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A Happy Handmade Unicorn Craft

by Jean Van't Hul
January 26, 2015

A simple unicorn craft for kids made from toilet paper rolls. Plus a pegasus or three! And a way to weight the feet so they don’t tip over. The kids had so much fun making and playing with these!

A Happy Handmade Unicorn Craft for Kids Made from Toilet Paper Rolls

Some awesome blogger friends of mine have joined together to offer an eBook full of fun kids’ crafts.

Happy Handmade Kids Crafts eBook It’s called Happy Handmade and is just lovely—beautifully designed and filled with family-friendly craft projects.

I want to make almost everything in the book! Even the few ideas we’ve already done in some form or another, such as the tape-resist T-shirt and, of course, paper chain garlands (always a favorite!).

But my kids weighed in and voted for the toilet paper roll unicorns.

Because, well, they’re unicorns!

And because they have as much love for cardboard tubes as they do for unicorns. And as much love for toys and pretend play as they do for craft projects (more, probably). And because Daphne’s preschool is currently doing a month-long unit on magical creatures.

So unicorns it was.

A Unicorn Craft from Happy Handmade

Toilet Roll Unicorn Craft Insctructions

I printed out the pages with the unicorn craft instructions and we set to work.

making toilet paper roll unicorns

We had so much fun making these—and the kids have been enjoying playing with them.

We made a few little changes to ours and also made some pegasuses (pegasi?), so I thought I’d share a bit about our process here.

And then tell you how you can get this eBook…

Painting the toilet paper roll unicorns

How to Make Unicorns from Cardboard Tubes

Step 1: Cut out the unicorn pieces

For our unicorns, we used both toilet paper rolls as well as paper towel rolls cut into thirds. The template provided in the eBook made it easy to know how to cut out the unicorn pieces from the cardboard tubes. And while the instructions said to cut the head and horn from cardstock, we just used the extra cardboard from the toilet paper rolls and it worked fine.

Step 2: Paint the cardboard unicorn pieces

We painted all of our unicorn cardboard pieces with acrylic paint.

Step 3: Glue the unicorn together

Then, I set up the glue gun.

making toilet paper roll unicorns

The instructions said to use tacky glue to assemble the pieces, but I didn’t have any (what kind of art studio am I running, anyway?!), but my motto is that when it’s at all possible to use a glue gun, a glue gun shall be used.

So easy! So quick! So fun!

making toilet paper roll unicorns

Both kids are handy with a glue gun but I ended up doing the gluing while they were running around making noise and acting like animals.

Using a glue gun can be therapeutic and help you tune out the chaos around you…

Anyhoo… I digress…

Step 4: Add details

making a toilet paper roll pegasus

We added wings to some of our unicorns to turn them into pegasuses.

DIY Unicorns - Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids

Daphne drew her faces on her unicorn and pegasus…

DIY Unicorns - Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids

…but Maia and I went with the googly eyes suggested in the eBook.

Adding weights to the toilet paper roll unicorns

The lightweight unicorns were a tad top heavy and tippy, so I glued some yard sale buttons to the insides of the feet as weights. A total hack, but it worked well!

Step 5: Play with your new cardboard unicorns!

Playing with the Unicorns and Pegasuses

Once the unicorns and pegasuses were finished, the girls played with them.

Playing with the Unicorns and Pegasuses

And it turns out that the hollow toilet paper roll construction makes them perfect as steeds for figurines!

Kristoff Riding a Unicorn

Even Kristoff took a ride on a unicorn.

A Happy Handmade Unicorn Craft for Kids made with toilet paper rolls

What do you think? Would you like to make some toilet paper roll unicorns?

Happy Handmade Kids Crafts eBook

You can learn more about the eBook or buy a copy for your family here.

Besides the unicorn craft (which comes from Kate of The Craft Train), the Happy Handmade ebook has lots of other fun kids crafts by creative bloggers including MollyMoo, Babble Dabble Do, Meri Cherry, Art Bar, Pink Stripey Socks, willowday, Small for Big, and others.

Enjoy!

Want more fun kids crafts that are also toys that kids can play with after they make them? Here are 21 Craft Ideas for Kids to Make then Play With.

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A simple unicorn craft for kids made from toilet paper rolls. Plus a pegasus or three! And a way to weight the feet so they don't tip over. The kids had so much fun making and playing with these! #kidscrafts #preschoolers #creativehome #kidsactivities #artsandcrafts #craftsforkids #recycledcraft #unicornparty

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