The Clever Tip That Makes Your DIY Pipe Cleaner Flowers Look So Much More Realistic

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There are few craft activities quite as nostalgic and wholesome as making flower decor with pipe cleaners. In all honesty, though, they often end up looking like a five-year-old brought them home from school (because that's usually how they end up in your home in the first place). But clever Instagram creator Neil Shibata showed us a surprisingly simple yet clever move that can turn pipe cleaner flowers from childish into genuinely impressive works of art, and all it takes is a dab of eyeshadow. Brushing a little eyeshadow onto pipe cleaner petals creates a subtle color gradient effect which immediately makes your DIY creation much more realistic looking. 

The reason pipe cleaner flowers often fall flat is that they don't look very real. Why? Because real flower petals are never just one solid block of color. Most blooms naturally have dark edges, slightly darker centers, gentle variations running throughout the entire petal or even spot effects. This variety of colors is called the "nectar guide" and it is there to communicate directly with pollinators. And so just a little dusting of eyeshadow in the right shade, depending on the color of the pipe cleaner, will cling to the fuzzy fibers and more closely resemble the color patterns that nature itself displays. 

Before doing any shading, the creator Neil Shibata twists pipe cleaners into layered loops that form the shape of flower petals in a rounded bloom. He then dips a small brush into powdered eyeshadow to dust it across the outer tips or inner circle to bring them to life. This trick works quite simply because pipe cleaners are designed to collect debris with their fuzzy texture, so they are perfectly suited to holding onto eye shadow pigments, too. The eyeshadow will blend gently across the surface, instead of creating harsh lines, to add to the natural effect. It gives the flowers a visual depth that is very customizable; you could even use two eyeshadow shades on one petal for the two-tone effect of bicolor flowers. And if you don't have eye shadow, try using color chalk or acrylic nail powder, which you can find on Amazon.

Once you start experimenting, it does open the door to a new kind of floral crafting — pipe cleaners can be turned into roses, daisies, lovely lavender flowers, sunflowers, and even lush green foliage. This creative technique can help improve your DIY art projects as you repurpose pipe cleaners around your home, turning them into decorative arrangements that you'd actually be proud to keep on display.