Crafts

Crafts are a great addition to just about any Cub Scout activity. However, crafts don’t need to be just for Cubs. Some of these might be fun for older Scouts to do, but the real value to Scouts in older programs is for being a Den Chief, or volunteering at Pack events. Volunteering at Pack events could mean community service hours, and certainly helps for recruiting Webelos into future Troop members.

Scout Clothes Pins

Cut fabric pieces, paint round clothes up to the “neck” with navy blue. Have Scouts add faces with a Sharpie, paint the hair color, and glue the neckerchief in place.

Wood Cut Owls

Cut slabs of wood from a downed limb or small tree trunk, anywhere between 3-5 inches is ideal. Make the owl’s feet from brown pipe cleaners and attach with glue. Use a Sharpie to draw on the wings and the simple scalloped pattern will make the feathers. For the beak turn a yellow square of paper so it is diamond shaped and glue it into place. Glue circles of black and smaller circles of white paper. Then top the circles with buttons. to complete the eyes. If you want to, drill a small hole through the top and thread some string through it. This can be hung as a decoration, and can make a great Christmas ornament. 

Scout Law Turkey

Start with a 6-8 inch long piece of 2×4. Write the 12 points of the Scout Law on colored craft sticks. A simple beak and gobbler can be made from small pieces of felt. Add two googly eyes to finish the front. Once the glued on items have dried turn it over to attach the craft stick feathers. This example used a small staple gun to be fast, but a hot glue gun would work and will prevent cracking.

Sock Puppet

Take white socks, add yarn for hair and googly eyes. To make them easy use 3M double sided tape as the adhesive.

Classic Canteen Ornament

Start with wooden rounds and small wooden spools. Cut the wooden spools in half. Using a small wood screw affix the spool to the side of a wooden round, it may be helpful to drill a small pilot hole in the round. Spray paint the wood silver on all sides. Use a pattern to draw and cut out small fabric circles. Glue the fabric on each side of the wooden canteen. Unscrew the wood screw, and add a small length of chain on each end of the wood spool and replace the screw. Use ribbon and wood tacks to secure the canteen’s strap.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Ingredients

  • 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1 Cup Salt
  • 1 Cup Cold Water

Directions

  1. Mix flour and salt together.
  2. Add water a few tablespoons at a time, mix as you go.
  3. Knead dough for 10 minutes.
  4. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
  6. Roll out dough, and cut into desired shapes, (cookie cutters can be fine).
  7. Poke hole in dough (using a straw works well).
  8. Bake in oven until completely dry, about 2 hours.
  9. Let the ornaments cool completely.
  10. Paint the ornaments.

Craft Stick Catapults

Use craft sticks and rubber bands to the structure. Use a spoon or a glued on bottle cap for the bowl. Set out a few examples but let Scouts come up with their own designs. Dog food and cereal make great projectiles. They will break down in the rain or get eaten by critters. This is a craft that can be popular with Scouts BSA Scouts as well. The designs can be evaluated and changed as part of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activity as well.

Craft Stick Bow and Arrow

Cut a small notch on each side of one end of a craft stick. Repeat step one on the other end of the craft stick. Use a piece of dental floss for the bow sting. Tie it tight enough to create a bow shape and some tension but not so tight that it breaks the stick. Cut one end off of several Q-Tips for arrows.

Watermelon Fans

Fold a paper plate in half. Glue a craft stick between the two parts of the paper plate. Glue the edges of the paper plate together too. The picture above uses staples which would be faster than letting glue dry, but the glue looks nicer. Decide whether time or aesthetics are more important to you and your Scouts and go forth accordingly. Paint the fan to look like a watermelon slice.

Handy Cactus

Trace the Scout’s hand on green craft foam and cut it out to make your the cactus. Draw needles on your cactus with a Sharpie. Cut out a bowl and base for the flower pot with additional craft foam of a different color. Glue the cactus, pot, and base together. You can add pompoms, buttons, or balled up tissue paper for flower blossoms for your cactus.

Egg Crate Ladybug

Cut an egg carton into individual cups. Paint the cup red and then add black dots. Use fingerprints for the dots to make them unique and  special. Glue pipe cleaner antenna and googly eyes to a  black pom pom. When the paint dries glue the head and body together.

Dragonfly Clips

Paint a spring clothes pin for the body of the dragonfly. Glue on googly eyes to the clothes pin. Cut out wings from craft foam sheets and glue them to the clothes pin.

Q-Tip Skeleton

Cut several Q-Tips to various lengths; whole (uncut), in half, in thirds. Glue the Q-tips onto a piece of construction paper to make the skeleton. Glue on a cut out skull, this can be easily found by doing an internet search for “cartoon skull”. 

