Toilet Paper Roll Crafts: How to Make Adorable Owl Napkin Rings

Have you ever wondered what kinds of crafts you can make with toilet paper rolls? In fact, have you ever made toilet paper roll crafts? They’ve been around for many years and there are so many creative ones out there. There seems to be a resurgence of them in popularity right now, so I decided to create one for a tablescape I’ve designed. Thus, this post, Toilet Paper Roll Crafts: How to Make Adorable Owl Napkin Rings, was born!

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The Birth of an Easy Paper Craft Project

Years ago, when I first stumbled upon toilet paper roll crafts on Pinterest, I just had to create one myself, so I designed and made napkin rings. You can read about this first endeavor here: How to Make Napkin Rings for Paper Napkins (shhhh…from toilet paper rolls!).

Anyway, recently, inspiration struck yet again and I decided to design a tablescape featuring owls in honor of the barn owl, Barney, who has taken up residence in our new owl nesting box. If you missed that post, you can read all about it here: The Remarkable Barn in the Sky + 42 Types of Owls.

Want to see Barney? Here’s a video:

Anyway, I dug through all my Christmas decorations looking for owl decor I’ve collected over the years to use to decorate my table. But, what about napkin rings, I wondered? Then, like a bolt of lightning out of the sky, it hit me – I’ll make owl napkins rings out of toilet paper roll tubes with super cute owl designs. The end result of all this brainstorming brought about the finishing touches for my beautiful table!

Making these owl napkin rings is super easy, too, because its a printable toilet paper roll craft, so all you need to do is print it, cut out the owls of your choice, and glue them onto empty toilet paper rolls that you’ve reinforced and covered up with kitchen twine. Easy peasy!

By the way, I would classify this as a toilet paper roll craft for adults because of the intricate detail of the owls’ wings and feet and the need to use scissors to cut them out. However, older kids (tweens) could easily do this craft, if supervised.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts: Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Owl Napkin Rings

Here’s what you do…

Step #1 – Gather Your Supplies

You will need the following supplies:

Printed owls – print this eBook (see opt-in freebie box below): 25 Adorable Free Printable Owls Designs for Crafting Projects.
Two different sizes of scissors – the small scissors are for cutting out the wings and feet of the printed owls. The finer feathers are harder to cut with regular scissors.
Glue stick – this is an ordinary glue stick.
Twine – this is the twine I used, but you can use any kind of kitchen twine.
Toilet paper roll tubes – you can save your used, empty toilet paper rolls for this project (you need 6 to make 12 napkin rings) OR you can actually buy them in bulk! Whoo knew?

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Step #2 – Flatten the Center of Your Toilet Paper Roll

Find the center of your toilet paper roll by either measuring it or eyeballing it.
Place your thumb and finger on each side and flatten.

Step #3 – Cut TP Roll in Half

Using your scissors, cut your toilet paper roll tube in half.

Step #4 – Prepare Your Supplies

Unroll a long length of twine.
Place toilet paper roll on two fingers of your non-dominant hand.
Remove the top of the glue stick and twist it to expose some of the glue.

Step #5 – Add Glue to TP Roll

Run a stripe of glue along the length of the toilet paper roll tube from the top of your fingers down towards the palm of your hand.

Step #6 – Attach Twine to TP Roll

Press the end of the twine into the glue on the toilet paper roll tube at the top of one end of the tube.

Step #7 – Wind the Twine Around the TP Tube

Wind the twine around the toilet paper roll tube placing the twine as close together as possible.
If the glue dries while you are winding the twine around the tube, apply more glue.

Step #8 – Continue Wrapping TP Roll

Continue wrapping the twine around the toilet paper roll.

Step #9 – Cut the Twine

Once you finish covering the toilet paper roll tube with twine, cut the twine.

Step #10 – Glue the End of the TP Roll

Add a bit of glue to the end of the twine to secure it to the toilet paper roll tube.

Step #11 – Cut Out Printed Owls

Cut out paper owls. If using a pattern that requires you to put the owl together, cut it out, and glue the parts together.

Step #12 – Smear Glue on Owl

Smear glue on the backside of cut-out owl.

Step #13 – Attach Owl to TP Roll

Attach prepared owl to twine-encased toilet paper roll tube.

Step #14 – Attach Remaining Owls

Attach a different owl to another twine-encased toilet paper roll tube. Continue until all are done.

Step #15 – Finished!

Finished owl napkin rings! So cute!

Step #16 – Open Up a Paper Napkin

Open up a dinner-sized paper napkin.
Find the center point and grasp the center with your thumb and finger.
Thread the napkin through the owl napkin ring.

Step #17 – Ready for the table!

Ready for the table!

Step #18 – Use Cloth Napkins

Or use pretty cloth napkins!
Iron the cloth napkin to get out all wrinkles.
Find the center point of the napkin and pick it up using your thumb and finger.
Thread it through the owl napkin ring.

I set my table for 10 guests, so I have 10 different owl napkins rings on my table. Want to see how they turned out? Here’s a peek:

This one is a barn owl in flight. How to I know? By the pale-colored heart-shaped face. He’s got a wrinkle in him. A cautionary tale: be careful when gluing the owls on the toilet paper roll so they don’t get wrinkled!

This toilet paper roll napkin ring in a long-eared owl. Isn’t he awesome? Did you notice that the cloth napkins are different than the buffalo plaid ones I used in the step-by-step instructions? I decided to go with striped ones for my tablescape because these striped ones are a little smaller than the buffalo plaid ones.

I’m calling this one a Horned Owl. This is a cut-and-paste pattern in the book. By that I mean you cut out all the different pieces (the body, the wings, the eyes, the feet, etc.) and paste all the parts together before you glue the finished owl onto the toilet paper roll tube.

The above pinnable image features 9 different owls. I’ve created a freebie booklet with 25 adorable owls to use for this project or any other project you dream up. Isn’t this project just one of the cutest things to do with toilet paper rolls?

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Will you do me a favor? Would you share my post on social media? The pinnable images scattered throughout this post are for your Pinterest boards so that you can bookmark this post and come back to it later. Thanks for sharing!

Tools and Supplies Needed to Make This Project

Did you know that you can buy empty toilet paper roll tubes? Neither did I! But you can. So, if you haven’t saved your empty toilet paper roll tubes for craft projects, you can buy them online! The link below is to the exact twine I used for this project. But you can use regular kitchen twine, too. And, the links to the napkins are links to the exact ones featured in this post, both the paper napkins and both sets of cloth napkins.

Computer || Printer || Printer Paper || Cardstock || Printer Ink || Toilet Paper Roll Tubes || Regular Size Scissors || Small Size Scissors || Twine || Glue Stick || Paper Dinner-sized Napkins || Buffalo Plaid Cloth Napkins || Striped Cloth Napkins

Don’t forget to sign up to receive my newsletter in your inbox. As a thank you, I’ll send you a freebie! Look for the sign-up boxes towards the top of this post, and again above where I’ve displayed the freebie book’s cover, and yet again at the bottom of this post. Thanks so much!

Tootles,

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts: How to Make Adorable Owl Napkin Rings

The Birth of an Easy Paper Craft Project