Hello, friends! Michele from The Scrap Shoppe here with a fun winter Olympics craft. Can you believe the winter Olympics will begin in a few short weeks? We love to watch the skiing and ice skating. And, of course, its fun to cheer on our athletes!
Whether its winter or summer, the first thing I think of when I think Olympics is the Olympic rings. They represent colors found in all national flags of competing countries. The interlacing of the rings represents unity. So, of course, when creating an Olympic craft, I had to create chenille Olympic rings!
I chose to use chenille stems to make the rings. They are pliable, and are available in all the right colors! And for a fun winter twist, I’m substituting the black ring with silver. It sparkles like the snow!
Chenille stems are 12 inches long. The first thing you need to do is cut off 7 inch pieces (leaving you with a 5 inch piece) in all of the Olympic colors. Set the 5 inch pieces aside – we’ll use those later.
An empty toilet paper roll is the perfect template to create our rings. Wrap each of the blue, silver, and red 7″ stems around the roll then twist the ends. Pull the ring off of the roll then wrap the extra length of the twisted ends around the ring. They will blend in and barely be noticeable.
Take the yellow stem and place the blue and silver rings on it. Wrap the yellow stem around the toilet paper roll and twist the ends. We are creating the interlacing rings!
Repeat with the green stem. Place the silver ring from the previous step and the red ring on the green stem and wrap it around the roll. Twist and hide the ends.
We now have all of our interlacing rings in color order. Simply flip the rings around until you have the Olympic rings symbol.
You can repeat the entire process with the 5″ stems that were previously cut. You will need a smaller template than the toilet paper roll. I found a small bottle of glitter worked perfectly.
To help the rings keep their shape we are going to add small jump rings to the stems. You will need 3 jump rings per Olympic rings set.
Note: Always open jump rings from side to side instead of directly apart.
Add the jump rings to the blue and silver rings, the silver and red rings, and the yellow and green rings.
Since we’re already playing with chenille stems, let’s make a some fun fluffy snowflakes to go along with our winter theme.
Start with two 4″ white stems and twist them around each other to make a plus sign. Take two more 4″ stems and make a triangle from the top stem to the bottom on each side of the plus sign. Take two 3″ stems and thread them through the center of the snowflake. Take four 2″ stems and wrap them around each tip of the snowflake.
Time to decorate! The rings and the snowflakes are perfect for creating a quick bunting for the mantel. Simply run white thread through the rings and snowflakes and string them up.
On one side of the mantel I decorated with various winter decor including the winter wonderland art I shared last month. I also created a fun Olympic torch using an apothecary jar (minus the lid). I took scrapbook paper that looked like wooden boards and trimmed it down to fit inside the jar. Then I filled it with orange and yellow tissue paper that I fluffed out the top to look like flames. Finally, I finished it off by wrapping one of the smaller set of Olympic rings around the front of the jar with some twine.
For the other side of the mantel I added more winter decor and played with some of the silver chenille stems to spell out the home team: USA! I used regular masking tape to adhere the letters to the mantel so they would stand up straight.
Isn’t it fun an festive? We are ready for some winter Olympics watching at our house!
There are so many different ways to use these chenille rings! Think cake topper (Olympic viewing party!), photo booth prop, child’s necklace (just add chain), etc. The list goes on!
If you enjoyed this winter craft you might also enjoy my Winter Deer Diorama
or this fun Interactive Felt Snowman…
Beverly {Flamingo Toes} says
So cute Michele! I love the way you tied it all together with your really sweet winter display!
Crystal Nell says
Super cute!! Your mantle looks awesome! Love the Olympic Rings banner. Pinning 🙂