Rainbow Shaker Wands

It’s March, so let’s do a St. Patrick’s Day craft! These wands are precious and while I would love to be able to take full credit for them, I absolutely need to give credit where credit’s due – Happy Mothering knocked it out of the park with this one. Below, you’ll find our adaptation of this sweet rainbow craft!

This craft is brought to you in *very* proud partnership with our very favorite safer cleaning company, Branch Basics. Get crafty with your favorite kiddos and then let them in on the safer clean-up!

Supplies Needed for Rainbow Shaker Wands

This craft is slightly more extensive than the ones we’ve done in the past (snow dough and crayon hearts), but still super easy all the same. Here’s everything you’ll need:

Paper Towel Rolls – to start, you’ll need any cardboard paper towel rolls you have hanging around the house/in the recycling bin.

Rice, Beans, or Beads – rice, beans, or beads (whichever you have on hand, or a combo of all three) will fill the wands to give them a true “shaker” effect.

Foil – to close up the ends of the wand, you’ll need foil and…

Masking Tape – …a little bit of masking tape.

Paint Sticks – to actually create the rainbow on the shaker wants, you’ll need an assortment of paint sticks! Using paint sticks (vs. regular paint + paint brushes) helps to make this craft more accessible for even the littlest of kiddos!

Glitter Foam Paper – glittery black foam paper will wrap around the bottom of the wand to act as the “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow.

Gold Pipe Cleaners – sparkly gold pipe cleaners will wrap around the wands too!

Cotton Balls – cotton balls attach to the opposite end of the wand to act as the sky-end of the rainbow.

Craft Glue – you’ll use craft glue for the foam paper, cotton balls, and pipe cleaners.

How to Make Shaker Wands at Home

Here’s the full, rainbow shaker wand how-to:

Close one side of your wand – cut a square of foil large enough to fully cover/close one side of the paper towel tube and secure it with masking tape.

Fill with rice, beans, or beads – add rice, beans, or beads (or a combination of all three) to the shaker wand until it’s about a fourth of the way full.

Close the other side of the wand – use foil and masking tape to close the other end of the wand!

Paint and let dry – using the washable paint sticks, paint stripes around the outside of the shaker wands to resemble a rainbow. Don’t worry about this being/looking perfect – let your kiddos have fun with it! Note: the top and bottom 2-inches of the wand will be covered with black foam paper and cotton balls, so don’t worry about painting that! Let the paint dry completely (this shouldn’t take any longer than 2 minutes!) before moving on to step 4.

Glue the foam paper and pipe cleaner to one end – cut a 2-inch strip of the black glitter foam so that it’s long enough to wrap around the tube and use the craft glue to secure it to the tube. Then, cut the pipe cleaner to fit and glue it where the foam paper and cardboard tube meet.

Glue the cotton balls to the other end – glue the cotton balls to the other end of the wand!

Cleaning Up the Mess

While crafting can be really fun, it can also be super messy. Here’s the good news: CLEAN UP can be easy (and safe) too. We used Branch Basics concentrate + water to make their all-purpose cleaner, and it did the job perfectly! Plus, because of the natural formulations of Branch Basics products, you can totally get your kiddos in on the clean-up action too!

If you’re interested in switching to safer cleaning products (Branch Basics makes the process super easy and cost-effective), use code FEDANDFIT for 15% off of a Branch Basics Starter Kit.

Video

Living

Rainbow Shaker Wands