A Dragon in Cardboard

An all-activity craft : drawing, cutting, sticking and painting and at the end, a moving toy.


Winged dragon, or maybe a lizard or snake, it's up to you...


You need :

* Cardboard rolls (toilet paper or paper towel rolls)
* brads
* children's paint
* sheets of thick colored paper for the legs and wings (unless you want to paint these as well)




The different steps :

step 1: Print the patterns. They've been reduced to a quarter of real size.You can print them out in the full page and let the computer do the work or resize them by plus 400% before printing.


The tail (top) and the head (bottom)



Legs and wings




Dragon body


step 2: Cut out each pattern
Transfer the patterns onto the cardboard rolls. On the rolls, trace the head and the tail once, and the body 5 to 7 times. Cut out with scissors.

step 3: Cut out the wings and legs in the thick colored paper. Mark the folds in the wings with a ruler.

step 4: Paint the head, body and tail : we've chosen 2 different colors for the back and belly.


step 5: Make holes, four for each body section (but remember, you only need two holes for the head) using a screwdriver or a punch.


step 6: Put the head, the body sections and the tail together using the brads. Make sure they overlap properly, all pointing the same way.


step 7: Glue on the legs and the wings. Then draw on the eyes, mean-looking or kind, you choose...