Toilet Paper Roll Crafts: Recycled Monster Treat Holders

Every time I throw out empty toilet paper rolls,  I think “I should do something useful with these!”

Well, today I did! And I enlisted the help of my kids. Win/win!  You wouldn’t think these colorful, treat holdin’ characters were once used to dispense toilet paper!

I bet you already have the supplies on hand to make your own toilet paper roll crafts!

Supplies needed to make your own monster toilet paper roll crafts:

• Empty Toilet Paper Rolls
• Acrylic Craft Paint (your choice of colors)
• Moveable (Googly)  Eyes
• Washi Tape
• Acrylic Pom Poms
• Chenille Stems (pipe cleaners)
• Foam Brush
• Hot Glue Gun/Glue Sticks & Scissors
• Decorative Edged Scissors (pinking shears, etc)
• Scrap of White Cardstock
• Clear Treat Bags
• Ribbon (for treat bags)

The first thing you want to do is cut your toilet paper roll crafts. Decide what you would like for your “monster” and trim it accordingly.

Some ideas I used: Trimming the monster’s “hair” with decorative edged scissors.

Trimming by just making jagged edges with regular scissors.

Rounding the top of the toilet paper roll to create a big “mouth” on the top.

I had fun cutting “mouths” in the middle of some of the rolls. This was pretty easy to do. Fold the roll slightly, and snip into the roll with your scissors to start a hole.

Fold the roll back out, and using the scissor snip- cut a circle shape. Or oval. Or triangle. Or whatever! It’s your monster!

When you have all of your cuts made, you can begin painting your toilet paper roll crafts.

Keep in mind, there will be treat bags covering up the inside of the monster toilet paper roll crafts – so you don’t need to spend time painting the insides.

The easiest way I found to paint them, was to insert a couple of fingers into the roll-that way you can rotate the roll as you paint.

An even easier way- if you are wanting to mass produce a whole bunch of monsters would be to string all the rolls on a piece of yarn, and spray paint them!

Allow the paint to dry, then begin adding details.

You can bend chenille stems and pom poms  into fun antenna eyes.

Cut some white cardstock with decorative edged scissors for some funky teeth.

Washi tape is an easy way to add character to your monster toilet paper roll crafts .

Chenille stems and pom poms make great alien arms too!

Mix and match googly eyes! Get creative!

Then, fill your treat bags with whatever you would like.

Tie the treat bags with ribbon, and insert into finished toilet paper roll crafts.

Enjoy your little treat monsters!

And feel good about recycling what would have otherwise been trash.

Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).