One of the most versatile household materials you can use for recycling crafts is the humble toilet roll! You're sure to have a steady supply and there are so many different recycled toilet roll crafts to try. Kids love making imaginative crafts with recycled materials, which is why we've designed some funky toilet roll creatures for you to try out.
Just follow the instructions below, and don’t forget for any paint, felt tip pen, or glue stains that happen in the process, you can check out the stain removal section for handy advice!
Toilet Roll Snake
This is the easiest out of our three toilet roll craft ideas. You'll need: one toilet roll, two small googly eyes, paint, glue, felt tip pens, red paper, and scissors.
Instructions:
Paint the outside of the toilet roll and then let it dry.
Use the scissors to cut a spiral strip from the toilet roll, shaping one end of the strip like a tail, and the other like a snake's head.
Glue on the googly eyes.
Cut a red forked tongue from the paper and glue it on to the head of the snake.
Finish the snake by adding designs along the length with the felt tip pens.
Toilet Roll Butterfly
This is one of the great classics when it comes to making crafts from recycled materials. All you'll need is: one toilet roll, a pipe cleaner, two googly eyes, coloured paper, scissors, white glue, a black pen, paint, and a paint brush.
Instructions:
Paint the toilet roll the colour you'd like the body of your butterfly to be and put it aside to dry.
Cut wing shapes from the coloured paper – patterned wrapping paper will look great or you can use paint to add your own designs to the wings.
Use glue to stick the toilet roll in the middle of the wings.
Glue the eyes to the top of the toilet roll and draw on the rest of the butterfly's face.
Glue two short pieces of pipe cleaner to the inside of the front of the toilet roll to form the antennae.
Your butterfly is now complete – and what's more – you can also use it as a finger puppet!
Toilet Roll Owl
These wise looking birds would make great gifts for teachers! Here's how to make another easy craft with waste materials for kids. You'll need: one toilet roll, a selection of coloured paper, white glue, and scissors.
Instructions:
Cover the toilet roll in coloured paper by spreading glue on the outside of the toilet roll and rolling it in the paper until both ends meet. Hold the paper together with a paperclip until the glue dries.
Fold the front and the back of the toilet roll into the middle to form the owl's ears.
Cut a small triangle of paper and fix this to the front of the toilet roll to form the owl's beak.
Then, cut two coin-sized disks out of white paper and two smaller circles of black paper. Layer them on top of each other and stick them above the beak to form the eyes.
Finally cut two leaf-shaped pieces of paper and glue these to the sides of the toilet roll to form the wings.
Optionally, attach a loop of ribbon or wool to the top of the owl, so you can hang it up.
Do you have any ideas for waste material craft for kids? If so, we'd love to hear from you in the comments box below.