Let's make toys with milk cartons! Easy and fun DIY crafts!
Did you know you can make all kinds of toys using milk cartons?
In this article, we’ll introduce milk carton toys that babies and toddlers will love!
Many households recycle milk cartons, but they’re also often reused for kids’ crafts.
You’ll frequently see toys made by teachers at daycare centers and kindergartens, too.
Milk carton toys are great for little ones who haven’t learned to control their strength yet, because if they break, you can quickly make a new one.
They’re really easy to make, so give it a try!
- Simple yet amazing crafts made with milk cartons! A collection of ideas that will captivate elementary school children and toddlers.
- [Milk Carton Crafts] Fun ideas for elementary school kids. Perfect for summer vacation homework!
- Made with toilet paper rolls! Exciting and fun easy handmade toys
- Let's make toys with paper cups! Simple and fun handmade toys
- Fun and easy toy ideas made from empty Yakult bottles
- Easy DIY! Introducing educational toys that can be easily made with 100-yen shop items and things around the house.
- [Let’s Make and Play!] Handmade Toy Ideas You Can Create Yourself
- A collection of DIY ideas for lanterns and lamps made from milk cartons
- [Childcare] Easy to make! Handmade toys that delight 0-year-olds
- [Educational] DIY Montessori-style toy ideas
- Paper cup crafts that elementary school kids will love! A collection of fun project ideas
- Let's play with paper cups! Crafts and indoor play
- Toys you can make from cardboard crafts! Authentic ideas you can build and play with
Let’s make toys with milk cartons! Simple and fun DIY crafts! (41–50)
kaleidocycle
Perfect for a summer vacation science project, let’s make a kaleidocycle using milk cartons! A kaleidocycle is a fascinating toy where four faces rotate and change continuously.
Prepare two milk cartons opened flat and tape them together; cut off the spout sections.
Next, lightly draw diagonals and slanted lines on the inside of the cartons, and valley-fold all the slanted lines.
After adding fold creases along the vertical lines as well, tape the two ends together, then fold along the creases to close it up—and you’re done! You can draw your favorite pictures on each face, or even create a storybook-like sequence for extra fun.
straw dragonfly
This is a handmade bamboo-copter (taketombo) made from a milk carton.
Cut the milk carton into strips and draw patterns on them with a pen.
Coloring them brightly makes it look beautiful when it spins! Next, make a slit in a straw that will serve as the handle, and insert a milk carton piece folded in half.
Staple the inserted part firmly, then fold the milk carton diagonally and spread the wings to both sides to finish.
To make it spin well, add a bit of weight by putting tape on the tip of the milk carton—this is the key! Since it’s made from a soft milk carton, it’s safe to play with indoors.
Splash Ferris Wheel
Even kids who are reluctant to take a bath might get excited if there are toys! Here’s how to make a super fun “Splash Ferris Wheel.” First, cut a milk carton to create the supports for the Ferris wheel.
Next, make slits in a pool noodle with a utility knife, then insert six plastic ice cream spoons around it like a Ferris wheel.
Slide a chopstick through the pool noodle and insert both ends into the two slits in the milk carton, and you’re done! For a finishing touch, attaching toy capsules to the spoons will make it look even more like a real Ferris wheel, which is highly recommended.
Paku-Paku Shark
Even making a kinetic piece is fun, and that excited “Will it really move?” feeling sparks your imagination, doesn’t it? This Chompy Shark is a quick craft you can play with, and you can make it using materials you already have at home.
Cut the bottom of a milk carton into an L-shape.
The piece you cut out will become the chomping mouth.
Poke holes and insert a bamboo skewer, place a wheel made from the bottom of a plastic bottle inside the carton, and assemble the mouth section—then when you move the milk carton back and forth, the mouth opens and closes.
Depending on how you decorate the milk carton, you could create all sorts of animals!
flip-flap changing picture
Pull the ends of a picture with an illustration and…
the image changes? It’s a fun “flip-flop” changing picture with a neat trick.
You might think the mechanism is complicated, but it’s actually easy—you just combine two milk cartons.
Prepare two milk cartons, open both, and cut off the top and bottom.
Fold one in half and make two slits.
Cut the other carton in half, then fold each half again, and insert them into the slits alternately, with the fold lines facing the center.
This creates a structure that opens when you insert your fingers in the middle.
By drawing different images on the inside and outside, it looks like the picture changes in an instant.
A lantern made from construction paper with slits
Let’s make a lantern with a striking shape using drawing paper and a milk carton.
First, cut off the top of the milk carton, then attach drawing paper to all four sides of the carton using double-sided tape.
Decorate it cutely by adding stickers or washi tape on top.
Next, take a slightly longer sheet of colored paper, cut vertical slits into it, and wrap and attach it over the decorated carton.
Punch holes and thread chenille stems (pipe cleaners) through to finish.
You can also add patterns to the colored paper you put on top.
Give it a try!
Lantern shade made with orizome (fold-dyeing)
Here, we introduce how to make a lovely lantern using origami-dyed paper and a milk carton.
It’s convenient to light it from the inside with a flashlight.
First, make a slit partway down the milk carton and cut it with scissors.
Use the top half and peel off the printed layer from the body.
After peeling, glue the spout of the carton closed.
Next, tear the dyed paper into pieces and stick them onto the carton.
Once the paper is attached, brush a layer of diluted glue over the entire carton to finish.