Winter Craft: Toilet Paper Roll Icicles

The other day, after weeks of damp, grey weather, the sun showed its beautiful face and melted some of the snow on our roof. The result was a dazzling display of icicles clinging to our eaves, which was truly magical to see. It was amazing to think that something so simple could captivate us and lift our spirits, and it inspired me to create a similar display for indoors to perk up our spirits when the grey and dreary weather returns.

Because we’re staying at home these days and crafting with things that we have on hand, I turned to one of our favourite materials — toilet paper rolls — to make our indoor icicle display.

I suspected toilet paper rolls would make terrific icicles because I had used paper towel rolls in a similar way to make these Canada Day wind spinners a few years ago. All I would need to do is paint my toilet rolls in cool icy colours.

I’m happy to say that my icicles turned out beautifully. They're quick and easy to make, and they look so pretty strung across our dining room window. Gather up a few toilet paper rolls, pick your paint colours and I’ll show you how to make them.

What You'll Need:

• toilet paper rolls (one per icicle)
• paint
• paint brushes
• pencil
• string
• scissors

Looking for more toilet paper roll crafts? Try this portable desk caddy — perfect for carrying to and from the dining room table for online school.

How It's Made:

Unfurl a toilet paper roll by peeling it open from one end to the other. Paint it, front and back, with a mix of white paint and another soft colour. We blended white and light shades of periwinkle, blue, pink and aqua for our icicles.

Note: Painting the toilet paper roll will flatten it out. That’s OK, we will curl it back up in a minute.

Let the paint dry, and then cut the toilet roll lengthwise into three strips. These strips don’t have to be equal in size. In fact, you’ll achieve more natural results if you make some of your icicles a little wider or narrower than others.

Now it’s time to curl our strips into spirals. Lay a pencil across one of the pointed ends of one of your painted strips, and roll up snugly around the pencil.

Next, slide the rolled up strip off of the pencil, and gently stretch it into a spiral. Pierce or punch a hole in the top of the spiral and thread a length of string through. Form a loop, and knot to secure.

To hang your icicles, you can tape their strings directly to a window or you can tape a long length of string across the top of a window, and hang your icicles from it.