5 Fall-Themed Kids Crafts Made from Empty Paper Towel Rolls

As the weather cools down and more time is spent inside with the kids, it’s nice to have some simple go-to fall craft ideas that recycle items you may already have around the house. Easy crafts are a great way to curtail any boredom incurred from being cooped up indoors, and encouraging the kids to recycle can be an important teaching moment.  Check out some of these fall-themed crafts utilizing empty paper towel rolls that you can do with your little ghosts and goblins.

•      Spider- Cut the empty paper towel roll to the size you want your spider to be.  Gather up some black paint, paint brushes, newspapers, googly eyes, four black pipe cleaners, a hole-punch, glue and glitter.  Spread the newspaper over the work surface.  Paint the paper towel roll black and leave it to dry.  Once your roll is dry you can glue on the googly eyes.  Punch four holes on the top edge of the paper towel roll and 4 holes on the bottom of the paper towel roll.  Take one pipe cleaner and stick each end through a hole, creating two legs.  Bend the pipe cleaners to look like spider legs.  Make a knee and then bend the end up to make a foot.  Repeat until your spider has eight legs.  Use the glue and glitter to add some bling to your spider.

•      Owls- Cut the empty paper towel roll into thirds.  Collect your supplies; you’ll need transparent tape, glue, a small piece of yellow paper, markers or crayons, cupcake paper, yarn and a hole-punch (optional).  Push in the top edge of one end of the tube on the front and then on the back as well so that one side overlaps the other a little and tape it together.  You should have two points that look like owl “ears” or feathers.  Take a cupcake paper and cut it in half to make two wings.  Glue the wings overlapping on the back.  Adjust them until they look right to you.  Allow the glue to dry and then with a marker draw in the face of the owl.  Take a small triangle (about 1” long) of yellow paper and fold it in half.  Unfold it and glue one edge of it to the face creating a 3D beak.  Punch holes in the sides and run some yarn through the holes if you would like to hang your owl.

•      Bat- You will need safety scissors, an empty paper towel roll, black paint, a paint brush, googly eyes, newspapers, black paper, crayons and glue.  Using safety scissors cut the paper towel tube in half.  Cover your work surface with newspaper or a disposable tablecloth and paint the tube black.  While the paint dries cut out some bat wings.  Try to make them the same size so that they match.  Fold over about a ½ inch on one side of the wing to glue it to the tube.  Color and decorate the wings.  Once the paint is dry, glue the wings onto the body.  Then glue on the googly eyes.  Cut two tall skinny triangles out of the black paper to use as ears.  Glue the ears to the top of the tube.   

•      Trees- For this project you will need a paper towel roll, brown paint, safety scissors, glue, a scrap piece of cardboard, and fall colors of tissue paper.  Paint the paper towel roll brown and set it aside to dry.  In the meantime, cut out small leaf shapes from the tissue paper.  When the paper towel roll is dry cut slits up from the bottom about 1 ½ inches long and about an inch apart.  Fold the notches up to form ‘roots’ and glue the roots to the cardboard to allow the tree to stand up.  Repeat the same slit cutting process on the top to create branches.  This time make the slits three inches long, or vary the lengths of the branches, just make sure that you have two slits the same length side-by-side so that when you bend it down it will be even for that branch.  Paint the tops of the branches brown where you have folded it down.  Once the branches are dry you can start gluing on the leaves.  It’s alright to overlap the leaves a little because they will overlap in nature.  Add leaves until you are happy with how your tree looks. 

•      Mummy- You will need a roll of first aid gauze, an empty paper towel roll, glue, googly eyes and a black marker.  Cut the paper towel tube into thirds.  Using your fingers spread a thin layer of glue all over the cardboard tube.  Wrap the gauze around the tube.  Make sure you change directions.  Glue on the googly eyes and draw a mouth if you want.

The possibilities are endless with what can be made with empty paper towel, wrapping paper or toilet paper rolls.  Happy crafting!

Source: Crafts

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