Egg carton helicopter craft

Create an egg carton helicopter craft – this cute and easy DIY toy is a fabulous way to upcycle your old egg cartons.

I originally made these DIY helicopters for my girls when they were little but decided to revisit the craft and reshare for todays audience with new photos and a tutorial video.

You might also like our egg carton train

This month on the blog I’m putting a big focus on recycling crafts and earth-friendly ideas. If you love crafting, you’ve probably already realised that upcycling rubbish is one of the cheapest materials you can get, so to begin with you save money. You’re also saving on waste by not purchasing a factory-produced craft material to base your craft on. OK, I know the egg carton, was factory produced, but you know what I mean, right?

These adorable mini egg carton helicopters make a great DIY toy for play once they’re finished. You could personify them by drawing different faces on the front with sharpie markers but I chose to keep them simple and plain, just like the original ones we made years ago.

If you’re making this helicopter craft with younger kids you will need to cut out the pieces for them and attach the blades to the top. Kids will love to help with the painting and gluing.

How to make an egg carton helicopter craft

You will need:

At least one egg carton, two if you want to make lots of helicopters
card stock
brad clips (I like to call them split pins)
good quality acrylic paint (if you have the washable kids paint you’ll probably need to do two coats to get an opaque finish)
Craft glue – I use tacky craft glue, a hot glue gun would also work
Craft knife and cutting mat
Paint brush
Scissors

How to:

Cut out the shapes to make the helicopter. For each helicopter you’ll need a round cup, trimmed, for the body, a pointy piece cut in half for the tail, and the rounded tip of a pointy piece for the top to attach the blades to.
Paint the pieces all one colour, except for the cup piece which needs to have a rounded windscreen painted on the front in white
Whilst these pieces are drying, make your helicopter blades. Use a ruler to measure out some strips from card stock. The strips I’ve cut out are 7.5mm x 60mm (approx 1/3″ x 2 1/3″)
Glue the helicopter blades into a cross shape and cut a tiny slit in the top using a craft knife. Then poke a hole in the top piece of egg carton with your craft knife. Secure the blades onto the top piece with the brad clip.
Glue the helicopter tail to the body piece and the top to the top of the body piece – you’re all done!