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Kids Craft: Cardboard Tube Robot

25 January 2012 28 Comments

cardboard tube robotrobots for kidsWelcome back to Kids Crafts and this week’s cardboard tube robot!! I am a huge huge HUGE fan of cardboard tubes.. mainly because we have them in abundance in our house (*cough* I blame the Englishman).

We actually made this robot last year and it forms part of my Time On Your Hands ebook. But I decided to share him with you today. This little guy has once again inspired hours of fun in our house. Which is great for those long long holidays. He also forms part of our home made “puppet theatre”, where we have a range of wonderful characters.

cardboard tube robot

Materials: The Cardboard Tube Roll, metallic or blue paint, silver corrugated card or tin foil, scissors, paper, googly eyes, pen, sequins, glue, elastic band to keep everything in place whilst drying

I used metallic acrylic paint, but you can replace it with tin foil or wrapping paper or ordinary paint, which you then varnish if you want to!

Step 1 Paint two strips at the top and bottom of the roll around 2cm wide in the metallic colour (or colour the whole roll, it doesn’t matter really!) – as per the photo above.

Step 2 Paint some plain paper in the same colour, so you can later use it for the arms. You will need to paint both sides
Step 3 Once dry, cut out a piece of corrugated card and glue it onto the roll. You could also use some contrasting plain card, tin foil or felt

Step 4 Stick on googly eyes, a mouth (white paper & pen drawing) and sequins for buttons

 

Step 5 Make the arms: these are “Witches Ladders” and consist of two strips of paper folded over each other. Glue them at right angles to begin with and then take turn folding them

Step 6 Glue on arms
I used an elastic band to keep corrugated card and arms in place whilst they were drying on.

Done! You have one little cardboard tube robot. What do you think?!

And did you know, you can find me on PinterestFollow Me on Pinterest Do come and connect with me there, for all sorts of pins on kids crafts, family crafts, gardening, food… come and join in the fun!

For more Kid’s Craft ideas, click here for a full list.

If you have been crafty with your kid’s be it at home, in the kitchen or outdoors, I would love for you to link up:


Do you like crafting with cardboard tubes? What kids crafts have you made from it?

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28 Comments »

  • artsy_momma said:

    I love it! I have been looking for a fun robot craft for awhile- one that I know my son would enjoy- & this is perfect for him! It\’s one of the cutest robots I have ever seen :)

  • Liz Burton said:

    He\’s brilliant – love the concertina arms :0)

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    Thank you Liz! I rather like those too!

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    @artsy_momma and they are not too big, so you can make a whole army of them!!!

  • maryanne @ mama smiles said:

    Your robot is adorable! We\’ll have to make some =)

  • Actually Mummy... said:

    Oh he is cute! Once again mine is a bit random, but they did craft!

  • Miya said:

    Witches ladders? You learn something everyday! Cute project.

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    @maryanne – thank you and we need to make MORE too!
    @actually mummy – I like random
    @miya – uhm, I THINK that that is what they are called! Maybe no!

  • Amanda said:

    That is one of the CUTEST robots I have ever seen!

  • Jenny said:

    Love your robot! He totally rocks. :)

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    @Amanda now that is a compliment coming from you – you are SO good at TP crafts!!!

    @Jenny THANK YOU :-)

  • Emma @Mummymummymum said:

    i love those Maggy, so cute!!!

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    Thank you Emma!

  • Maxine of the Magic Belles said:

    I think we\’ll be making a purple version in our house this weekend – purple is the colour of the moment! Having great fun catching up with all your posts after a busy few weeks! Thanks for the awesomeness ;-)

  • Brittany said:

    Your robot is too cute! My kids will love making this! Thank you for hosting! Have a great week! :)

  • Carolyn Wilhelm said:

    Wonderful. You are so creative and the photos with clear explanation make me sure I can try this, too. Thank you. Carolyn

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    Thank you all!! Hope you have fun making some!!

  • Veronica said:

    what a well done robot craft. It looks so good it\’s hard to believe it was so easy to make.

    -Veronica

  • Roopa@putti prapancha said:

    Love the robot! Looks so adorable:) And thanks for hosting the linky.

  • Aimee said:

    I love the robot ;-)

  • Jackie said:

    I\’m glad you brought the robot back. I remember reading a post about making a robot here but last year, I\’m not sure my son would have been ready. He\’ll love that idea this year… what a difference a year makes!

  • Red Ted Art (author) said:

    Oh yes, I agree!! A year makes a HUGE difference! I see it in both of mine all the time!

  • Ruth said:

    The robot is so totally cute! I\’ll be linking up while I\’m here as well! Thank you!

  • Ruth said:

    have linked up BUT failed to manage to paste your button code. I just cant get my poc to recognise the box, any chance you could email it to me? Thanks!

  • Crystal @ Growing A Jeweled Rose said:

    This robot is too cute!!! We will ahve to make some robots some time soon! Thanks for the link-up also!

  • creativejewishmom/sara said:

    Love your robot! I think my boys would love it too…..thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling sunday, great to be back!

  • 366 Sunday | Actually Mummy... said:

    [...] This week, as we have done some (admittedly random) crafting, I am also linking this post up to Red Ted Art’s Kids Crafts. [...]

  • Recycled Crafts: Robots « The Crafty Kitty said:

    [...] Yesterday Lily had her friend Archie over and we decide to make robots! I had looked the previous night, on the Red Ted Art blog and perused the cardboard tube art posts and found this great idea for a robot. [...]

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