Colorful Newspaper Owl Craft for Kids

Today I am sharing this colorful newspaper owl craft for kids that is super bright and beautiful and is perfect if you have old newspaper laying around the house.

I love to make crafts with my children out of recyclable materials any chance I get! With Earth Day coming up next month it’s an especially great time to get crafty with any earth friendly materials you have laying around your house. Make sure to check out more newspaper kid crafts near the bottom of this post.

Painted newspaper owl craft laying on a pink background with craft pom poms scattered around.

[This craft post was originally published on March 16, 2016. It has been updated to include an updated tutorial, photos and a video tutorial.]

HOW TO MAKE A COLORFUL NEWSPAPER OWL CRAFT

Painting newspaper with watercolors is a great way to repurpose old newsprint to turn it into something amazing. We layered several different colors together to give these owls a fun rainbow color, and they turned out gorgeous!

Read our step by step instructions below for how you can transform newspaper into beautiful owls.

Two painted newspaper owl crafts, one laying on top of the other on a black chalkboard background.

Supplies needed to make this newspaper craft:

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Instructions for kids to create this owl craft:

1. Start by painting a section of your newspaper (big enough for the body of an owl) with your watercolors. This is totally open-ended, so just let children paint with as many colors and variations as they desire.

The newspaper will be saturated but as it dries it should stiffen back up again. We let our newspaper dry overnight.

See Also: Ultimate List of Newspaper Craft Ideas

Four image collage showing someone painting newspaper with watercolors, tracing the template on newspaper and assembling the owl pieces together to make the owl craft.

2. Cut out the shape of an owl body from your newspaper. Preschoolers can do this on their own, or you may want to draw the shape for them on the newspaper for them to cut out.

You will also need to cut out two half-oval shapes for wings and two circles for the big owl eyes. We decided to use unpainted newspaper for these but you could use painted newspaper for these pieces if you’d like.

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NOTE: You can also use our owl template found in our Father’s Day Owl Craft for this craft. Find the template linked at the top of the supplies list. You will want to trim down the wings from the template, or cut out your own.

Two painted newspaper owl crafts laying side by side on a black chalkboard background.

4. Cut out an orange beak from your cardstock paper and then glue it onto your newspaper owl craft together with your newspaper eyes and wings. Glue black circle pupils inside the eyes, or use googly eyes.

5. Finish your colorful newspaper owl craft by using Fun Chalk markers or metallic markers to draw squiggly lines on your wings and body to define the owl feathers.

Vertical close up image of painted newspaper owl craft on a pink background with the words "Newspaper Owl Craft" in the top right corner.

Looking for some fun owl children’s books to go along with this craft?

Try one of these fun owl themed picture books:

The Little White Owl by Tracey CorderoyOwl Babies by Martin Waddell

Good-Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins

Cock-A-Doodle-Hoooo! by Mick Manning

Vertical image of two painted newspaper owl crafts laying one on top of the other with the words "watercolor newspaper owls" in the bottom right corner.

Check out these other newspaper crafts from more crafty bloggers:

Papier Mache Bunny | Easy Peasy and Fun

Newspaper Butterfly Craft | I Heart Arts n Crafts

Newspaper Hyacinth Flowers | Artsy Craftsy Mom

Glow-in-the-Dark Jellyfish | Artsy Momma

Here is the ultimate list of newspaper craft ideas for kids. Whether you have already discovered how much you love crafting with newspaper or it's something you would love to try for the first time, this amazing list will give you ideas galore of wonderful newspaper craft ideas.

You might also enjoy these fun kid crafts from our website:

75+ Bird Crafts for Preschoolers -Ultimate list of birds activities for kids of all ages. Common birds, tropical birds, peacocks, owls, penguins and more.

Painted newspaper hot air balloon craft laying on a pink background with craft poms scattered around.

Newspaper Hot Air Balloon Craft for Kids

Snail craft made out of green cardstock, painted newspaper and markers laying on a pink background with craft pom poms scattered around.

Colorful Newspaper Snail Craft