Pages

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Ten Other Uses for Cardboard Paper Tubes

Before you toss those toilet paper and paper towel cores in the recycle bin, how about finding another use or two for them?  You can always toss them in the bin later.

1.  Art, kids or otherwise.  This framed flower is made completely of sliced, shaped  and partially painted cardboard tubes.

2.  Use them to organize, wrap and store scraps of ribbon. 

3.  Decorate them and seal one end for a fun upcycled storage idea (see my Upcycled Craft Closet post).

4. They are great way to add a "handle" to hallow items for ease of spray painting.  Then you can leave it to dry on the tube.

5.  Use them to start your seedlings; simply cut them in half and place them on an old baking sheet, fill with soil and drop in your seeds.

6.  Slice them up and decorate them with fabric, buttons or silk flowers to use as napkin rings.

7.  Paint them, sprinkle with glitter, add a layer of decoupage and turn them into earrings.

8.  Turn them into a toy for your small parrot, rabbit or rat.  They'll love to tear them up, toss them around and hide in them.

9.  Decorate them, close up the ends, add a ribbon and use them as a unique, personalized way to present small gifts.

10. Let the kids color and decorate them, glue two together, add a string and viola...binoculars.  Now take those binoculars and the kids outside and do some bird watching!

I'd love to hear your ideas for reusing cardboard tubes below.  Leave a comment and help us all reduce such a common household waste item.

7 comments:

  1. Awesome Kids Craft: Rain Makers=P Hold the tube Vertically. Seal the bottom end with a circular piece of sturdy paper and a rubber band. Still holding the tube vertically, poke toothpicks through the tube from one side to the other side into a spiral form or just anyway you want but close together. The more toothpicks the better the sound. Add 1/2 cup of rice or so. Cut all the access toothpick off. Seal the top like you did the bottom. Wrap the tube with construction paper, cloth, or wrapping paper to decorate it. Voila!! You have a rain maker! The rice trickles through the tooth picks and sounds like rain.
    HINT: The more tooth picks you add the longer it makes the sound before having to turn it over again. This is a neat activity/group to do with a group of kids. Then sit in a circle and talk about rain and have one child turn theirs upside down for a second and then have the next one in line do it and so forth so that the sound runs together. The sound is neat!! and its calming!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a wonderful sound to fall asleep to ! :) Thanks for sharing, Jennifer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We glue/tape them together to form roadways for our "cardboard city" this is how we reuse cereal boxes and anything made from cardboard. It's gotten pretty big so it's been moved from my son's room to the sun porch but every time his friends come over the first thing they want to do is add to it or play with it. Toy cars fit great in the tubes as roads or they also make great tree trunks...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's awesome! I love it. Thanks for sharing.

      Delete
  4. I've sliced them up, spray painted and added glitter and beads to make crowns for dolls!! tiaras, in fact, which my character dolls, the Dollivers, wore for a photo shoot for my blog on the last Royal wedding. But any doll can have one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's cute. And I don't think I've ever seen a tp roll crown.

      Delete
  5. Thanks for sharing such an amazing information about uses for Cardboard Paper Tubes. I read your all blog, and you explain everything very well with images. It’s such a great information for me and I learn many things from here.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...