Toilet Paper Roll Penguins

Ah, the Thursday after Christmas.

We are still very slow to get going around here, enjoying the leisure of snoozing at will, snacking on leftover turkey and trying out all of the new gear that Santa brought.

It seems like that should be plenty to do. But, there’s still a whiff of boredom in the air that can only be cured by a round of sparkles, glue and craft paper.

I have to admit that I am totally Christmas-ed out in the crafting department. I’m confident I cannot whip out one more angel, tree or gingerbread. So, we’re working on moving on to projects that are more Winter than holiday. That’s how we got started creating a family of penguins.

I mentioned the project in a post the other day and – once we dug in – realized that it was a great way to break up a slow afternoon.

Here’s what you need:

- Toilet paper rolls
- Colourful construction paper
- White Glue and stick glue
- Glitter
- A black or blue marker

We got the original idea here and, while it says to print the patterns off, we just traced over them on the computer.

First thing first, though.

Take the toilet paper rolls and cut a piece of black construction paper to fit the roll. Glue it to the roll.

Then, take an old plate or piece of wax paper and dump some glue out, mix in some sparkles and roll the covered TP rolls in the glitter. Make sure it’s just a thin layer of glue, otherwise it all will take forever to dry.

You’ll need to set them aside for an hour or two for them to dry and the sparkles to really make their debut (we used iridescent sparkles that turned the paper a sparkley purple).

Meanwhile, you can cut the white chests, eyes, noses, feet, wings and accessories out of the different coloured construction paper.

When the glue on the rolls is dry, use the stick glue to paste all of the things you just cut out onto the rolls, which quickly turn into some seriously cute penguins.

Let your creativity get going here and you can make all kinds of fun stuff to go with your new collection of Antarctic creatures.

Our tiny person loved naming them and proceeded to create some really fun stories about what her penguins were up to. She even gave a couple to her cousins and the puppet shows commenced.

Have fun!

Tags: animals, crafts, family, green crafts, Kids, Our Big Earth Media Co., penguins, Recycle, repurpose, toilet paper rolls

Category: ARTS & LITERACY, Crafts