Family Fun Magazine strikes again! So...I had been saving our toilet paper and paper towel tubes all summer thinking that Logan's pre-school teacher would want them like Mrs. Jenn did last year. Well....no dice. She said she'll send out a message if they have a project in mind, but that she doesn't have much storage right now. I figured I would either save them for a future need or go ahead and put them in recycling. Literally, that same day, I got my monthly Family Fun Magazine and found an article all about crafts made with paper tubes. Not only did they have some fun ideas, but they had the PERFECT craft for all of the little trinkets the boys (namely Aiden and his lizards/frogs/worms) collect here and there.





Here is the picture of the magazine. The plan: cut tubes short enough to fit inside of a shoe box with the lid on. Dip one end of each tube lightly in glue, press into rows filling up the whole box, decorate and voila!
I'm pretty sure they used a Stride Rite box because the one I had laying around looked remarkably like the picture in the magazine. I only had one so I sacrificed a good-sized Yahtzee box for Logan. Here is our test to make sure we had enough tubes. I wrapped the box tops in plain paper. Logan sort of lost interest after the glue part was finished, so Aiden and I did all the art work. Aiden requested a fish, a basketball and a lizard on his. I think my lizards need some work!

Oops...side-ways picture! Logan got a rocket, a fish and a "pillow" that Aiden drew (the rainbow looking number on the side).

The absolute best part of this craft was going through the playroom hunting for treasures. We seem to have quite a few key chains laying around! Other items of interest: mini flashlights, extra special cars, small wind-up toys and the little pieces to some of Logan's star wars action figures that are easily lost in the shuffle. The boys love pulling these out and playing with the little treasures inside which is a second bonus because most of this stuff was previously just taking up space.

Again I say...Family Fun...genius.