I grew up making these cute little love bugs and now I get to make them with my girls every year. We probably have far too many at this point, but they’re just so cute! Everyone needs love bugs in their home and I’ll show you how to make them.
The Things You Will Need:
- Yarn
- Felt
- Scissors
- Googley eyes
- Pipe cleaner (I’ve also used straightened paper clips)
- Hot glue gun
Make Your Pom-pom
I have always used this particular method of making pom-poms. I know there are many ways to make them, so feel free to use any method you feel most comfortable with. You can vary the size of your finished pom-pom by wrapping the yarn around different parts of your hand and/or wrapping the yarn more or less times around. I have a wide variety of sizes and puffiness to my love bugs and it makes them each unique.
- Cut a six-inch piece of yarn and lay it out on your work surface for later.
- Take your ball of yarn, hold the loose end of the string with your thumb, and wrap the yarn around your fingers.
- Continue wrapping the yarn around your hand until you have a good, thick amount of yarn.
- Cut the yarn while holding the wrapped part against your hand.
- Carefully slide the wrapped yarn off of your hand and pinch both ends to keep it together.
- Lay the center of the wrapped yarn across the six-inch piece of yarn you laid out earlier.
- While still holding everything in place, pull up each side of the long piece of yarn and tie it around the center of the wrapped yarn. Tie it several times to keep everything secure.
Time for a Trim!
- Slide your scissors through some of the loops created by wrapping the yarn and cut.
- Repeat cutting through all the loops until all the yarn is separated.
- Hold your pom-pom up and trim the yarn that hangs down to make it all as even as you can.
- Continue turning the pom-pom and trimming until you get a semi-uniform length all around. This does not have be at all perfect.
Adding the Features
- Start by cutting out felt hearts. You will need two smaller ones for the antennas, and one large one for the feet. Again, these can be whatever size you’d like depending on the size of your pom-pom and preference.
- You can also choose to add different features. My girls have made pirate love bugs using a heart as an eyepatch and pipe cleaner to hold it, and they’ve made three-antenned alien love bugs. Get creative and make them your own!
- Fold your pipe cleaner in half to the length you like and trim off any extra.
- Glue each small felt heart to the end of each antenna.
- On the pom-pom, separate a little of the yarn on the top, put on some hot glue, and stick the middle of the antennas in.
- I like to squeeze some of the yarn around it as the hot glue dries to cover the pipe cleaner a little.
- Take you large felt heart and put a glob of hot glue near the back (pointed) part of the heart.
- Set your pom-pom ontop of the glue making sure it’s far enough back that the bumps of the heart stick out to make the feet.
- Decide where your want your love bug’s eyes to be, dab on some hot glue, and stick those eyes on.
Look how cute they are! I just love them so much. Go make a love bug army!
Want more FUN DIY Freebies? Check out the FREEBIE TUTORIALS and the FREEBIE PATTERNS!
As always, we’re here to help if you need it! Join us HERE and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest. We’re everywhere you are.
Leave a Reply