Kids Craft: Turkey Canisters

This recycled kid’s turkey craft is perfect for Thanksgiving. All you need for this craft is a paper tube, an oatmeal canister and construction paper.

Each November, one of my favorite things to do is to log into Facebook and post what I’m thankful for each day. The first few days are easy for me as I rattle off the obvious. I am thankful for my son. I am thankful for my husband. I am thankful for my home. But as time goes on, it becomes a bit more difficult because it forces us to take time to think about all of the little things that we really do have to be grateful for. And while I can easily change a status update and announce to the world (well, at least to my Facebook crew) what I’m super appreciative of, as soon as the day is over, I all but forget about it – which really stinks.

In our home, there’s lots of love to go around, and lots of things to be grateful for, but to be honest, my husband and I tend to get so mired in our daily lives. Sometimes, the grind of two adults working 10-12 hours a day, trying to raise an active toddler, and keeping our house from all but falling apart is exhaustive – and that’s when we start to focus too heavily on the negatives. The “what we don’t haves”. Or, the pity parties. And truly, we have no reason for it, except that sometimes it’s easier to be crabby than happy.

So this year, I decided that we were going to start focusing more on the positive and less on the negative. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do this at first, but I knew that I wanted to write down the things that we were thankful for and store them some place safe to read together, as a family, at the end of the month. After searching around a bit online, I stumbled upon this blog post, DIY Thanksgiving Decor Made From Trash, over at earth911.com and fell in love with this adorable turkey canister idea, originally from I Love To Create.

I thought (key word: thought) this would be a great craft to do with my 2 ½ year old son…but I was wrong. It would, however, be an AWESOME craft for an older kiddo, or even one slightly less rambunctious than my own Toddler Tornado. And since I had everything on hand but the googly eyes, it oly cost a whopping $3.29 to make (and I could have made the eyes out of construction paper and then it would have been FREE!!). Even though this craft was too advanced for my little guy, I love how it turned out and I can’t wait to use it for years to come!

KIDS’ CRAFT: TURKEY CANISTERS

Materials:

A leftover canister – any size – cleaned out
Toilet paper roll
Brown construction paper
Red, orange, yellow construction paper
Glue/Tape (I used a combo of good old Elmers Glue, double-sided tape, and packing tape)
Scissors
Googly eyes (totally optional!)

Directions:

Step 1: Measure and cut the brown construction paper around your larger canister. Tape or glue down at the edges. It’s okay if they don’t match up (mine didn’t) – that can be the back! Once I taped the paper in place, I used a strip of clear packing tape to really hold the seam down. Set aside. Picture of canister wrapped in brown paper

Step 2: Do the same thing with the toilet paper roll: Picture of covered canister & TP roll

Step 3: Cut a small square of orange construction paper. Fold in half to make a beak. Cut a curvy red wattle (that’s the real term; I looked it up!) for under the beak: Picture of beak and wattle. Attach to the back of the beak with a small piece of tape or bit of glue and then attach the beak to the toilet paper roll.

Step 4: Add googly eyes. Mine didn’t have self-adhesive so I used a bit of glue.

Step 5: Find your toddler (or kid!). Ask them if they have two hands. Have them show you for proof: Ryan showing me his hands

Step 6: Trace both hands on all three pieces of colored construction paper: Picture of Ryan’s hands on the paper; picture of me tracing Ryan’s hands on the paper. Cut them out. Play around with arranging the hands on a flat surface before attaching them to the bigger canister: Picture of organizing the hands. Once I found an arrangement I liked, I laid down the toilet paper roll on top of the ‘feathers’ to figure out how close together the hands needed to be arranged so there wasn’t blank space between the ‘feathers’ and the ‘face’. Once you find an arrangement you like, attach the hands to the canister using glue or tape. I like tape because I could gently lay them down and rearrange before REALLY sticking them on: Picture of hands taped to canister. Try including your toddler, but beware that THIS is more likely to happen: Ryan playing with TP roll

Step 6: Once all of your “feathers” are on, it’s time to add your “face”! I used a strip of double sided tape to get an idea of where I’d like it to go, and then I used glue to keep it there. I held the toilet paper roll for a few moments and then found a safe place to lay down my whole canister to allow the glue to dry and prevent my turkey’s face from sliding down.

I love how my Tom Turkey turned out – he looks so happy! For our thankful cards, I’m just going to use white cardstock, but you could really go all out and get some pretty scrapbook paper. And while Dan and I will do this daily, I don’t know that I can get Ryan to come up with something every day – but we are going to try, and I cannot WAIT for the things he comes up with!