Egg carton goldfish craft

Make an egg carton goldfish craft in a few simple steps. This is a fun recycling craft idea for kids of all ages!

*This recycling craft was first published in 2019 and has been updated and reshared for today’s audience

You might also like our paper roll fish craft.

When I was in grade six I had the coveted job of  “Goldfish monitor”. This was a fancy title for feeding our class pet, Freddie—an exotic-looking thing with a frilly tail and bulging balloon eyes. 

Last week I was struck by how similar a simple egg carton cup looks to a round goldfish body, with slits exactly where the tail and fins should be.

It took me back to my days as a year six goldfish monitor and I decided to re-create our beloved class pet. He looked a lot like this, only Freddie’s eyes were even BIGGER and more bulgy.

You can make a fish just like Freddie with our tutorial – super simple and you will never need to feed it!

To make this craft, you only need basic supplies most people who enjoy crafting already have at home. You can get pom poms and pipecleaners in bulk packs (affiliate link) on Amazon or at your local dollar store. Tacky craft glue (affiliate link) is recommended because regular school glue or PVA is unlikely to be strong enough to hold these to the egg carton. 

Alternatively and for a more eco-friendly option, you could use our free printable googly eyes and draw or paint a mouth on. Your goldfish’s eyes won’t be as bulgy but they will still be cute!

How to make an egg carton goldfish craft

 

You will need:

• Egg carton
• Orange or yellow paint
• Tissue paper in the same colour as your paint
• Small white pom poms (ours are about 1.5cm in diameter)
• Very small black pom poms (ours are 5mm diameter)
• Pink pipe cleaner
• Tacky craft glue (affiliate link)

How to:

Cut out a middle egg cup. It can’t be an end cup because there is no gap where one of the fins should be and your goldfish wouldn’t be able to swim very well.

Trim the egg cup so it has a smooth rounded edge.

Paint it orange or yellow (or whatever colour you want it to be). Allow to dry.

Cut a piece of tissue paper into three pieces. Two smaller pieces (for the fins) and one larger piece (for the tail). The size is flexible, but as a guide our tail  piece is around 13cm x 10cm, and the fins 6cm x 10cm.

Scrunch them from the middle, then glue into the slits, puffing the end of the paper fins and tail out to look frilly just like Freddie’s fins.

Turn fish the right way around and glue on the white pom pom eyes, followed by the mini black pom poms in top of the white ones.

Cut the pink pipe cleaner in half, then wrap it around your finger so it looks like an “O”. Glue into place.

All done!

Such a cute and easy goldfish craft! Now you just need to name your fish.

More ocean-themed crafts you might like:

• Make a paper roll fish with this simple squash and cut technique
• These seahorse puppets are also made from paper rolls
• Here are 14 Ocean animals you can make from paper plates
• Check out this amazing round up of Ocean crafts and activities from bloggers around the world
• My girls loved making some paper roll mermaids back when they were pre schoolers