Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Crafts

Cardboard Tube Penguin Craft

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There’s no better way to inspire my kids to do a craft project than to offer up something cute.

And, penguins are definitely as cute as it gets.

Have you ever met a person that didn’t think penguins were cute? I haven’t. They’re irresistible.

So, grab a few supplies and let’s get starting crafting. We’ll turn them into a cardboard tube penguin so cute you’ll want to make a whole colony.

Grab some recycled materials to make this cardboard tube penguin craft. They're so cute and so easy to make that you'll want a whole colony of penguins.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed for your Penguin Craft

Empty toilet paper roll tube (or paper towel tube cut into smaller pieces)
Pencil
Black craft paint
White craft paint
Glitter paint
Googly eyes
Scrap of yellow paper

How to make your cardboard tube penguin craft

Begin by drawing a large oval on one side of your cardboard tube.

Paint the inside of your oval white.

Next, paint the rest of your tube with the black paint.

Let it dry a bit before moving on to the next step.

Now, it’s time to add a little sparkle. We used some fun glitter paint to paint over our white oval. You could also use glitter glue to add sparkle.

After all your paint is dry – and it can take awhile, so go read a penguin book or two while you wait – it’s time to add your face.

Gather a couple of googly eyes and cut a small triangle out of your scrap of yellow paper. Glue both on the top half of your white oval to create your face.

Once the glue is dry, your penguin is done.

Grab some recycled materials to make this cardboard tube penguin craft. They're so cute and so easy to make that you'll want a whole colony of penguins.

Create a Cardboard Tube Penguin or two or three or more to create your own colony of these cute birds.

They’re so cute, they’re irresistible!

My must-have kid’s craft resources:

Crafting with your kids is so much easier when you keep a few supplies on hand. I keep a supply of recycled materials, such as cardboard tubes, cardboard boxes, newspapers, paper scraps, etc. as well as supplies such as paint, construction paper, and glue that we use often. Here are some supplies you may want to keep on hand to make many of the crafts that we share here.

You may also like one of these fun kids activities:

Puffin Masks

The Arctic Fox and Learning About Camouflage

10 Ways to Play and Learn About Polar Animals

Easy Origami Penguins at Red Ted Art

Penguin Number Names Activity at Rainy Day Mum

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Stained Glass Star Suncatcher

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We just love to make stained glass projects! 

We’ve made them for almost every holiday and now for Christmas, it’s time for a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher.

Make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher to decorate your windows for Christmas or any time of the year. This easy craft is perfect for kids of all ages.

The process to make this Stained Glass Star Suncatcher is easy and is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and even elementary-aged kids.

It’s not too messy and it’s a great quick craft for when you only have a small amount of time.

Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided some the supplies for this post. All ideas are my own. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed

Clear Contact Paper
Blue and yellow construction paper
Glitter in shaker bottles
Yellow tissue paper

How to make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher

Use your blue and yellow construction paper to cut out star outlines.

I folded the paper in half before we drew the stars so we could get two stars from each piece of paper. Feel free to make these even bigger if you’d like!

Each girl made two stars, one yellow and one blue.

Cut 2 pieces of Contact Paper for each project, according to the size of your stars. Peel the backing off of one piece of Contact Paper and place it sticky side up on your table. Tape the corners down so that it doesn’t go sliding all over the place.

Make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher to decorate your windows for Christmas or any time of the year. This easy craft is perfect for kids of all ages.

Place your star outlines on the Contact Paper. Try not to get too close to the edge, you’ll need a little bit of on overlap.

Use your glitter shakers to add a bit of sparkle to the inside of your stars. Use a little or a lot!

You’ll notice that we are working on top of an old sheet. I highly recommend this to help catch any extra glitter and make clean up easier.

After the stars are all glittered, Tear pieces of your tissue paper and layer it over the glitter. Try to keep all of the tissue paper inside the star outlines.

Add the second piece of Contact Paper over top, smoothing out all wrinkles as you go. I usually do this step myself because it can get tricky.

Cut out your stars leaving a bit of Contact Paper around the edge so that it doesn’t start unpeeling.

Hang your stained glass star in the window and let the sun shine through.

I love the final look! Don’t you?

It’s such a fun decoration on our big windows.

Make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher to decorate your windows for Christmas or any time of the year. This easy craft is perfect for kids of all ages.

