TP Castle

Skills Required: scissor skills and creativity (medieval architecture skills would help, too...)
Time Required: 15 minutes, plus painting

Materials:
A bunch of Toilet paper rolls, Paper towel rolls, and any other paper cylinder you can find.
a scrap or chipboard (cereal box, etc.)
Scissors
Tape or hot glue

Instructions:
1. Cut the tops of each roll with castle tower-top design. I did ten slits and then cut off every other square.
2. Paint the Castle your desired colors (I did this after assembly, and it was really difficult to paint in the corners)
3. Arrange the rolls like a castle. I had a hard time with this at first, but then I just thought, if it were my castle, I'd want high walls all around with several higher towers as well. So, I just put mine mostly in a circle, then put some small ones resting above and to the side of others. Do it however you like, though! Leave a gap in the middle front for the drawbridge.
4. Cut a piece of chipboard to be about the height of your walls. Cut out doors in the front center.
5. Tape or hot glue it all together. Hot glue would be more sturdy, but Tape was our choice so that the kids could help.
6. Play! of course, my Daughter was way better at decorating the castle than me! (and I promise she's never seen the Monty python where they launch livestock off the towers!)

milk jug helmet

Time needed: 10 minutes plus 15 minutes optional paint time
Skills needed: scissor skills
Materials needed:

• milk jug
• scissors
• acrylic paint
• paintbrush

So, this started when we had over this little friend who is all boy! He loves star wars most of all. Anyway, after we'd played with toys for an hour or two, I asked if they all wanted to do a craft together. Of course, he denied liking any sort of craft. Then, when I said we were making helmets, he got more excited than anyone! He specifically asked that his helmet look "Jango Fett" who apparently is the coolest star wars character even though I've never heard of him. So, we googled him and came up with this super sweet helmet (That my little friend adores!).

Super easy: Cut off the handle side of the milk jug. We had a hard time cutting it so it would fit over their heads even though the book I followed had a photo with kids heads fitting easily. In one of the helmets, I cut a curved slit in the back to make it more roomy.

Paint the helmet to any look you want. My daughter did a "princess" helmet. You could do camo, Army, NASA, etc.

Have fun!

TP roll binoculars

Time needed: 5 minutes
Skills needed: cutting and taping
Materials needed:

• 2 toilet paper rolls or 1 paper towel holder cut in 2.
• scissors
• tape
• yarn/string

We first saw these cute, easy binoculars at our church nursery. The kids love looking through them and they are SUPER easy! Tape together 2 TP rolls of the same size.
Cut a piece of yarn or string to about 18 inches or 2 feet. Tape it on opposite sides of the rolls.

Measure the length of the rolls on the paper of your choice and cut off enough that it will wrap around it. (11 or 12 inches is plenty)
Tape on the paper down on the inside so it won't slide off.
Then tape it on the outside.
Enjoy exploring!