Lunch Bag Autumn Tree

Cut half way down a brown paper lunch bag ⅓ of the way in from each side. Cut from top down. Open the bag and glue the bottom to a similarly sized piece of cardboard for a base. Carefully twist the bag to form a trunk Then, twist the cut lengths of the bag to serve as branches. Glue on thumbnail sized bits of colored tissue paper for the tree’s leaves. When preparing the tissue paper it is better to tear it than cut it. The irregular tearing makes the tissue paper look more like actual leaves.

Camouflage Masks

Cut eye holes or a strip in a paper plate and a small hole on each side of the plate. Use a length of yarn to fashion a strap to hold the mask in place. Color the plate with an Earth toned crayon. Glue on leaves, grass, wild flowers, small sticks, etc.

Pine Cone Monsters

Use pine cones, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and glue to create fun little critters.

Paper Plate Critters

Paper plates and crayons are the base of these fun and easy animal designs. Add in some construction paper, glue, and googly eyes to make these crafts really pop!

Clothes Pin Pals

Use paint or markers to decorate clothes pins and turn them into these little guys. Googly eyes, yarn, craft foam, and other decorations make for fun additions. These characters are lots of fun to make and as simple as can be.

Homemade Neckerchief Slides

To make your own neckerchief use 2 inch wooden discs (I bought mine on Amazon). Cut ¼ inch PVC pipe into ½-¾ inch lengths. Have the Scouts use paint or markers to decorate their disc. Attach the wooden disc and piece of PVC pipe a hot glue gun.

Snowman Shooters

A simple craft that will be a big hit! Wrap a toilet paper roll with white card stock and glue it in place. Decorate the snowman with markers of paint, consider a piece of fabric or ribbon as a scarf. Cut the end off of a balloon and tie a knot in the end. Use a colorful balloon to make a cap, or a while balloon on the top or bottom of the snowman. You can make it a shooter by putting a cotton ball in the tube and pulling back on the balloon by the knot and letting it go!

Snowman Dangler

Use three wooden rounds, 3-4 inches in diameter and 1/4-1/2 inch thick, you can cut these yourself or purchase them. To connect them, you use a hot glue gun, or drill a hole in the top and bottom of each round and tie them with twine. If you have a hole in the top round you can tie a large loop to hang the snowman from or put a small eye hook in the top of the snowman. Use paint, markers, or craft foam to decorate the snowman.

This craft is very simple and the Scouts love it.

Salt Paintings

“Draw” a picture with glue. Make pictures, designs, or words with the glue. Then shake salt over the glue so that the glue is all covered.

When the glue is dried, shake the paper to remove any excess salt. Add color to the salt picture, by using water color paints, or mix some food coloring and water to make your own “paint”.

Ladybug Rocks

Find several smooth fairly flat round rocks. Paint them as ladybugs. You can have the Scouts paint on the eyes with white dots and smaller black dots for pupils. For a more silly touch use googly eyes instead of paint, they are always a hit.

Yarn Turtles

Hot glue three small craft sticks (3-4 inch long recommended). You can either buy green craft sticks or paint natural wood sticks. If painting them it would be good to have them painted, dried, and ready to use in advance for your Scouts. Have the Scouts add a face and a few dashes on four of the ends to make toes for your turtle.
Use either yarn or pipe cleaners to wrap around the center of the craft sticks.
Wrap another color of yarn around the turtle. Their are two ways to wrap. 1) Start by either going over the top or two sticks then loop around the second stick. Again, go past that wrapped stick and wrap around the second stick. 2) Start with the yarn and then go over one stick, then under the next, then over the next, and under the following. Repeat that pattern of over, under, over, under. After three or four times around your turtle, loop around the stick taking the yarn in reverse so that every stick has yarn on top of it. Keep either pattern going until you like the size of the turtle shell.
You can use all one color, or a variety of colors for a more colorful little guy.

Fire Breathing Dragon

Wrap a toilet paper tube with construction paper and glue it into place.
Attach a googly eye to a colored cotton ball. Make two of these.
Glue the two cotton balls with the googly eyes on one end of the tube, and two smaller cotton balls near the other end of the tube to make a nose.
Glue alternating strips of yellow, orange, and red tissue paper to the inside of the tube on the nose end of the tube.
If you have the Scouts blow into the tube, the air will make the tissue paper move in the wind to look line the fire is blowing.

Paper Bag Star

Decorate 8-12 brown paper lunch bags with paint, markers, or crayons. The bags can all have the same pattern or a different pattern on each bag. Make sure the Scouts decorate both sides of the bags as well as the inward folded sides.

On the open end of the bags, cut them to a center point.
Flatten each of the bags so that the bottom of the bag is flat and the rest is perpendicular making a T shape. Fold each side of the tops of the Ts down along the length of the bags. Put glue on the bottom sides of the Ts, and press those together creating a circle. Once the glue is dried, slightly open each bag to form the star.
Use a hole punch to make a hole at one end of one bag. String some cord through the hole so that you can hang the star.
These Scouts opted to not color their stars for a simple and natural look.