Toilet Paper Roll Race Cars

I found this idea on Pinterest a couple days ago and thought it would be a great indoor activity for us since our nice weather suddenly turned back to the typical rainy gray weather the pacific northwest is known for. I saved a couple of our toilet paper rolls and a bunch of bottled water caps (ok, I may have dug through the recycling bin to find the right amount of supplies) and we made race cars! There is great tutorial for this over at TPcraft.com which tells you exactly how to attach the wheels so they spin.

First we painted each toilet paper roll a different color and the bottle caps black using a little acrylic paint. You could use any kind of paint you want or you could color them with markers.

When everything dried, I took a hole punch and punched for holes in the toilet paper roll where the wheels needed to go. To be honest I didn’t do a good job of this 🙁 I made my hole punches too high and some of the wheels didn’t touch the ground…I know better for next time.

I took a straw and stuck it through two of the holes (and trimmed the straw). Then took a tooth pick and poked it through one of the bottle caps (it easily poked through my Nestle PureLife bottled water caps – they are pretty flimsy). I stuck the toothpick through the straw and poked another bottle cap on the other end of the toothpick. You can trim the sharp end of the toothpick.

I used my sharp sewing scissors to cut a hole for the driver to sit.

At this point you can decorate your cars with more paint, glitter, or stickers. I had some number stickers that we labeled the cars with.

Lego Duplo people make perfect drivers! Now it’s time to race!!