You may also like one of these Christmas activities:

Stained Glass Window Ornament

Scented Gingerbread Man Ornament

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

Salt Dough Candy Cane Ornament

Fingerprint Nutcracker Keepsake Ornament at Rainy Day Mum

My Must-Have Christmas Activities Resource

If you’re anything like me, I know you’re looking for fun family activities to do this Christmas. But, not just anything. I’m not looking for elaborate and I’m definitely not looking for something that would require a million trips to the craft store.

That’s why I just love Countdown to Christmas – 24 Activities, Crafts, and Recipes to Countdown to Christmas by Cerys Parker from Rainy Day Mum. The activities are simple (you won’t find anything elaborate) and definitely fun. They’re perfect for families. And, they’re perfect for the advent season.

This fabulous resource for Christmas family fun can be purchased here. Take a peek, you’ll love it!

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Salt Dough Snowman Ornament

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Every year we like to make new ornaments for our Christmas tree. This year, we decided to make these fun Salt Dough Snowman ornaments.

These are so easy to make for kids of all ages. Plus salt dough ornaments are great choices because they pack away easily and look great year after year.

Are you ready to make some fun Christmas crafts? Grab some supplies and let’s get started creating!

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed:

A batch of your favorite salt dough recipe

Toothpick

White craft paint

Hot glue gun and glue

Buttons

Additional colors of craft paint

Twine

For this project, we used the Quickest Ever Salt Dough recipe from Rainy Day Mum since we did not have all day to work on this project. It worked great and we were ready to decorate our snowmen much sooner than if we would have used a traditional recipe.

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

How to make a salt dough snowman ornament

Once you have your salt dough recipe made, make three balls of salt dough. You’ll want them to be three different sizes each one a little bigger than the other.

Flatten each salt dough ball into a circle. The thicker the circle, the longer it will take to dry. But, make sure it’s not too thin or it will break easily. Ours were between 1/8 and 1/4 inches thick.

Line your circles up and overlap the edges to get a snowman shape. Squish your overlapped edges together a bit so that they dry all in one piece.

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

Use your toothpick to make a small hole in the top of your snowman’s head.

Now it’s time to let your salt dough dry and harden.

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

Decorate your salt dough snowman

After your ornaments are dry, use the white craft paint to paint your entire snowman white. Let your paint dry.

If you desire, you can use another color of craft paint to paint your snowman’s face. One of my daughters wanted to paint a face, the other waited to create her face out of buttons.

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

After the paint is dry, use your hot glue gun to attach your buttons all the way down your snowman.

We used hot glue because our salt dough snowman ornaments will be packed away each year and I wanted to make sure the buttons stayed put. Plus, both of my daughters are able to use a hot glue gun safely.

If you don’t want to use hot glue, any type of glue should work.

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

Finally, string some twine through your hole and hang your snowman on your tree.

They look so great on the tree!

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

You may also like these fun Christmas crafts for kids:

Salt Dough Candy Cane Ornaments

Joy to the World Christmas Ornament

The Best Salt Dough Ornaments for Kids

Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

Fingerprint Nutcracker Salt Dough Ornament at Rainy Day Mum

My Must-Have Christmas Activities Resource

If you’re anything like me, I know you’re looking for fun family activities to do this Christmas. But, not just anything. I’m not looking for elaborate and I’m definitely not looking for something that would require a million trips to the craft store.

That’s why I just love Countdown to Christmas – 24 Activities, Crafts, and Recipes to Countdown to Christmas by Cerys Parker from Rainy Day Mum. The activities are simple (you won’t find anything elaborate) and definitely fun. They’re perfect for families. And, they’re perfect for the advent season.

This fabulous resource for Christmas family fun can be purchased here. Take a peek, you’ll love it!

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

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I just love making fun Christmas crafts! Do you?

If your looking for some fun ideas, you’ll love these fun Christmas tree crafts for kids. They’re so much fun and all would make great decorations, either as ornaments or on display elsewhere.

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

You’ll find ideas that are appropriate for kids of all ages. Toddlers would love making Spin Art Trees and preschoolers will love the Sparkly Tree Banner. Or, gather the whole family to make a Family Hand Print Tree.

Let’s gather some supplies and start crafting!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

Fun Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

Our fun Paper Plate Christmas Tree makes a fun and colorful decoration.

Decorate your windows with our pretty Sparkly Christmas Tree Banner.

Learn how to quill when you make this pretty Quilled Christmas Tree Card from Red Ted Art.

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

Create a fun keepsake when you make this Family Hand Print Christmas Tree from Mama Smiles.

Use pom poms to make a cute Christmas Tree Ornament from Preschool Inspirations.

Decorate a tree with stickers with this fine motor Christmas craft from Hands On As We Grow.

