3 Egg Carton Critter Crafts

Does your family eat a lot of eggs? If they do, you may find you have too many empty egg cartons lying around your house and a lack of options for recycling.

A fun way to re-purpose is to create a fun egg carton critter craft project, fashioning them into creepy crawlies or cute pets.  Start with the three ideas below and you’ll soon have a barnyard full of egg carton critters.

Materials: 

egg cartons, cleaned
scissorsmarkers or paints
optional:  google eyes and glue
pipe cleaners

Use the scissors to separate the cups from the egg cartons, or pre-cut and keep a supply of separated cups on hand for impromptu craft time.

To make a ladybug, red egg cartons are a great base. If you don’t have this color carton, your child can color them red with markers or paint them with tempera paint. Using black paint, then make the head and spots on the ladybug’s back. Make a line down the cup to denote the split between the wings.

Make three holes on each side at the base of the cup and two on the head of the ladybug. Push black pipe cleaners through the holes to make the legs and half a pipe cleaner for the antennae. Draw eyes or glue a pair of google eyes onto the ladybug and allow dry time before play.

Spiders are made in a very similar manner. They don’t have to be a particular color, however, so you can leave them as they are or paint them. You decide how you want your spider to look. Rather than poking only three holes at the base of each side of the cup, you’ll want to make four holes since spiders have eight legs. Using pipe cleaners again, push them through the holes to make the legs. Draw or paint a face on the spider.

Make a bat using three egg carton cups which are still connected. The middle cup will remain intact while the outside will have part of the cup cut away to create wings. Decorate the face by painting it or using markers.

Optionally: To make the bat “fly,” poke a hole in the center of the middle cup and run a piece of yarn, fishing line or a rubber band through it. Make a knot at the end to keep it in the cup.

Experiment to make other animals and bugs from the egg cartons. Encourage their creativity and have fun with your recycled creations!