After running the Star Wars half marathon and vowing to be better prepared for the Tinkerbell half… life happened. So not only have I not been running as much as I had wanted to (because of an injury), I also am behind in my costume prep.

However, I did want to share one DIY costume item that takes just a few minutes to make and is super cute — so, even if you’re running the 10K tomorrow, you still have time to make these. Or you can just make them to attach to your purse or something, because pom poms are adorable.

All you need is some yarn (I got this white yarn with sparkle and sequins at Michael’s), a pair of scissors and some cardboard. I used part of a FedEx envelope, but it’s better to use sturdier cardboard if you have it.

Cut the cardboard into a long rectangle half as wide as you want the pom pom to be (keeping in mind that you will need to trim the end product a bit). Cut slits in the center of each end, and attach a 10- to 12-inch piece of yarn to it by pushing the ends into the slits, as shown above.

Now, wrap the yarn around the cardboard about 200 times. Don’t wrap too tightly or you will bend the cardboard/make it too difficult to remove. Once you’re done, carefully push the whole wrapped part down and off the cardboard, keeping both ends of the center string accessible.

Bring the two ends that were in the cardboard slits together and tie tightly — this holds the wrapped yard together. Leave the ends long, but put scissors into the loops and cut them all so that you end up with lots of streamer-like pieces of yarn.  The result will be kind of jagged, but should look like a pom pom.

Use the scissors to carefully trim the pom pom and make it even. Use the two long ends in the center to attach to your shoes.