Seasons > Autumn > Home Decorations  > Thanksgiving candy cups, nut cups, and Centerpieces > How to make a Paper Towel Tube Canoe

Flatten the paper towel tube with your hands

Cut both ends rounded with scissors

Cut the tube open along the fold on one side

Cut the open edges as shown in the photo. Glue the rounded ends.

Draw “sewing” marks on the ends, or what ever design you would like.

Cut or break toothpicks to size and glue them on the inside of the canoe to keep it open. A glue gun works well for this, but you still have to hold the toothpicks in place until the glue hardens.

To make paddles for the canoe, cut bamboo skewers to a good length to match the canoe. Cut 4 sheets of brown paper (such as brown paper bags) and glue 2 on each stick, one on each side of the stick.

You can make smaller canoes out of toilet paper tubes. If the paper sticks to the tube, don’t worry--it will look like birch bark canoes! You can make 2 canoes out of each tube. Make them the same way as the instructions describe above, but the tube should be cut in half as shown by the dotted line in the photo above. If you prefer to use paper towel tubes instead of toilet paper tubes, cut the paper towel tube in half both directions as shown below.