If you are looking for a great gift idea for your gardening friends, look no further. Make them a sweet potato beetle.
It’s simple, it’s appealing, and it’s made with supplies you may already have on hand. It’s a fun project for the children, too, and is guaranteed to get lots of laughs. Plus, if you overwatered your sweet potatoes this past year, making a beetle will be a good use for those jumbo-sized spuds.
You Will Need
- The biggest sweet potato you have
- Strong scissors
- Superglue
- 4 pipe cleaners
- 2 small pompoms
- 1 large pompom
- 2 googly eyes
- Yarn
Instructions
- Cut each pipe cleaner in half.
- Poke two of the halves into the top of the sweet potato to make antennae.
- Bend the remaining halves into the shape of legs (see the photo above) and poke into the sides of the potato, three on each side.
- Glue one small pompom to the top of each antenna.
- Glue the large pompom to the front end of the sweet potato to make a nose.
- Glue the two eyes above the nose.
- Cut a piece of yarn the right length for a mouth.
- Carefully glue the mouth onto the sweet potato.
- Set the sweet potato beetle aside in a safe place until the glue dries.
Enjoying Your Sweet Potato Beetle
Pack your beetle up safely and put him under the Christmas tree. Either give him a name or suggest that the proud recipient name him.
You also may want to suggest that the potato beetle be placed on a plate or a plastic placemat in case he spoils unexpectedly. Meanwhile, your fellow gardeners can pull sprouts off of him as they grow and plant them in the garden during the spring and summer. The gift that keeps on giving!
Homestead on the Range 