This fire breathing dragon made from a toilet paper roll is an easy kids craft that uses simple craft supplies. When you blow into the end of the tube the tissue paper looks like flames coming out of the dragon’s mouth!
Fire Breathing Dragon Craft
Add this activity to your crafty bucket list, because it’s SO MUCH FUN! And it’s ridiculously simple to make.
Kids, toddlers and preschoolers will love to see the dragon blowing fire! The photos make me smile, just looking at them.
Watch the Video Tutorial Here:
(Or scroll down for the step-by-step photo tutorial and printable instructions.)
Looking for even more paper roll crafts to make? Here’s some of our favourites:
What’s the best type of glue to use?
Pom poms can be really tricky to stick to things, so I like to use a mini glue gun any time I’m working with them.
Or if you prefer, you can also use crafter’s tape or glue dots to make this craft. If you don’t have glue dots, they are AMAZING for kids crafts. They’re super sticky and easier to manage with kids than a glue gun. You can get them from any craft store, or you can check out the ones I use on Amazon here.
Do I have to use a toilet paper roll?
Nope! If you don’t like the idea of using a toilet paper roll to make your dragon, you can simply cut an empty paper towel roll or a wrapping paper tube to be about the same size as a toilet paper roll.
Draw a line on the cardboard tube where you need to cut and use scissors to carefully cut the roll to size. I find it easier to use an exacto knife to cut down cardboard tubes – but an adult definitely needs to do any cutting with an exacto knife.
Did you know you can actually buy empty unused toilet paper rolls on Amazon? If you plan to make a lot of paper roll crafts, then I definitely recommend checking that out!
I don’t have green pom poms, what other colors can I use?
You can make your dragon any color you like! Try making it red, purple, blue or black.
Or mix and match whatever colors you have at home. Who says a dragon has to be one color!?
How to Make a Paper Roll Dragon Instructions:
Fire Breathing Dragon Craft
Equipment
- Glue gun or glue dots
Materials
- 1 paper roll
- 1 piece Construction paper
- 2 Pom poms approx 1 inch
- 2 Pom poms approx 3/8 inch
- 2 Googly eyes approx 1/2 inch
- 3 scraps Tissue paper red, yellow and orange
Instructions
- Gather all the supplies you'll need.
- Cut a piece of construction paper to be the exact length of your paper roll. Spread glue from a glue stick onto one side of the paper. Line up the ends of the paper with the ends of the paper roll, then wrap the paper around the roll so it's completely covered.
- Using a glue gun or glue dots, attach one of the googly eyes to the middle of one of the larger pom poms. Repeat for the second googly eye and second larger pom pom. These will be your dragon eyes (you should have two eyes).
- Using a glue gun or glue dots, attach each of the dragon eyes to one end of the paper roll.
- Using a glue gun or glue dots, attach the two smaller pom poms near the other end of the paper tube to make the dragon's nose.
- For the fire, cut scraps of red, yellow and orange tissue paper to be long pointy strips, about 9" or 10" long.
- Spread some glue from a glue stick onto the straight end of one of the strips of tissue paper, then attach it to the inside of the paper roll under the dragon's nose. Repeat, and keep gluing tissue paper to the inside of the paper roll as you work your way around the roll. Only glue tissue paper as shown in the photo. Don't glue tissue paper all the way around the bottom of the roll (under the nose). Gravity will pull down any tissue paper there and it won't move when you blow in the paper roll.
- Your paper roll dragon is complete! Take a deep breath, put your mouth on the end of the paper roll and BLOW!
Notes
My 6 year old was great at making those flames go! This is her in the photo below:
Aren’t they adorable?! This is the best dragon craft ever.
This DIY dragon would even be a great toy to make for Chinese new year. Such a cute kids craft idea for a rainy day!
This post was originally published on June 6, 2016.
Here’s even more paper roll crafts to try:
Monkeys, Bears, Hedgehogs and MORE:
Fireflies That GLOW Using a Battery Tea Light:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books- A- Million | Indiebound | Indigo | Amazon Canada
Oh, this looks like fun! We’re going to have to try it! 🙂
Such a fun project. Can’t wait to do this when the little ones visit. Pinned & shared. Thanks for joining the Inspiration Spotlight party.
My daughter and I are reading the book “Again!” by Emily Gravett (it features red and green dragons -red grumpy dragons are the ones that need to go to sleep) and we’re doing this craft today!
Muito obrigada por ter compartilhado esta ideia !, estava a procura de uma atividade para minha turma da educação infantil e esta caiu como uma luva, terei apenas que adapta-la, pois estou trabalhando folclore e este dragão vai virar uma cuca rsrsr…bjos
This really looks like fun. I will definitely try it with my 5 year old. Now i have a use for the toilet rolls i have being keeping. I would really love to see the pictures of the butterfly your kids transformed this into. Thanks for sharing.
This is adorable! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Debbie,
Super cute Dragon! I know my kids would love this. They are always trying to save toilet paper rolls and use them for random things. Thanks for sharing… I love it.
Hello. Thanks for this craft idea. My kids just loved it. Here is a video of them enjoying this craft.
https://youtu.be/JQbI5ziRVhc
Cant wait to try some more crafts.
Much love
Z
So much fun! We made one little change to the process, gluing the flames to the colored paper before attaching the paper to the roll.