How to Paper Mache a Toilet Paper Mummy

I was convinced that my 2 1/2 year old daughter would love paper mache. She loves crafts, glue, and balloons, so I was sure it was going to be a hit. With Halloween quickly approaching, I had the brilliant idea to paper mache a toilet paper mummy with her. To make it more mummy-like, I wanted to switch it up and paper mache with toilet paper instead of newspaper. Well, I was very wrong and she did not like the paper mache one bit.

She helped make the paste and glued the facial features on. That was about it. She put one piece of toilet paper in the paste and decided it was too messy. Then she refused to help. And of course as soon as we finished decorating it, she immediately asked to make more like she hadn’t refused to touch 95% of it. Thankfully, I do think my toilet paper mummy turned out pretty cute. And I think it would be a really fun craft to do with an older kid. Or maybe on a different day with my daughter.

How to Paper Mache a Toilet Paper Mummy

Supplies:

• Toilet paper
• Balloon
• Flour
• Googly eyes
• Black foam sheet

Prep:

To prepare, you need to make the paste you will be using. We made a flour and water paste following instructions found at The Spruce Crafts. My daughter helped measure out the flour and stirred it all together. Next, we placed a plastic tablecloth over her super cool kid desk to keep the mess to a minimum (or so I thought). Lastly, I blew up a balloon and taped down the tail to keep it flat.

Creating Day 1:

First, we started adding layers to our balloon. I took the toilet paper, folded it in half, dipped it in the flour glue, and stuck it on the balloon. As I said before, my daughter tried it once and decided it wasn’t for her. I kept doing this until it covered the entire balloon.

Two problems quickly arose. First, I made the mistake of doing this with my baby awake. He can now crawl and promptly crawled under my daughter’s desk. Of course the balloon rolled right off the table and on to his head. Just a heads up, paper mache paste is really hard to get out of baby hair. I also found out that my son has a taste for toilet paper. I constantly had to work to keep the roll out of his reach. Second, since toilet paper is designed to disintegrate in water, it did not hold up as well as newspaper does. This is why my first layer looks like a big blob of goo.

Next, I took dry toilet paper and wrapped it around the balloon to soak up some of the first layer’s liquid. Then, I folded a long piece of toilet paper in half width-wise and wrapped it around to make it look like a mummy’s wrapping. At this point, my daughter came back and prodded at my creation a little bit since it was no longer messy.

I then put it outside to dry and moved it in front of a box fan when it started to rain.

Creating Day 2:

Drying took forever! Even with it being in the sun or in front of a box fan the whole time, it still took about a day and a half to dry. When it was mostly dry, I had my daughter help me put its face on. I cut out a small smile from a foam sheet to make it look friendly. My toddler glued googly eyes and the smile I made on. I did show her where I wanted them, but she did the actual gluing. She loves gluing, so she loved this part of the project. If your kid is the same way, check out this bird feeder we made that required a lot of gluing.

Lastly, it was time to pop the balloon. I was super nervous that this was going to ruin it. Once I finally thought it was dry enough, I poked it with a sewing needle. My toilet paper mummy held up! I put this fun Halloween decoration up next the tissue ghosts my daughter made earlier in the week.

Have a fun time making your own cute toilet paper mummy! I hope that this inspires you to not only make something with your kid, but to try things that may not work. You don’t know what your child will enjoy until you try. And with a toddler you still don’t know, they probably have already changed their minds. 🙂