Come visit the library this
Monday, January 21 and make some fun recycled crafts. This program will start at 2 pm on the lower level in the library's Craft Room. We will reuse paper towel tubes for this craft project. What we will be making? Check out the photo below:
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| Studious red foxes read away the winter blues. |
Winter critters! This craft project is fun, easy, and allows you to get really creative.
Supplies:
- Paper towel tubes
- Acrylic paints
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil
- Old magazine/book pages (optional--to make mini books)
- Brown paper (optional-- to make mini books)
- Colored pencils and markers (optional-- to make mini books)
- Stapler (optional-- to make mini books)
Once you have the basic shape made, you can go off in any direction! Here are the steps to start:
Gather some paper towel tubes. You may also use toilet paper tubes. I like the paper towel tubes because you can get two bodies per roll, in addition to the leftover bit, which can be used to make arms, tails, etc.
Cut up the tubes. Usually I eyeball each body. For critters like foxes, owls, and raccoons, I make the bodies a bit longer, while for the squirrels I keep the bodies shorter.
If you have a jagged cut, that's okay. Just put the flatter side on the bottom. To make the ears, fold the top of the tube down so two sides meet in the middle (I know a circle doesn't have a side, but I didn't know how else to describe it!).
Push down a bit, and you have your basic critter shape! No glue is necessary to keep the ears in place.
What will these tubes turn into... Foxes? Owls? That's up to you. For the arms/legs and tails, use the leftover paper towel sections to cut those pieces out, paint, and then glue. Here are some examples of winter critters I've made:
Festive raccoons! Initially I made this for the holiday season and thought green would be cool to use. However, instead of being called festive, the people I showed them to called them Green Lanterns. So now I just refer to them as Green Lantern Raccoons!
An army of foxes! Sorry that you can't see the tails in these pictures! As you can see, their little paws are empty. For Valentine's Day you can cut out hearts for the foxes to hold. Or, make a small sign to wish a friend or family member happy birthday.
Red, burgundy, gold, and bronze! I found some cool metallic colors at Michael's, including metallic brown, bronze, and red.
Vibrant owls! I was inspired to make these owls from Flickr user
decoralia.
All you have to do is grab your favorite colors, paint the tubes, and then add the faces and details once the base coat is dry.
*Wink*
And I had to make squirrels. The tails actually turned out pretty well, because of how the paper towel tube is already rolled up.
Then I decided to make mini books for the critters to read!
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| I see you. |
I hope to see you at the
Recycled Crafts program on Monday. If you can't make it, go ahead and make your own winter critters at home!
