It is good to be home again, and we are back to our usual fun crafty selves! Before I left for NYC, I had left a few paper towel rolls on the kitchen counter to be used for a some upcoming craft projects. Turns out, a certain someone (aka Mark) got a little too trigger happy with the recycling. No recyclable is safe from the crafty-afterlife at our house! Not to worry though, as we happened to be nearing the end of another roll by the time I got home, plus Mark did a great job keeping the house clean, the girls fed, and the cats from killing each other while I was gone. Yay for awesome husbands!! We turned the paper towel roll into this fun owl family play set……
Aren’t they adorable?? I couldn’t resist playing with them myself! In mind were these fun animals by matsutake. I cut the paper towel roll into different sized segments for Emily to paint. I love the bright colors she chose!
While the rolls were drying, we got to work on the scenery. I did the drawings, and she colored an inexpensive file folder (pack of 10 – $1) to make the scenery for the owls. We even did a day time scene and a night time scene.
Once the paint was dry, we folded the top of the tubes as shown to make the ears for the owls.
We added some googly eyes, (or you could draw on some eyes), a beak, and we used some glued-on scraps of fabric for wings.
Allow to dry completely (this was difficult, since Clara could barely keep her hands off of them) and play, play, play!!!
I love how both of the girls enjoy playing with these, and making up all sorts of stories about them!
Have fun!!
I added this post to:
Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou
Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog
Works for Me Wednesday @ We are THAT Family
Adorable! I will be collecting some cardboard rolls now!
Great! Have fun!! xoxo
Dear Valerie,
Nice hooters!
Love,
Mark
You’ve been saving that one, haven’t you? 😉
Very cute & fun to make!
Thanks, Denise!
Love it – I would have never believed they are made out of cardboard rolls – amazing!
The paint did a great job of disguising them. They are lots of fun!
so cute!
🙂
Those are so cute, what a great idea. Who doesn’t like an owl!
Owls are my favorite! Have fun!
OMG – these are ADORABLE!!!! Adding this to my list for next week!
Thanks for sharing!
That makes me very happy!! Enjoy! xoxo
I LOVE these – I hope I can make them to look as cute as yours.
You can do it!! 🙂 Have fun!
I had to explain to Jeff why I was laughing after reading Mark’s comment. Funny.
Love this idea, and I was looking at it thinking I could so make this.
LOL He is so silly!!
Yes, yes, I know you can totally handle this — they are fun and easy to make!
Super extra cute!
Thanks!! 🙂
Those really turned out cute! She picked the perfect colors.
Thanks so much. I do love the colors she picked out! Tempera paint seemed to have the best coverage, but regular kids washable paint works well too. Have fun!
So cute! I am really impressed with Emily’s attention span, if she did all of the owls and the scenes in one day. I think I’d have to break it up into about 5 craft sessions. But they look worth it. 🙂
Thanks, Lynn! She’s always had a long attention span, but there is nothing wrong with splitting this up into separate craft sessions. You’ll get a lot of mileage out of it that way! Have fun!!
Whoooooo made an awesome craft? You did!
You crack me up!! 😀
These are too cute. I have been saving a pile of tubes for “something”, and I think I’ve found it. Thanks for sharing!
LOL I do that all the time too! Enjoy!!
Oh, they ARE so CUTE!
Awww.. thanks, Phyllis!
Oh these are soooooo adorable! I will have to do these with my kids! they will love making such cute owls! 🙂 Thank you for sharing all your wonderful easy crafts! 🙂
You’re very welcome! Yes, yes, make up some cute owls with the kiddos — they are a lot of fun to make!
Adorable. When I saw the first picture, I assumed they were owls you sewed together. I can’t believe how cute they are!
Love Mark’s comment!
No sewing for this one! I’m always amazed at how kids seem to enjoy the simplest of toys the most. So much fun!
This is such a cute craft! I have been saving up toliet paper rolls for some reason so this would be the perfect craft for us to do!
Perfect!! Have fun crafting with Lu!! 🙂
I think this is one of the cutest ideas for owls I have ever seen!!
Yay!!! 🙂
Oh my gosh. Those are so so cute! I would have sworn they were made out of fabric. They reminded me of some of the stuffies that Lisa at 5 orange potatoes makes.
Oh, they do look a bit like Lisa’s stuffies — I love those! These are MUCH simpler to make. Have fun!!
These are adorable! I agree ~ love the bright colors. *Ü*
😀
What a seriously cute idea…my girls love to tell stories and would love something like this.
Mine too! It is one of their favorite activities, and they could go on and on and on….. Have fun!
I, too, thought they were fabric, just looking at the pictures. Great job!
If you gather up a family of 6 or 10, you could put some beans in the bottoms (tape them over?) and have an owl-bowling set.
And I think curbside recycling should be renamed “Curbside Art Supplies.”
That is a GREAT idea!!!
And I love the phrase “Curbside Art Supplies” LOL!! 😀
Oh my gosh! These are soooo darn cute.
