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The Craft Train

Crafty ideas for kids and parents

You are here: Home / Crafts and Activities / Holiday Crafts / Carboard Tube Love Bugs

Carboard Tube Love Bugs

January 20, 2023 By Kate Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no cost to you.

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Make a super sweet paper roll love bug craft for Valentines day.

This is a fun craft to make with both preschoolers and older kids. It gives plenty of opportunity for kids to add their own creative license by decorating their love bugs however they like.

This craft was originally created as a guest post for Red Ted Art in 2015. It’s been updated and reshared for today’s audience.

Y0u might also like these pebble love bugs

paper roll love bug craft for kids

The wonderful thing about love bugs is how unique each individual is. In fact, not two paper roll love bugs are the same!

As you can see, when I made these with my daughters they enjoyed it so much we got a bit carried away, ending up with an entire swarm of bugs. Aren’t they cute?

All you need to make some are paper rolls (either empty toilet rolls or paper towel rolls) and some basic craft supplies. When you get to the decorating part anything goes – use whatever supplies you have on hand in the cupboard and get creative with it.


How to make paper roll love bugs

Basic Supplies

  • Paper rolls cut to any size you like (ours were pre-painted)
  • Paint
  • Googly eyes — or use our free printable paper eyes for a more eco-friendly version
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Beads
  • Construction paper
  • Tacky craft glue
  • Marker pens
  • Scissors
  • Skewer

Optional Extras

  • Pom poms
  • Glitter or glitter glue pens
  • stickers
  • Washi tape

How To

Paint your cardboard tubes and allow them to dry. You can cut them down to a shorter length to create some smaller bugs if you like. We happened to have some ready-painted rolls stashed away in the craft box so we could get straight to the decorating.

painted paper rolls

Poke six holes with a kitchen skewer for the pipe cleaner legs to go through – that’s three down each side. Simply poke the skewer in one side and out the other three times (note- this part is best done by an adult unless you have older kids).

poking holes in the paper roll

Cut two pipe cleaners in half to get four pieces (but you will only be needing three of them). Thread your three pieces of pipe cleaner through the holes to make six legs, and then attach a small bead to each end of the pipe cleaners to create hands and feet.

You are now ready to add the details. Decorate the body with stickers, washi tape, plastic gems, markers, glitter glue etc.

To create the wings and antennae fold your piece of construction paper in half and draw a medium-sized heart for the wing shape and a small heart with a stem coming from the bottom for the antennae. Cut these out while the paper is folded in half so that you get two of each shape. Glue on the googly eyes and construction paper shapes last of all and leave to dry.

paper roll love bugs steps

You’re finished!

finished paper roll love bug craft

The girls loved this so much that we made lots of them!

group photo of paper roll love bugs

love bug craft for kids

love bug craft for kids

You can never have too many love bugs.

More cardboard tube craft ideas

  • Make a cardboard tube shaker for a fun musical instrument!
  • Create some cute dinosaurs from cardboard tubes
  • Makes some frilled-neck lizards from cardboard tubes for Australia Day
  • Make some cardboard tube mermaids for the kids to play with
  • This paper roll fish is a classic! So very simple and fun to make

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  • Kate GronoKate GronoCrazy Craft Fanatic

    I’m basically a big kid who never grew up and still loves to muck around with paint, glitter, glue and toilet rolls. With the crafts shared here on this website I’m hoping to give other parents and carers inspiration to get crafty with their kids at home – make our projects, or use them as a source of inspiration to spark ideas of your own. When it comes to crafting no rules apply!

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