Craft TuesD.I.Y with Lisa Lopez: Paper Towel Roll Spiders and Bats!

Making cute little spiders and bats out of toilet paper and paper towel roll tubes is a fun, eco-friendly craft that results in personalized Halloween decor your kids can display proudly around the house! They are quick and easy to make and your child will have a blast bringing these critters to life.


Materials you will need for this craft:

• Empty Paper Towel or Toilet Paper rolls

• Black Pipe Cleaners

• Googly Eyes

• Glue

• Hole Puncher

• Construction Paper

• Paint/brushes

• Anything you want to dress your spider/bat up with: glitter, fuzzy pom pom balls, etc.

1) Paint the paper tube black, or whatever color you desire. For the spider, you will need to punch two holes on each side of the roll, on the top of the roll and the bottom, resulting in 4 holes on the top and 4 holes on the bottom.

2) Thread the pipe cleaner through the two holes and tie just once, then bend several times. Repeat this a total of 4 times to create 8 legs.


3) Glue the googly eyes on, then decorate the spider as desired. You may opt to use the paint to make a face, or cut it out of the construction paper.


*To make a paper towel roll bat, cut 2 wings out of black construction paper, fold paper at the edge and glue wings to the roll. Then cut 2 small triangular pieces for the ears and glue them on as well. Paint and decorate as desired.


Finally, you can tie a string to the top of each roll and hang the bat or spider as spooky decor, attach a popsicle stick to each and use them as puppets, or stand them up alongside your jack o lantern for an added touch. This is a great activity that you can do with your child each Halloween -- and toilet paper/paper towel rolls can also be used to make all sorts of crafty animals anytime of year!