DIY Toilet Paper Roll Patriotic Blower
Updated on February 23, 2021
Where I come from, a little patriotism goes a long way. By that, I mean people take a lot of pride in showing off bits of Americana here and there around their homes that celebrate their country and the ideals of freedom that come with it! I’ve often incorporated that theme into my crafting but lately I’ve been looking for ways to get my kids in on the fun too so that we have new ideas to try around Independence Day. That’s how I came up with these adorable patriotic blowers or wind socks made from empty toilet paper rolls!
I let the kids go wild with theirs while I made a nice, neat version so I could show other parents how we did it. Check out these step by step instructions complete with photos! If you’d rather follow along with a video tutorial instead of written words, scroll to the bottom of this post to find just what you’re looking for.
For this project, you’ll need:
- An empty toilet paper roll
- Blue paper
- Scissors
- A glue stick
- White paint
- A paintbrush
- Crepe paper (white and red)
Step 1: Gather your materials!
Make sure you have everything you need before starting.
Step 2: measure and cut
Line the bottom edge of your empty toilet roll up with the bottom edge of your blue construction paper in one corner, with the paper held landscape. Use your scissors to make a horizontal cut where the top edge meets the page to mark the height of the roll. Move the toll and cut all the way across the paper to get a rectangle the width of the page but the height of the roll,
Step 3: glue
Apply glue down the length of the roll and stick down the shorter edge at one end of the blue paper rectangle. Wrap the paper all the way around the roll until it meets your end again. Trim the excess, leaving a little bit of overlap, then apply glue on top of the end you already glued down and stick your second end over it. Your whole toilet roll is now blue!
Step 4: make the streamers
Cut a half inch wide piece from one end of your roll of red crepe paper and then do the same with the white crepe paper. When you unroll these, you’ll see that you have a very long, continuous strip of each. Before you unroll anything all the way, glue one end of the white to the inside of one end of your toilet roll and one end of the red. Next, start unrolling the crepe paper on the end of each and cutting equally sized strips like streamers; I made each of mine about five inches long for a fun fringy look. Once you’ve got all your strips cut, glue one end of each inside the same end of the toilet roll as you did the first white and red strips. Spread them out all around the inner circle and mix white and red all together. Now you have streamers like a proper wind sock you’d hang on your summer porch!
Step 5: paint the stars
Use your paintbrush to paint little white stars scattered all over the blue paper of your toilet roll! You now have all the colours and shapes representing the American flag incorporated into your patriotic blower.
That’s all there is to it! Try hanging your blower in the window or on the porch so the streamers sway and rustle in the breeze. Just in case you’d like to try this project out for yourself, here’s a fantastic tutorial video to help you!