Cardboard Tube Giraffe

Author by Amanda Davis on April 19, 2010 Updated on July 15, 2019

5 from 7 votes

This adorable giraffe is made completely from toilet paper cardboard tubes and some printed felt. You could paint the tubes instead, but I found the printed felt at Hobby Lobby on sale, couldn’t pass that up! He’s just busy nommin’ on my bushes… :)

There’s a little story behind this giraffe. This was originally intended for Kaboose, one of my day jobs, but the aim there is to create easy crafts for small children. While I intended this to be easy, it ended up being more complicated than I thought it would. Now really, it’s not hard to make, but the big challenge comes in where I can’t use dangerous items such as craft knives, hot glue guns, etc. So, getting this giraffe together without a glue gun was almost impossible. I did manage to make it work without a glue gun, but by that time, it had gone from the easy craft in my head, and morphed into just far too many steps for little kids.

There was no way that the white glue was going to hold. There was nothing but thin round edges of cardboard tubes for it to grab, so no go there. That led to me inserting jumbo craft sticks into the body parts in order to keep the pieces together. Even that made for a wobbly giraffe, so instead, I made something easier for Kaboose, and kept this cute little guy for myself. :)

In the instructions below I skip all the craft stick mumbo jumbo, simply because using a glue gun to attach all the body parts works perfectly, eliminating the need for the craft sticks all together.

Wouldn’t this be just adorable in a baby nursery?? :)

Cardboard Tube Giraffe

6 cardboard tubes
2 sheet giraffe print felt
1/2 sheet white felt
2 large wiggle eyes
shipping or masking tape
white craft glue or felt glue
jumbo craft stick
scissors
24″ white yarn
hot glue gun

Tape 2 of the tubes together, end to end.

Cover with giraffe print felt using white glue.

Cover 3 of the remaining 4 tubes with giraffe print felt and trim the ends.

Stand 2 of the short tubes up on their ends (legs). You will need to cut a half-circle shaped notch in the top of each one. This is where the body will sit. Save the notched out pieces, you will use them to make the ears.

Cut a similar notch at one end of the long tube. This is where the neck will rest on the body.

Take the last tube and cut about 1/3 off, save for another project. Cover the 2/3 tube with white felt. Cut a notch at one end, this is where the head will attach to the top of the neck. Above where the notch is, cut two slits, about 1/2″ long, for the ears. From the notched out giraffe print pieces you have left over, cut two ears and insert them into the slits. Add some glue, set aside to dry.

At the top of the body, above the front leg, cut a slit and insert a jumbo craft stick. This will help keep the neck steady.

Use hot glue to secure all the body pieces together.

Cut white yarn into 3/4″ long pieces. Pipe a generous line of white glue along the back of the neck and up between the ears for the forelock. Stand the pieces of yarn up in the glue, they should stay up. If a few fall, just stand them back up again.

Hope you like him as much as I do! :)

Print Project

5 from 7 votes