Thanks, Shari!! So happy you stopped by!
What do you do with all these lovely crafts you make? You can’t possibly keep them all. I took pictures of all the crafts we made in a year and made them into a book. I used mixbook. My older daughter looks at the book all the time!!!
~Jody
Heavens no! We could never keep them all, but I do take photos of almost all of them, and organize them into books like you do, or sometimes calendars. Most of them go to the recycling bin when we’re done with them, but we do have a good amount of their artwork on display all around the house!! We have lots of it framed and I swap out the artwork to display on a regular basis. Oh, and we give plenty of projects to the grandparents too. 🙂
This owl family is adorable!
Thanks, Maryanne!!
Aaah! Those are awesome! I’m so glad you and your daughter had fun making them! They really turned out cute. It totally makes me smile to post a tutorial and see someone actually make the craft and add their own personality to it.
Bravo!
xoxo
Katie
We had a lot of fun with them! Thanks for the inspiration, Katie!!
oo very cute!!! Do you guys do one project everyday? Or just when you have an idea you want to try? Do some of your ideas turn out weird.. that definitely happens to me 😛
Usually we do at least one project every day, with the exception of sick days or something like that. Thankfully, sick days are a rare occurrence in this house. The girls and I really cherish the time spent together, and we’re always excited to find new uses for things. Yeah, I’ve had my share of weird projects LOL Mark can attest to that! 😉
We made these today! If my camera worked I’d take a picture… thanks for saving my sanity this afternoon.
Yay!!!! That makes me SO happy, Dara!! 😀
Wow, that is awesome!
Thanks, Anya! 🙂
That is a simple but very cute project. I’m guessing I could use toilet paper roles as well to make the owls?
Now maybe a couple spiders hanging from a web.
Absolutely! Whatever cardboard rolls you have on-hand would work nicely. Love the spider idea!
Ok, I have never really been a fan of TP roll crafts. But I LOVE this one! Totally cute, and what fun! I love the colors, love the creativity, love the whole thing. Well done.
Thanks so much! We haven’t done much with them in the past either, but the girls really enjoyed this one. Have fun!
Absolutely adorable!!! My kiddos are DEMANDING these owls TODAY! 😛 I’ve been lurking and I just love your blog! I gotta add it back to my sidebar so I don’t forget! 🙂
Thanks so much! 🙂
Yay!!! So happy to hear that! And THANKS so much for the link — I really appreciate it! xoxo
Those are so cute!
Stephanie!! So happy to see you again and hope you and the kiddos are doing well. Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
What an adorable idea! I need to try that with the kids I babysit!! I started a new linky on Tuesdays where I feature a tutorial and then a linky for people to link up. Come by and add any projects you want!
Great! And thanks for the heads-up on the linky party!!
These are absolutely adorable! My girls and I are nuts for owls, and I know they’ll enjoy making these! I’m going to share a link to your post on my FB fan page as well. I have a lot of reader with children that I know would love to do this project as well! So glad I found you through Diamonds For Dessert!
Fantastic!! Thanks so much for sharing the link on FB, and welcome to FFFB! So nice to “meet” you! xoxo
Wow! These ARE cute! SOOO cute! I would have never guessed what they are. I’m adding this to my craft projects to-do list. 🙂
Awesome!! 🙂 Have fun!!!
I made these with my 2 year old today! And by that I mean that she stayed with me long enough to slap some paint on one of the rolls and I did the rest. But she’s totally going to love them when she gets up from her nap.
Dude, I love your site. So many great do-able ideas 🙂 How awesome.
Yay!!! I’m SO happy to hear that, and I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying FFFB! 😀
http://whiskeyjac.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/eeboo/
they turned out great! thanks so much for all the nice ideas 🙂
How CUTE!!!!!
OMGosh who would of thought those toilet paper holders would be so useful LOL> I LOVE EM’
We use TP rolls for all kinds of crafts! I consider them free art supplies. 🙂
now that is just too cute
Thanks so much, Noelle!
LOVE! This was clearly a popular post.
🙂 Thanks, Jenny! My girls are still really enjoying this play set. Have fun!!
I made these today with my son. Very cute. He loves playing with them.
Wonderful!!! That totally made my day! 🙂
I’m going to do those this weekend. We recycle also, I hate when the hubby tosses something out I want to use.. grrr.
So adorable, just love your little TP owls! If you’d have a moment to drop by Craft Schooling Sunday and link to them, that would be so great! Hope to see you there, and all the best. Sara
Many thanks for your idea.
Now new owl-family live in Moscow – http://ludmila-mama.livejournal.com/501281.html#cutid1
Love these — we are going to make them. I will post when they are done. Love your blog and ideas!
Those are adorable! What a great idea!
I’d love to have you share this at my For the Kids Link Party! Stop on by and join the fun!!
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/04/for-kids-friday-7.html
Poor owls! Why didn’t they get their backs painted?