Simple kid crafts

ASimpleHomestead.com - toilet paper monsters

This weekend we worked on some homework that Little Chick needed to finish by the end of this week — making a collage of pictures that represented her family.

ASimpleHomestead.com - family collage

The hardest part was determining which pictures to include! I printed off several of our family pictures so I could make them smaller and wouldn’t have to worry about them getting damaged. It was also suggested to use stickers or magazine cut-outs. We’ve eliminated most of our magazines so that was a problem. I did find a couple and we were able to use some advertisements from the newspaper (e.g. food).

I cut all the family pictures but I let her do the rest – cutting out the rest of the pictures, gluing, determining where to place them, etc.

She enjoyed that activity so much she made another collage the very next day with a few extra pictures (mostly princesses).


For a while I kept seeing uses for empty toilet paper rolls / cardboard rolls so I started accumulating them. And then promptly couldn’t find the ideas again! A couple weeks ago I saw an idea (I think it was on Sesame Street) and last night turned out to be our first opportunity to try it.

ASimpleHomestead.com - crafting toilet paper monsters

The craft is simple. You take scissor and cut 3/4 or just a little more across the top of a cardboard tube, approximately 1.5 – 2″ down from the top. This cut becomes the mouth. You should be able to carefully bend the top up; the back will fold making it easier to open. If this doesn’t happen you can cut a little more, just be sure not to cut all the way across!

Then it’s time to decorate them! Little chick used washable paints. At first I wanted her to color them more, but actually since she didn’t use much paint they dried quickly and we could move on to other accents.

ASimpleHomestead.com - toilet paper monsters

I had only 4 sets of googly / wiggle eyes in the larger size so we started with those. I can’t tell you how old the tiny little pompoms are … and we still have a boatload left over! Scrap yarn became the hair for a couple. For one I took the time and crocheted chains and looped them around – I love how that turned out! (it’s hard to see in the picture)

Even though we didn’t have any large eyes left, Little Chick wanted to make a couple of dinosaurs. Papa said that dinosaur eyes are relatively smaller than their overall size, so the tiny eyes worked.  Those tiny eyes are just slightly larger than a pin head and rather difficult to work with!

These were so much fun to make, I just know she’s going to want to try them again! Which means I need to stop at the craft store soon to pick up some more googly eyes! 🙂

One Reply to “Simple kid crafts”

  1. Oh, it looks nice! It reminds me of the days when our boys were kids and did a lot of this kind of crafts.
    Toilet paper roll santas are something all Norwegian children have made in kindergarten or at school 🙂 And all mothers have decorated with them at Christmas LOL

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