Total Time 2 to 3 hours Ages preschooler
Painting a cardboard tube does amazing things! You can shape the tube however you like, then let it dry. Once it's dry, the paint hardens the cardboard and it will hold its shape!
by Amanda Formaro
What you'll need
- 4-inch cardboard tube
- Yellow paint
- 10 medium yellow pom-poms
- Large orange pom-pom
- 2 googly eyes
- Gold or yellow pipe cleaner
- Tools: Scissors, white craft glue, paintbrush
How to make it
1. Paint the cardboard tube with yellow paint, inside and out. Allow it to dry long enough to where you can handle it without getting wet paint on your fingers, about 30 minutes or so. Don't let it dry too long, or you won't be able to mold it!
2. Start from the bottom and cut into the tube, cutting it into one really long strip, about 1/2-inch wide. Coil the cardboard around your a small bottle to help it hold its shape. Let the tube dry completely, about two hours or when the cardboard feels stiff.
Glue five pom-poms in a row along the length of the coiled tube. Remove the coiled tube from the bottle.
3. Glue the other five pom-pom to the tube. To find out where to glue them so that your caterpillar will stand up, place the tube onto the table so that the first five pom-poms are touching the table. Glue one in place while holding it on the table. Then you can lift up the tube and glue on the rest.
4. Now that your caterpillar can stand on its own, glue on the large orange pom-pom for the head. Cut the pipe cleaner into two pieces, about 2-inches long each. Glue to the top of the orange pom-pom head. Glue on googly eyes.
Crafts