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

Work together to create a Christmas tree out of a pine cone with this craft from Crystal & Co.

Use a few simple supplies to make this fun Craft Stick Christmas Tree from Easy Peasy and Fun.

This Pipecleaner Christmas Tree Ornament from Red Ted Art is fun to make and will look great on your tree. 

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

Create pretty Christmas trees with this fun Spin Art Tree Art Project from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds.

Make a Beaded Tissue Paper Tree from Happy Hooligans and get a little fine motor practice too.

Use clay to make a pretty Christmas Tree Pinch Pot from The Imagination Tree.

Which of these Christmas tree crafts for kids do you want to make with?

Get into the holiday spirit while creating with your kids when you make these fun and pretty Christmas tree crafts for kids.

My Must-Have Christmas Activities Resource

If you’re anything like me, I know you’re looking for fun family activities to do this Christmas. But, not just anything. I’m not looking for elaborate and I’m definitely not looking for something that would require a million trips to the craft store.

That’s why I just love Countdown to Christmas – 24 Activities, Crafts, and Recipes to Countdown to Christmas by Cerys Parker from Rainy Day Mum. The activities are simple (you won’t find anything elaborate) and definitely fun. They’re perfect for families. And, they’re perfect for the advent season.

This fabulous resource for Christmas family fun can be purchased here. Take a peek, you’ll love it!

You may also like these fun Christmas activities for kids:

Salt Dough Candy Cane Ornaments

Stained Glass Window Ornament Christmas Craft

Stained Glass Star Suncatcher

Joy to the World Christmas Ornament

Christmas Science Activities for Kids

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Cardboard Tube Spider Craft for Halloween

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I’m the designated spider killer at our house.

Anytime anyone finds a spider, they come find me. Apparently I’m the only one that that isn’t terrified by these little creatures.

Not only am I not terrified, I actually find them quite interesting. Not kidding. And sometimes a little bit cute. Not kidding either.

So, I thought I’d make them so cute that even my kids would appreciate them and came up with this fun idea: Cardboard Tube Spider Craft for Halloween.

Spiders don't have to be scary, especially when make this fun and simple kids craft, a cardboard tube spider craft for Halloween.

Disclosure: Craftprojectideas.com provided some of the supplies we used to make these spiders. The idea and pictures are my own. 

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed for your Cardboard Tube Spider craft:

Cardboard tubes: toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls
Black paint
Scissors
Black fuzzy craft sticks (pipe cleaners)
Googly eyes

How to make your cardboard tube spider craft for Halloween

Start by cutting your cardboard tube in half (or quarters if using a paper towel roll).

Then, on opposite sides, use a sharp instrument to poke four holes per side. Grownups – please do these first two steps yourself!

I used the tip of a sharp pair of scissors to make my holes. You just need something to punch through the cardboard.

Now it’s time for the kids to take over.

Use your black paint to paint the outside of each tube. Make sure you paint over your holes.

Of course, you don’t have to stick with black here. Use any color you want for a group of fun and funky Halloween spiders. If you do this, use colorful pipe cleaners for the legs too!

After the paint is dry, thread 4 pipe cleaners through the holes. Take one pipe cleaner and thread in one hole, through the middle, and out through the hole directly across from your first hole.. Your 4 pipe cleaners will make 8 legs.

Once you have them all the pipe cleaners threaded, bend and arrange your pipe cleaners to look like spider legs.

For the final step, attach your googly eyes.

When we made our cardboard tube spider craft, some of us used 2 eyes per spider. My youngest daughter decided to be scientifically correct and use 8 eyes on her spider. I think I like that one the best.

Spiders don't have to be scary, especially when make this fun and simple kids craft, a cardboard tube spider craft for Halloween.

Once you’re done, you’ve got some fun spiders for Halloween.

Stand them up on a shelf or attach string and dangle them from the ceiling.

Either way, they’re a fun addition to your Halloween decorations.

See, I told you I could make spiders cute!

Spiders don't have to be scary, especially when make this fun and simple kids craft, a cardboard tube spider craft for Halloween.

You may also like one of these fun Halloween crafts:

Paper Plate Jack-O-Lanterns

Black Cat Masks

No-Sew Ghost Pencil Toppers

Fun Spider Crafts for Kids

Twig Spider Web Craft at Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Toilet paper roll spider craft for Halloween

Craft supplies you may need:

In addition to items pulled from your recycle bin, here are some supplies that will help you with your cardboard tube spider.

Are you looking for more activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share idea for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.