This pretty rainbow is so easy even little ones can make it. It’s perfect for teaching kids about colors and improving dexterity.
What you'll need:
- 1 brick of styrofoam
- 1 each purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red chenille stems
- 15 purple pony beads
- 18 blue pony beads
- 23 green pony beads
- 27 yellow pony beads
- 32 orange pony beads
- 36 red pony beads
- Bag of cotton balls
How to make:
- String pony beads onto chenille stems, matching the colors. (i.e. string green pony beads on green chenille, purple pony beads on purple chenille, etc)
- Start with the purple beaded stem. Center the beads on the stem and trim the ends of the stem leaving about 2” on each end.
- Find the center of the Styrofoam block and insert the two chenille ends into the brick, forming an arch (see photo below). Hint: use one of the pieces of chenille that you cut off to create the holes first, pull them out then insert the beaded chenille into the hole.
- Repeat step 3 for each beaded stem, in the rainbow sequence (next is blue, green, yellow, orange, and red).
- Glue cotton balls all around the bottom of the rainbow to form clouds. Cover the Styrofoam brick with cotton balls.
- When cotton balls and glue are dry, stretch and gently pull the cotton balls to cover any exposed Styrofoam edges.
Tips:
- If making several of these (i.e. class or preschool project), cut the bricks in half. This will give you twice the supplies as a full brick is not necessarily needed.
- Find large bags of pony beads in multicolored value packages at craft supply stores.
- Show small children the ends of the chenille stems so that they know there are pointy edges.
By: Amanda Formaro
http://crafts.kaboose.com/pony-bead-rainbow.html
