How to Make Cardboard Zoo Rolls
Transform cardboard rolls into quirky animal characters by making your own zoo rolls! This project is perfect for crafting zoo characters at home with kids using classic craft materials, along with empty loo rolls, kitchen rolls, cereal boxes and juice cartons.
You'll be all set to bring a whole zoo full of different animals to life – perfect for playing with after you've finished making. Let your imagination run wild.
Project and instructions by Suzie Attaway
You will need
How to make
You Will Need
* Cardboard Tubes - A Mixture of Toilet Rolls and Kitchen Rolls
* Empty Cereal Box
* Empty Juice Carton
* Acrylic Paint in Various Colours
* Tissue Paper in Various Colours
* White A4 Paper
* Coloured A4 Paper
* White and Black Posca Pens or Permanent Markers
* PVA Glue
* Ruler
* Pencil
* Scissors
* Paintbrushes
First, make the elephant house. Take the cereal box and draw an arch in the middle using a ruler and pencil. Cut out with scissors.
Next, paint the outside of the cereal box with blue paint, and leave to dry.
Using a white Posca paint pen, decorate the box with brickwork, trees and leaves and write the words 'Elephant House' around the top of the arch.
Next, make the giraffe house. First, draw and cut out an arch on one side of the empty juice carton. Use the discarded piece to draw and cut out a scallop-edged 'canopy' and stick to the carton.
Paint the juice carton green, and leave to dry. Then decorate with a white Posca pen as before.
Now, make the animals. Cut out pieces of coloured tissue paper measuring 15 x 30cm. Then wrap and glue the tissue paper around the empty loo rolls, tucking the excess tissue paper inside the open ends.
For the penguin, first cut out a 'fringe' of yellow paper and stick around the top of the black tissue paper-covered loo roll. Then draw and cut out a white tummy piece, black wings, white eyes and a yellow beak. Glue in place, then draw a black dot in the middle of each eye.
To make a tiger, first cut out some round orange tissue paper ears and some white paper eyes and stick them to the orange tissue paper-covered loo roll. Then draw the stripes, eyes, nose, whiskers and mouth with a black pen.
Use the coloured paper, tissue paper and black pen to turn more empty loo rolls into a lion, elephant and zebra.
Make a tall giraffe with an empty kitchen roll. First, cut it down to 15cm in length, and then cover in yellow tissue paper. Press down the top to form two ears, then cut and stick an orange paper fringe in place. Decorate the surface with orange tissue paper shapes, then add two white eyes and a large yellow nose to finish.
Last but not least, make the snake. Draw and cut an empty loo roll into a spiral, then paint the inside and outside in dark green and leave to dry. Finally, cut and stick a red tongue and white eye in place.
Your zoo is complete!