Every little girl loves a fairy princess castle to play with and so I
designed a simple version using all recycled materials you have at home to make
for a toddler & can be made and remade as necessary.
Sitting
down with my daughter and sister in law to make this craft was one of the most
enchanting ways to spend a rainy afternoon! All we needed were:
- Toilet Paper Tubes
- Scraps of Paper
- Glue
- Scissors
- Markers or 3D Paint Pens
- Double Sided Sellotape, regular tape, Glue Stick
- Cereal Box
- Straws/ sticks
Optional things you might need: glitter or any colourful craft supplies and play accessories
like butterflies, Lego people, dolls, sand..etc.
For this castle we used all kinds of crumpled & leftover pinks and pastel tissue paper.
We recycled some stripey paper bags from Harry Ali (these striped paper bags are so cute for parties and great to craft with afterwards!), some regular colored paper and card and even wrapping paper.
The first step is to cover your toilet paper tubes with the paper.
You can use glue or double sided table to tape down the paper and hide any extra length of paper inside the tube.
For the roofs, just fold your scrap card or thick paper into a cone
shape and glue or tape in place. You'll probably need to cut it to fit, so have
some fun making jagged or scalloped edges around the tower roof.
Attach the roof to the tower by sticking some double sided tape into the roof and sitting it on the tube tower so its secure. Of course you can skip this step if your tot prefers to lift off the roofs to place a little fairy or Lego person inside!
To make the windows you can just draw them onto the paper covered tubes, or get a bit more creative making 3D windows with puffy paint. You can do this by drawing various window shapes and door shapes with your
marker/3D paint pen on a piece of card and leave to dry. Cut out the window and glue onto the
towers. 
To make the tiny steps leading up to the doors, you can fold up a long thin piece of paper (I used a paint sample sheet) to create the steps. Just glue or tape below the doors then.
I taped some paper I had to a straw to make flags
but you could equally use sticks or rolled paper as flag posts.
Finally... Cover your cereal box and make a gateway by cutting into the cardboard.
Assemble the castle towers, flags roofs and windows and if you like add some
butterflies or glitz or other crafty bits you can find in a euro shop or craft
center to the castle!
Here's some photos of the finished Princess Castle! Can you believe these were once plain old toilet paper tubes!? Keep an eye out soon for the boys version of this castle!
Craftea Tip! Depending on
the age of your tot - you could add some play sand, dry rice or lentils, small
toys or people for a super sensory experience too!
