Fun kids' crafts using paper towel tubes

Looking for something fun and creative to do with your child? Paper towel tubes are among the many things that convert well to entertaining children and sparking their imaginations. This common household item makes a super toy and craft material and is usually stronger than toilet tissue rolls, so don't throw them out. Here are six kid-pleasing ideas that require little more than tubes, tape, glue, and scissors:

Make a fort by taping cardboard rolls together vertically to form a square and leaving an opening on one side to serve as a door. The size of the fort will depend on the number of tubes you have and the amount of space.

Fashion a log cabin by taping tubes together horizontally and taping ends together to form a square. Cut a door and add a roof made of flat cardboard. Leave the roof unattached so that children can remove it and set their toy figures inside the cabin.

Make Easter egg holders by cutting cardboard tubes crosswise into sections. Children can decorate the sections with poster paints or washable markers and then set their Easter eggs on the pretty rings. Use the same basic technique to let the kids create their own decorative napkin rings.

For sandbox play, supply toddlers and preschoolers with a selection of tubes cut in different lengths. They can stick tubes in the sand and build whatever they come up with.

Create a safe magic wand for a toddler by taping or gluing a construction paper star to one end of a cardboard tube.

Make music with a simple flute. Use a pencil to punch four holes in a line in a cardboard tube. Secure wax paper to one end of the tube with a rubber band. A child can make music by humming into the open end of the flute.

Your child will have fun making these creative toys from paper towel tubes, and then spend hours happily playing with their new creations.