then admire your finished princess!

Here’s a view from the back. You can see how the skirt comes together in the back.

And here’s a view of the tiara we made. It’s just a strip of felt that I glued to the princess’s hair.

Then here’s our third princess option. We really enjoyed using a variety of colors for their dresses!

Have fun making this pipe cleaner princess craft!

And be sure to check out our Pipe Cleaner Superheroes. These are so fun to make.

Another fun craft is our Craft Stick Ballerinas. If the Pipe Cleaner Princesses look a little too complex for younger kids, this ballerina craft may be just the thing to try.