Reusing a Paper Tube

My daughter got a bow & arrow during our last summer trip. She wanted to get a holder for her arrows as well, but I convinced her we could make a better one at home using a paper tube that we had in the garage. And that is how this project started.

First I grabbed all the material we needed:

• paper tube
• lid of a medium margerine tub
• string (old bag handle)
• scrap paper
• glitter glue
• paint
• brush
• scissors 
• hot glue gun
• newspaper

Then we needed to get the paper tube to be the correct size. I asked my husband to cut the tube in half and that took care of the size -- it was long enough to hold the arrows for her.

After that I covered an area in our garage with newspaper, defining our work area, and we followed the steps below to create a personalized container for my daughter's arrows :

1. Remove labels from paper tube
2. Paint tube and let it dry
3. Decorate tube using scrap paper, glitter glue and other favorites - let it dry
4. Cut the rim off the margerine tub lid to fit the bottom of the tube
5. Slit three rectangles (like you see in the picture) to tuck in the tube and hold the lid a bit better
6. Put one end of the string in (to get it secured under the lid), lid on, and glued the lid applying hot glue between the lid and the tube
7. Paint the bottom and let it dry
8. Use hot glue gun to attach the other end of the string inside the top of the tube
9. Done!

My daughter was very happy with the result and I was very proud of our successful project!

There are so many cool things you can make with paper tubes. Check out this video about different wonderful projects, including modern buildings and temporary housing, that architect Shigeru Ban created and documented since he started to experiment with ecologically-sound building materials, such as cardboard tubes and paper, in 1986. Very nice!




Recycle Brevard!