Recycled Cardboard Tube Owls

I love owls. They are one of my favorite animals. I had lots of scraps of colored fleece fabric that I knew would make cute, tiny outfits. Plus, once you bend in the top of a cardboard tube, it looks just like owl ears!

• Recycled cardboard tubes (toilet paper)
• Scissors
• Fleece fabric scraps
• Hot glue or fabric glue or school glue
• White paint (tiny amount)
• Sharpie marker

To make one large owl and two small owls, I used two toilet paper tubes. Cut one of the tubes in half to make the small owls. Simply press down the top on each side to make the ears.

Paint two white circles for the eyes. Once the paint is dry, use a black Sharpie marker to color the center of the eyes. Cut out a triangle from fleece fabric and glue it on for the nose.

Cut a strip of fleece long enough to go around the cardboard tube. Hot glue it together in the back, but make sure it does not get glued to the cardboard tube. This way you can easily change your owl's outfits. Tuck the extra fabric into the bottom of the tube and then trim around the base there. When your owl is sitting up, the bottom edge of the fabric should line up with the bottom edge of the tube.

Cut oval shaped pieces of fleece for the wings. I like to use a small oval and a slightly larger oval stacked together for a more colorful and thick wing. Cut stripes for the front of the body to represent the feathers on an owl's belly. Hot glue all of these pieces onto the main fabric.

The baby owls are a simplified version of the larger owl. Use only one layer for the wing and put only one stripe (or oval) on the belly. They are so cute. :)

You can make several outfits of different colors. They easily slip on and off the owl. You can roll up and store the extra outfits inside the cardboard tube. (Another idea: This is an easy gift to mail to a friend. Simply slip the fleece outfit into an envelope and mail. Then your friend can put it on their own owl.)

Here are some examples of different color patterns that look good together.

So cute.

I took my owls outside to photograph them in nature.