How to Make Egg Carton Fish
Have fun making these super cute egg carton fish! This colourful fish craft is easy to make using acrylic paint and recycled materials. Kids will love how the pipe cleaner connectors make the fish bend and wiggle like they’re really swimming through the water!
Yield: 1 egg carton fish
Cost: $1
Materials
- Egg carton
- Acrylic paint
- Pipe cleaners (to match the paint)
- Googly eyes (10 mm)
Instructions
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Cut the egg carton pieces
- Cut 5 "cone" sections from an egg carton. (The parts that separate the cups.)
- Then cut 2 rectangles from the side of the carton. Round off one of the short edges on each piece. These will be the fins.
- Round off the bottoms of 2 of the cones as close to the bottom as possible.
- Then use a craft knife or detail scissors to cut up at each "corner" so the sections are clearly separated. These pieces will be the head and the tail.
- Cut the remaining 3 cones shorter, trimming up near to the dents at each corner.
Step 3: Paint the egg carton sections
- Paint the head, tail, and 2 fins the same colour. (For us, our darkest shade of blue.)
- Paint the 3 body pieces, making each one a different shade of blue. Allow to dry, and add a second coat of paint to all pieces, if needed.
- Arrange your fish pieces how you'd like. We have the body pieces going from light to dark.
Step 4: Add pipe cleaner connectors
- To connect the fish together you'll need 2 pipe cleaners. Cut each of them in half.
- Make a coil shape by wrapping each of the pipe cleaner pieces around your finger or a pencil. Push the ends of each "spring" down, creating a thicker section.
- Add hot glue to the flat end of a fin.
- Attach it inside the first body section. Then glue the other fin to the opposite side.
- On the same section, add hot glue to the top of the cone.
- Attach a pipe cleaner coil to the egg carton. Press the folded section down into the glue. Repeat on the other 2 body pieces.
- Flatten the tail piece and add glue inside to keep it together.
- Then add the last pipe cleaner piece to the top.
Step 5: Assemble the fish
- Begin assembly by adding hot glue inside the head.
- Attach the first body piece into the glue, ensuring the pipe cleaner coil goes all the way down to connect with the glue.
- Add the other 2 body pieces in the same way, and then attach the tail.
- Then add 2 googly eyes to the head of the fish, on either side of a "corner". Our googly eyes are self-adhesive, but you can also use hot glue or tacky glue.
- Your egg carton fish is complete!
Notes
Want to make other egg carton crafts? Here's a few of our favourites:
Egg Carton Animal Portraits
Egg Carton Fairies
Tea Cup Mother's Day Card