How-to Make Pool Noodle Swords

Having a little boy is both exciting and terrifying. My little man is always up for adventure with a weapon of some sort in hand. Lately he’s been all about the swords. We recently threw him a Power Ranger’s birthday party! I even made him and a few of his crew some Power Ranger tee shirts!

During the planning stages of the Power Ranger party I naturally took to Pinterest for some ideas. We didn’t have a huge budget, but I didn’t want that to stop the party from being fun and memorable for the kiddos. That’s when I came across pool noodle swords, or as I like to call them, safe swords! I thought these would be perfect as parting gifts for our little guests.

These pool noodle swords are super easy to make. And call me crazy, but I actually had fun making them. It was a craft that I personally found relaxing, even though I made most of them at 2am with the little guy test driving each one of them.

When you can’t sleep, you make #poolnoodle #swords with your son at 2am! #ducttape #washitape #insomnia #nightowls #crafting #diy

A photo posted by Angela Quisumbing (@the_pinky_project) on Aug 11, 2016 at 2:28am PDT

How-to Make Pool Noodle Swords

Materials. All you need are a handful of pool noodles. I anticipated we would have about 10 kids at the party so I got 5 pool noodles. One noodle will make 2 swords when cut in half. Then you’ll need duct tape. I went with black, but you can do silver or gold. For the trim/accent and buttons I used gold washi tape which I found to be very forgiving. However, after the kids got their sweaty palms on them the washi take started to fall off. This didn’t happen to all of them, but it did for some. The duct tape, stayed put as expected. We purchased all of our materials at Walmart, but you can also find them on Amazon here [pool noodles,] here [washi tape] and here [duct tape.] Oh, scissors also came in handy for cutting the duct tape.

Technique & Design. As I mentioned above, I cut the noodles in half using our very sharp Cutco knives. I started out with the serrated knife but found the flat one to work best. If you fold it in half first, you’ll get an idea of where to cut. No fancy measuring required, just good eyeballing.

After that I wrapped 3 layers of duct tape around the base of the noodle. Make sure you cover the hole on the bottom before you start wrapping.

Then I put the finishing touches on with the washi tape. This part was the easiest. I trimmed the top and bottom of the base and cut 3 squares for buttons.

The Result. Safe swords that the kids could run around and play with on the ground and in the jumper! They were a huge hit.

Look at how fun these kids had! Have you made any fun things with pool noodles before? Let us know in the comments below.