Drinking Straw Dreidel Ornament
Plastic drinking straws have been outlawed in California indicating that they are not a good thing for our environment, so if you don’t have any on hand for this Hanukkah craft, PLEASE use paper instead. I happen to have many many bags of plastic drinking straws from IKEA so stay tuned for a bunch of crafts as I attempt to put a little dent in this collection by using them to make some festive decorations for Hanukkah!
For starters, you can make drinking straw dreidels in any size you desire, to be used in a mobile, hung in a doorway, or on a wall, you decide! I have made dreidels from drinking straws in the past, check that drinking straw dreidel craft here, but those were only suitable for hanging on the wall as the straws were glued onto a cardboard backing. (This is preferable for little kids.) This new improved version has all the flexibility you may love, especially since you can save them for years to come and use them in a different way each year.
Okay, lets make some drinking straw dreidels!
You’ll Need:
- plastic or paper drinking straws
- glue (high tack if using plastic, hot or even white glue for paper)
- scissors
- needle and thread – to be used to make a hanging loop from top of dreidel if desired
How To:
- Decide the size of dreidel you’d like to make, and if you want them to be the same size you could make a template to use as a guide. I eyeballed it. My big dreidel is roughly 6cm x 10cm, and the small one is 4.5cm x 9cm.
- Cut lengths of straw to form the body of the dreidel, and glue them together by using a toothpick or piece of cardboard to smear glue on the sides of the straws where necessary.
- To make the tip of the dreidel you will have to cut each of the ends on a 45 degree angle and then glue. Take a close look at my photo!
- To make the stem, squeeze end of straw and make the end pointed by removing a small triangle shape from each side. This allows the stem to really sit nicely on top of the piece below it. Again, examine my photo if my words don’t make sense.
- Set aside to dry on a piece of parchment or tracing paper, and try not to use too much glue such that the shapes get glued to the paper! Allow to dry overnight before handling.
That is it, now stay tuned to learn how to make more fun shapes or simply run a string through the top-most horizontal straw, and a garland is born!
