Ready for some summer crafting with kids? We’re diving deep with this simple paper octopus craft that’s both fun to make and to play with.
We are so excited to kick off our sea animal crafts series as we have a whole lot of ideas to share with you.
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Sea animals are a popular theme to get crafty with during summer months so you can expect to see quite a few more of ocean dwellers soon.
As we love crafts that pop and love to do all kinds of things with paper (especially strips of paper), a paper dome octopus craft was first on the menu this year, as far as octopuses go.
While I do think most animals on land, air and sea are pretty amazing, octopuses have that extra cool factor don’t you think? As far as we know (or can measure by our standards) it’s one of the most intelligent animals out there so that alone makes it super cool. To add to that there’s also the squeezing through tiny holes, ink, color changing, mimicking… Pure awesomeness here people!
Ready to capture some of that awesomeness by making your own cute and simple paper octopus craft? Let’s make one!
How to Make a Simple Paper Octopus Craft
What you need
- orange print paper or construction paper
- scissors (for paper strips you can also use a paper trimmer)
- glue
Optional: wiggle eye stickers or goggly eyes
We do think the stickers or googly eyes make ALL the difference with these crafts, stickers are fun to work with (have you ever meet a kid who wouldn’t love them?) and goggly eyes are super silly when they move around.
You can also make this octopus craft idea a bit more fancy by adding some biodegradable glitter (we prefer glitter glue and always choose it over regular glitter that gets all over the place).
Watch the Video Tutorial
Or Follow These Step by Step Instructions for Octopus Craft
Start by cutting 8 strips of paper.
We have cut ours to be about as wide as a finger (no need to be super precise here).
As for the length? We cut ours across the width of a regular A4/letter sized paper.
Cut a circle out of orange paper.
The diameter of the circle should be around half the lenght of the paper strips. Again, nothing to precise is needed.
Take all 8 strips of paper and align them.
Fold them on the ends as shown on the image bellow.
Glue the first strip of paper on the paper circle as shown on the image bellow.
Make an arch.
Continue with the next strip of paper.
The easiest way to go about this is to glue the second one at the right angle to the first one.
Continue with all others until you get a nice dome. The last strip of paper might be a bit tricky for youngest kids.
Cut 8 tentacles out of orange paper.
Glue them under the paper dome.
You can glue them all around or have them facing one direction only as we did.
Glue on eyes or draw them by yourself.
We hope your kids enjoyed this simple paper octopus craft idea and that they will be creating many of their own.
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