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Whooo Wants To Create Their Own Cardboard Owl?

Updated: Jan 24, 2020

Now is a great time of year to get outside and search for owls.

Photo by Sara Russell

Don’t forget to bring “owls” inside, too. Make your own owl ornament to decorate with this season! Here are step-by-step directions to create your own owl from cardboard.


Materials

Photo by Sara Russell
  • Toilet paper tube

  • Paint (Acrylic paint covers well.)

  • Paint brush

  • Scissors

  • Thin cardboard (We used corrugated for the texture.)

  • Heavy white paper

  • Marker

  • Glue

  • Twine or yarn

  • Hole punch, a nail or something sharp to poke a hole through cardboard

  • Twig

Directions


1. Paint the toilet paper tube whatever color you like best. (We picked red.) Let it dry completely.


2. Flatten the tube. Cut about one-fourth of the tube off, then round out the bottom to look like a half circle.

Photo by Sara Russell

3. Punch two pairs of holes at the bottom, on the half circle end of the tube.


4. Cut out shapes in the cardboard: a diamond for the owl tufts and a circle for the belly.


5. Fold the diamond tuft in half so it looks like a triangle.


6. Cut out shapes in the heavy white paper: two circles for eyes and a narrow triangle for a beak.


7. Using a marker, color eyelashes on the eyes. (We used a black marker.)


8. Using a marker, color in the nose. (Again, we used black.)


9. Arrange cardboard and paper shapes on the tube. Glue on the belly in the middle of the tube first, then the tuft over the top of the tube, then the eyes and the beak.

Photo by Sara Russell

10. Loosely string twine through the holes and then slide a twig through the loops. Arrange it so the owl can stand up. Now it looks like the owl’s talons are griping the twig.


11. Want to make it a hanging ornament? Make sure the twine is long enough to create a hanging loop.

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