Princess Castle

 

What princess wouldn't love making such a pretty castle? We made it entirely for free the other morning with stuff we had around the house. And it was so quick, my early riser Nora and I had it finished before her sleepyhead brother even woke up at 7:30! I found this craft on a delightful post called "What Can You Make from Cardboard Tubes?" on The Crafty Crow. Check out this link, too, if you want to see how a young knight made his castle. As for us, we went all girly.

One gal's toilet paper roll is another gal's treasure. To make this castle you'll need:
two paper towel rolls
three toilet paper rolls
a pipe cleaner
paper
paint and glue and scissors

 

Step One: Cut the paper towel roll into three pieces: two pieces that are just slightly longer than the toilet paper rolls; and one short piece (about 2" high) for the door. (You'll see what I mean if you look at the top picture.) Cut the tops of the two long pieces to resemble turrets.

Two: Paint the cardboard tubes, if desired. (Or leave gray for a stone-castle-type look.)
Before the paint is dry, dip the edges of the tubes in glitter. Let dry.

 

Three: When tubes are dry, set them up the way you want them, and then glue along the points that touch. They'll be delicate until dry, but as long as they are touching while the glue is drying, they should hold up well when finished. Nora kept getting so excited to play with her castle that she'd pull it apart before it was fully dry, so we had to glue it a couple of times!

Four: Cut a small piece of construction paper into a half-oval for the door. We didn't have black paper, so we just colored a half-circle of white paper black with a pen. Allow your child to put the door on where she likes. Cut another piece of paper into a flag shape, and help your child affix it to the pipe cleaner (I folded it along the back and we taped it closed around the pipe cleaner). We used stamps to put Nora's name on the flag, but you can write whatever your child likes!

 

Five: Set up your castle and play. Nora played with her My Little Ponies all around it. It's still on our counter, looking good!