5 easy crafts for kids: make animals from cardboard tubes 

If you have paint, coloured pens, cardboard tubes, and clever little fingers – creating these cute little creatures is easy! These easy crafts for kids are a super fun and simple enough for children to get stuck into. Simply start with a few empty rolls of Plenty kitchen towel and a little imagination to create these fabulously fun arts and crafts to do at home: 

• Cardboard bee craft 
• Cardboard butterfly craft 
• Cardboard reindeer craft 
• Cardboard fox craft 
• Cardboard owl craft 

With these five animal crafts for kids, the little ones will be surrounded by a group of new friends as cute as they are simple to make! 

How to create your own DIY bee and DIY butterfly from cardboard 

Let your little artists have the chance to allow their imaginations to run wild with our cute and simple DIY cardboard butterfly and bee. Read on and follow the steps to help your children create their very own winged friends. 

Before you get started creating your cardboard butterfly and bee, there are a few things you’ll need to get together for these animal crafts: 

• Cardboard tube from Plenty kitchen towel
• Scissors
• Paints and brushes
• Glitter felt
• 40cm of black ribbon
• 4 googly eyes (optional)
• 10cm pipe cleaner
• Black pen
• A4 sheet of card
• Stapler
• Glue
• Pattern to download here
• Coloured pens

How to make a cardboard butterfly and bee: step-by-step  

Now you’ve got all the bits you need together, follow these 5 simple steps (with handy photos!) to create your own cardboard butterfly and bee animal crafts: 

1. Cut the cardboard tube into two separate pieces. Paint the body of the bee yellow, and the body of the butterfly blue. Place these to one side to allow them time to dry. 
2. Cut out the wings and heads of your insects from coloured card. Print the templates onto card and cut out the shapes. You can then paint or colour the heads and wings the colour of your choice before leaving them to dry also. 
3. Decorate the wings with glitter felt. Cut the black ribbon into three equal pieces and glue them to the body of the bee to make the stripes. 
4. Cut the pipe cleaner in half, and fold each in half to make the antennae. Glue them on, as well as the googly eyes (or draw the eyes with a pen). Draw the mouths with a black pen. 
5. Glue the wings onto the cardboard tube bodies and glue on the heads. Your butterfly and bee are now ready to take flight! 

Just like that you have 5 simple steps to create a cardboard butterfly and bee. If a woodland or forest animal is more your thing, though, check out our three woodland animal crafts below. 

Crafting animals of the forest 

A cardboard butterfly and bee aren’t the only animal crafts you can put your hand to. If you’re keen to make more animal crafts, try these DIY cardboard animals straight out of the forest. 

Just as when you got creative making the cardboard butterfly and bee, there are a few things you need to get together for these woodland animal crafts: 

• 2 cardboard tubes from Plenty kitchen towels
• Scissors
• Paints and brushes
• Colouring pens
• Coloured paper
• A4 sheet of card
• Glue
• Googly eyes
• Pattern to download here.

How to make cardboard animals from the enchanted forest 

Once you’ve gathered all the materials you need, it’s time to get your DIY on. Here are 7 easy-to-follow steps to create an owl, a fox, and a reindeer, to add to your collection of animal crafts for kids: 

1. Download and print the patterns on your sheet of card. Cut out the head and antlers for the reindeer, the wings for the owl, and finally the head and tail for the fox. 
2. Cut your cardboard tubes. You will need three different lengths for your woodland animal crafts. Cut the pieces to 9cm long for the owl, 11cm long for the fox, and 12cm long for the reindeer. 
3. Now it’s time to shape the bodies! For the body of the owl, fold the ends of the top of the roll by bending them towards the centre. For the reindeer and fox bodies, cut small semicircles at the bottom of the tube to form the legs. 
4. Paint the three tubes and leave to dry. Meanwhile, use pens to colour the reindeer’s nose and antlers, and the fox’s head and tail. Once all the components are dry, it’s time to add the finishing touches. The next three steps will show you how to finish up your forest creature animal crafts.   
5. First, finish up your owl. There are 3 steps to do so. Start by sticking the googly eyes onto the body of the owl. Second, cut a small triangle piece of paper to make the owl’s beak and glue it in the centre. Finally, glue the wings on each side. 
6. Next, finish up your reindeer. This is the easiest of your woodland animal crafts to finish up. Simply glue the reindeer’s head to the top of the tube. 
7. Your final forest creature to finish off is your fox. As with the reindeer, glue the fox’s head to the top of the tube. The last piece to add is the tail - glue this to the back of the tube, poking out to the side. 

Seven simple steps and away you go! Now you know the fundamentals of these animal crafts, the possibilities are endless! Why not get creative and adapt these steps to make sea creatures, monsters and so much more? You could even make a cardboard plane next. 

These easy crafts for kids are perfect for decorating your little one’s bedroom. With this recycling craft activity, you can give a second life to your rolls of Plenty kitchen towels.