Cute & Easy Gumnut Octopus Pencil Toppers

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Hello! Welcome back to Kids Get Crafty and some fun Autumn Crafts for Kids! Today I have a gumnut craft for you.. a what? I hear you say.. yes, a gumnut– gumnuts are the “nut” from the Eucalyptus tree – and are very common in Australia. In Australia?! But I don’t live in Australia! I hear you exclaim…

Octopus Pencil Toppers made in October 2011 – they even feature in my first craft book

…. I know. I know. But.. a very good friend of mine does. And I do have a handful of wonderful Australian readers. So this craft is especially for you! I love how the internet makes the world shrink and that I have readers from the Uk (of course), US, continental Europe, China, Russia, Israel….. the list goes on – all over the world. So every so often it is lovely to be able to celebrate this!

I reckon you can still make it with one of those “large bleach bottle lids” – you know, the ones that look like thimbles?

The gumnuts I used were from my friend’s wedding. So they are very special indeed! I dumped them in boiling water, to ensure no creepy crawlies!

gumnut crafts

Supplies needed to make a Gumnut Octopus Craft

  • a gumnut (or large lid),
  • paint (though plain is nice too),
  • 2 pipe cleaners,
  • 2 googly eyes,
  • glue
  • (a pencil for poking)

How to make Gumnut Pencil Topper Octopii

I got the gumnut craft idea after making our conker pencil toppers a couple of weeks ago. I thought that the gumnut had the perfect “pencil sticking up shape”… and then suddenly the rest came to me – an octopus!

gumnut crafts

1) Paint your gumnut to match your pipe cleaners. Ours are blue and orange.

gumnut crafts

2) Take 2 pipecleaners and cut them in half.

gumnut crafts

3) Place over each other star shape and wrap one over the remaining 4

gumnut crafts

4) Place them around a pencil and add a blob of glue to the top (or use a hot glue gun) and then place the gumnut over the top

Final steps for making an Octopus Gumnut Pencil Topper

5) Insert into your gumnut and add your googly eyes

gumnut crafts

Ta-da!!! I hope you enjoyed this gumnut craft!!! If you did… please let me know and I can look to add more gumnut crafts over time!

In the meantime, I do have a gumnut ornament here:

Hopefully more Gumnut Crafts soon!

More wonderful Autumn Crafts for Kids here:

gumnut octopus
Make gumnut pencil toppers