Easy Red Crab Toilet Paper Tube Craft

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I don’t know about you, but I love crafts that can be made from things I already have at home. This crab toilet paper tube craft is one of a series of crafts we have featured on our site–each one made of something we all have at home: empty toilet paper tubes!

If you’re doing summer unit study on ocean animals, or anything to do with crabs, the ocean, or the beach, include this fun and easy craft in your study! Hands-on crafts are a fun and easy way to spark interest in whatever you’re leaning about and make good memories in the process. Also, if you are studying any of those topics, keep scrolling after the craft tutorial–I’m going to some links to other learning activities that have to do with the ocean and the creatures who inhabit it!

If you want to make this activity more creative, feel free to make whatever changes you want to it! Below are just a few ideas for ways you can customize this craft.

10 Creative Ideas for Your Easy Red Crab Toilet Paper Tube Craft

  1. Use different colored paper.
  2. Change the shapes of the templates.
  3. Make it silly by adding extra eyes or arms.
  4. Use googly eyes.
  5. Write a funny story to go along with your crab craft.
  6. Write funny poems to go along with your crab craft.
  7. Make a family of crabs and act out an adventure with them.
  8. Practice your photography skills by taking some photos of your crab (or crab family).
  9. Pretend your crab can talk. Make one person the crab and one person a newspaper reporter. Have the reporter interview the crab about his life, where he lives, what he eats, etc.
  10. Have the crab interview the reporter to learn more about how people live, eat, do school work, have fun, etc.

How to Make Your Crab Toilet Paper Tube Craft

Supplies:

Here’s everything you need to make this craft at home!

Instructions:

To get started with this craft, the first thing you need to do is cut the cardboard TP tube in half, creating two short cylinders. You’ll only need one half of the roll per crab creation!

Next, use the crab templates provided (you’ll find the link in the supplies list above and at the end of this article) to cut out the shapes you’ll need for your crab craft.  To do this, just print out the templates, cut out the shapes, trace the template shapes onto the correct colors of cardstock, and cut them out.

OR , if you have a cutting device (such as Cricut Explore), you could use that to cut out the shapes by uploading the template  PNG images to your machine and sizing them as follows:

  • Claw pieces = 3 inches height
  • Red eyes = 1.5 inches wide
  • White eyes = 1 inch wide
  • Black eyes = 0.5 inches wide

After you cut out the template shapes, you’ll also want to cut another piece of paper to fit one of the TP tube halfs. This will probably need to be about 2 x 6 inches. We chose red for all of our crab pieces, but just choose whatever color of paper you want your crabby craft to be. Wrap and glue the piece of paper around the TP tube half so that it’s fully covered.

Next, take your chenille stem (AKA pipe cleaner) and cut it in half. Then bend one of the pieces in the middle to make a “V” shape.

Then you’ll put together your crab’s eyes by gluing the different circular pieces together. First, you’ll glue the black circles to the larger white circles, then you’ll glue the white circles onto the red circles. Glue each eye to one end of the V-shaped chenille stem.

A little eerie like that, isn’t it?  Don’t worry, it’ll be cute very soon! Attach the bottom part of the V-shaped chenille stem to the inside of the toilet paper tube using a piece of tape.

Now, all your grab needs is claws. Take the ones you cut out from the template pattern and bend them a little bit at the base before gluing them onto each side of the crab’s body. This way, the claws will stick out like they are waving at you!

Once everything is put together, allow your crab craft time to dry before you play with or display it!

CLICK HERE to Download Templates for this Craft from the Only Passionate Curiosity Store Page.

Find Related Resources to Go With This Craft, Below!

We love the ocean and its creatures here at Only Passionate Curiosity! Check out the links below for more ocean-related learning that your kids will love.

How to Make a Beach in a Jar 

Shark Printable Pack 

Ocean Animal Mini-Reports 

 

Free Ocean Activity Round-Up for Kids

This round-up features a collection of activities for kids that all involve the ocean in some way! There are even some other ocean creature crafts for your children to enjoy! Most of these are particularly great for younger kids!

The World’s Oceans

This resource is great if you are working with elementary-aged children! Use it to teach them all about the world’s various oceans.

Beach Bingo

This is a more just-for-fun resource that you can use on any upcoming beach trips you may have planned! It’s always a good idea to plan time for some fun family activities (like crafts and games) on vacation, and this free, printable Beach Bingo is perfect to throw in your beach bag.

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