Ever wanted to make your own bouquet of vibrant lilacs in minutes? What about an adorable mini bear? Eager to craft quick and colorful jewelry or whip up finger puppets to keep little ones entertained? It's easy to do all of this and more with the help of an underrated but endlessly versatile craft material: the humble pipe cleaner!

If you're big on affordability ‌and‌ flexibility (literally), you'll adore our roundup of pipe cleaner craft ideas from creative social media DIYers. There's a little something for everyone here, from cute pipe cleaner animals to wearable art made using pipe cleaners. The best part? Each idea is beginner-friendly because the pipe cleaner is a reliably beginner-friendly medium—and getting crafty is about having fun, not perfection.

Once you've watched some video quick tutorial, you can churn out a whole pack of miniature pipe cleaner bears in minutes. Each of the (ridiculously cute) animals is made from a single pipe cleaner with no cutting required!

 

Real lilacs wilt; a bouquet of handmade pipe cleaner lilacs lasts forever. You can find some video that shares tutorials for a variety of pipe cleaner flowers, including roses, tulips and these easy-peasy lilacs. The petals are made by simply folding pieces of purple pipe cleaner in half. It's a time-consuming craft and not one that's recommended for young kids since the flowers are assembled using hot glue.

3. Pipe Cleaner Bracelets

 

When you keep the right craft supplies around, you can make DIY jewelry to match any outfit. The woven pipe cleaner bracelet demo that  shared on Instagram requires nothing but four colorful pipe cleaners and some pony beads. You could easily adapt this technique to make headbands too.

4. Pipe Cleaner Cacti

 

Here's the problem with learning to make potted cacti out of pipe cleaners ... just kidding! There are no problems, and these are adorable!  shared for an overview of the process. Naturally, you're going to need a bunch of green pipe cleaners—the fuzzier, the better.