Easy Bee toilet paper roll craft {low mess}
Have empty toilet paper rolls around? Don’t toss them away – transform them into buzzing bees and let the crafting fun begin!
This cute bee toilet paper roll craft is a great way to upcycle your old toilet roll tubes. This craft is also low mess for when you don’t want a lot of clean up.
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Bees are always a fun craft to make with kids whether you’re learning about bees or just want a fun spring craft.
And don’t worry if you don’t have any old toilet rolls around…you can purchase craft tubes to use as well!
So, grab your toilet rolls or craft tubes and let the crafting adventure begin!
Supplies
- Toilet Roll or Craft Tube
- Yellow Paint Stick or paint
- Black Washi Tape
- Black Pipe Cleaner
- Googly Eyes
- Black Marker
- Masking Tape and/or Glue
- Printed Wing Template
If you don’t have old toilet paper roll tubes or don’t want to use them you can buy a pack of craft tubes in brown or white.
How to make a toilet roll bee
1 – Your first task is to make your toilet roll or craft tube yellow. There are several ways to do this.
My favorite, low mess, method is to use a paint stick. They clean up easily, can’t be spilled, and they dry fast so kids aren’t waiting forever for paint to dry.
Another option is of course to paint them with some yellow paint.
Or, some people also like to wrap their tubes with colored construction paper but that’s a bit difficult for small kids.
2 – Next, add some cute black stripes.
We did this by using black washi tape to keep with our low mess theme…plus painting stripes on a round object is hard for younger kids.
Each stripe needs to be about 5″ long. Cut them just slightly longer if you want a little overlap.
We used this tape from Michaels. You should be able to make 4-5 bees with the roll of black tape.
The other black tapes I found were all a bit wider than ours (our tape was a bit less than .5 inches wide). You will need to make the stripes closer than ours if you use wider tape. Check out this one on Amazon.
If you want a different option you could cut strips of black construction paper and glue them around the bee.
3 – Now that your bees body is ready you need to add a cute little face.
We used googly eyes but you could draw the eyes on as well. Then, use a black marker or sharpie to give your bumble bee a happy little smile.
4 – You’re almost done! Give the bee antennae by using black pipe cleaners. I cut one pipe cleaner into thirds and used 2 pieces.
My favorite way to attach the pipe cleaners is with masking tape. Hear me out…it doesn’t show since it will be inside the toilet roll and you don’t have to wait for glue to dry and hope that it holds.
Simply place a piece on the back of each pipe cleaner piece, then push into place pressing firmly on the tape to secure the antennae.
5 – For the final touch, give your bee craft some cute wings. You can draw your own or use our template.
I like to use this sort of dog bone shape with the connecting piece in the middle so that you only need to glue one time. Simply center the toilet paper roll and stick it in place.
If no one is going to look at the back of the craft you can use masking tape to attach the wings, again no waiting for glue to dry.
But, if you want it to look nice from the back use some liquid glue to attach them and leave it flat until the glue dries.
Once it dries you are ready to display your cute and easy bee craft.
For more fun bee crafts check out our list of 15 Buzzworthy bee crafts for kids.
