Tutorial: Happy Kitty Ribbon Wands

I have been a crazy crafting lady lately, thanks to Michaels Craft it Forward promotion celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week.  They sent me a gift card to use to make a Random Act of Kindness.  Thank you, Michaels!!

Tuesday I showed you the kennel mats that I made from brightly colored t-shirts.  They’ll go to Little Rock Animal Village so the kittens who are staying there will have a warm, soft place in their kennels.  But that’s not all I’ve made for the kitties at the Animal Village.

In addition to a soft place to sleep, kittens needs toys to play with.  And Michaels had everything I needed to whip up a batch of ribbon wand toys.

Each one has a different combination of ribbons, yarns, and embellishment.

We made 30 in all.  Here they are all together.  (There’s actually a glass pitcher underneath that big jumble of ribbons and yarn!)

They were so much fun to make!!

And easy, too.  I was going to photo a step-by-step tutorial, but really I can just tell you how with a couple of short paragraphs.

I made the handles from 5/16″ wooden dowels.  Each dowel gets cut in half, making two wands from one dowel.  My husband drilled a small hole near the end of each one.  Then, I added a large jump ring (1/2″ diameter, used for making chain mail) through the hole.

Now for the fun part, adding the ribbons and yarns.  Michaels has so many to choose from!  I made a palette of colorful and sparkly ribbons and yarns with a good mix of color, texture, and size.  We grouped them together in fun combinations, cut them to length, and tied them to the rings.

But don’t stop there.  Thread some bells and pom poms through some of the ribbons.  (Tie a knot above and below the embellishment to keep it in place.)

Or my favorite – a sequined styrofoam ball with a couple of feathers sticking out of the top.  We found the sequined balls in the wedding section.

Guaranteed fun for the kitties!  I’m hoping they get lots of play at the Animal Village, where they work hard to keep their animals socialized and ready to be placed into loving homes.

You should have seen me trying to get pictures of the wand in action!!  I had the camera in one hand, the wand in the other.

This would be a great project to do with scouts or school/church groups!  You could have the wands all ready to go.  All the kids would need to do is pick ribbons and tie them on.

Have you entered my giveaway for a $5 gift card to Michaels?  If not, click here and leave a comment to get entered.  (Giveaway ends Wednesday, February 20, 2013.)

And be sure to check out Michaels’ Random Acts of Kindness Pinterest board showing with other bloggers have done with their Craft it Forward gift cards.