Cardboard Roll Halloween Creatures

With Halloween almost here, the hooligans and I have been busy making lots of spooky crafts this week.

Our latest creations are these adorable cardboard roll characters.  We’ve made a mummy and a crow.

Although our mummy and crow are easy enough to make, the process is great for helping little ones develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.

Let me show you the supplies you’ll need and then we can get started!

You Will Need:

• paper towel roll, toilet paper roll or wrapping paper tube
• black paint
• paint brush
• white yarn
• black yarn
• googly eyes
• yellow craft foam
• glue

Instructions:

1. We started by cutting a cardboard roll to the length that we wanted our mummy and crow to be (roughly 4 inches in length for each).

2. We then painted both rolls with the black paint—yep, even the roll that you’ll use for the mummy starts off with a coat of black paint. That way, there’s a bit of contrast between any gaps in the mummy’s white wrapping.

3. When your paint is dry, cut a tiny notch at the bottom of the tube and one at the top of the tube. This will be where you secure the beginning and end of your length of yarn.

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4. Now, wedge a piece of yarn into one of the notches. Before you move onto the next step, drizzle a bit of glue all over your cardboard roll. It will help the yarn to stay in place when you’re wrapping.

We used fuzzy yarn because that’s all we had on hand for black and white, but you can use any yarn you have. You could even use strips of fabric or tissue paper.

5. With your yarn wedged into place, begin wrapping.  Wind your yarn around and around, covering most of the cardboard roll.

The wrapping process can be quite tricky for little ones. It takes a lot of co-ordination to hold a cardboard roll stationary with one hand, while the other hand holds and winds a piece of yarn around and around.

6. Once you reach the top of the cardboard tube, cut your yarn and wedge the loose end into the notch you cut earlier.

7. To finish, glue the eyes and beak onto the crow and two eyes onto the mummy, tucking them slightly under the white yarn.

Happy Halloween!