Love Bug Pencil Toppers

Today we have a sweet Valentine’s Day craft that is suitable for ages 5 and up. And these “Love Bugs” are fun and easy to make, too! You’ll want to make one for everyone in you family.

You’ll need:

• 1 1/2 inches styrofoam ball
• tissue paper (recycled is ok)
• white glue or decoupage
• pom pom
• paintbrush
• scraps of felt
• scissors
• wiggle eyes
• chenille stem
• small glass head or straight pins

Learn to make adorable Love Bug Pencil toppers for Valentine’s Day!

Step One: Rip or use scissors to cut the tissue paper into tiny bits, about 1 inch or smaller. Apply them to the styrofoam ball, adding glue and overlapping to cover the entire surface. (Tip- use a bamboo skewer or chopstick to hold the styrofoam ball securely.) Let that dry completely.

Step Two: Use your scissors to cut out heart shapes for the wing. We used pink, red and white for ours, but you can use any colors you like.

Step Three: Cut a chenille stem into 1/4ths. (You will only use 2 for each Love Bug.) Bend each one into a “V” shape. On one, create little bends for feet; on the other, make some curls for antennae.

Step Four: Assemble the head: place the antennae on top of the body and add a dab of glue. Place a pom pom on top, then push a pin through the pom to secure it to the body. The pin acts like a nose and also keeps the head and antennae place!

Step Five: Add some glue to the back and arrange the wings in place. Secure these with another pin; however, you can remove this one when everything is dry.

Step Six: Add some more glue and wiggle eyes to finish off the face.

Step Seven: Using your scissors, poke a small hole at the bottom for the feet. Dip the chenille stem into glue, then place into that small hole. Arrange the feet!

And if you are a visual learner, we have a little video for you- it’s under 3 minutes!

This is such a fun craft- you can make so many varieties, and each will have their own unique personality.

You just may want to make a whole colony!