The Alachua branch is preparing for spring by decorating the office with these adorable, blooming cacti made from yarn pom poms and you can, too. All you need to create these works of art is yarn, sharp scissors, a hot glue gun, and any small pot. We used a small terracotta pot but you could even use a single cup from an egg carton.
If you would like to decorate your pot with paint or markers, do that before you add your cacti to the pot.
Follow the steps below to make your cacti. You will need yarn and scissors for this step.
1. Cut an 8-inch piece of yarn. This piece will be what ties our pom pom together at the end.
2. Making pom poms larger or smaller is determined by how many fingers you use to wrap the yarn and how many times you wrap the yarn around your fingers. For a small pom pom, I used two fingers and wrapped the yarn around them approximately 50 times. For a large pom pom, I used three fingers and wrapped the yarn around them approximately 200 times.
3. Place the 8-inch pre-cut piece of yarn between your pointer finger and your middle finger. Begin wrapping the yarn around your fingers until you reach the desired thickness. See the photo below for an example.
4. Once you've completed your wrapping, tie your 8-inch piece of yarn around the center of your wrapped fingers in a tight knot. The tighter the knot, the better. This will keep all your hard work from unraveling.
5. Insert scissors into the loops and cut. Do this on both ends.
6. You now have a very scraggly pom pom. Use your scissors to trim the edges to your liking.
I created the cacti by using green yarn and making large pom poms and used red, pink, or gold yarn to create small pom poms to use for the flowers.
Once your pom poms are complete, all that's left is to assemble your potted cactus. Very carefully and preferably with adult supervision, place hot glue on the inside rim of your pot. Set your large green pom pom on top of the pot so the yarn sits in the placed hot glue. Position your small flower pom pom on top of the green pom pom. Find precisely where you would like it before you use your hot glue. Once you've found the perfect spot, place hot glue on the bottom of the small pom pom and secure in place.
You now have the perfect plant that will never die to decorate your room, your locker, or even to gift.
Want to make more pom pom crafts?
You can also find step-by-step tutorials by using Creativebug through our website, free with your library card. My favorites are these Pom Pom Pattern Weights and this simple How to Make a Pom Pom video.