Telescope
It’s adorable to see kids peek through TP and paper towel tubes as if they were on a treasure hunt. Well, we are going to take those tubes and kick them up a notch by making a retractable telescope.
Supplies you’ll need:
- Paper towel tube
- Toilet paper tube
- Craft knife
- Scissors
- Brads, 4 (Example)
- 1/8†hole punch
- Tape
- Paint or markers
- Ruler
Steps:
- Cut the paper towel tube so that one piece is 5†long.  The other piece will be about 6â€.  To help make this tutorial not so lengthy we’ll code our tubes as following: A= Inner 6†tube, B= Middle 5†tube, and C= Outer TP tube (left uncut).
- To get the tubes to nest in each other, cut a vertical strip off of A that is ¾†wide. Do the same for B with a 3/8†wide strip. Â
 Use tape to close the tubes back up.
- Cut two narrow triangles, 1†tall, on one end of A. Make sure the triangles are on opposite sides of the tube. Â
 This is to give some extra room for the brads.
- Prepare the “rails†on B and C by placing B inside of C then punch a hole an inch in from the edge where the two tubes meet. Punch another hole on the opposite side. Remove B from C.
- Mark a straight line from C’s holes to the top edge. Punch a hole on each line at the top. C should have 4 holes punched into them. Cut a 1/8†wide strip in between the top and bottom holes. (Cutting a straight line with a craft knife first makes this easier.) Repeat on the opposite side.
-  Place A into B and repeat steps 4 and 5 (this time B is A and C is B). Make sure the holes you make are about an inch away from the holes made in steps 4 and 5. By now, tube A should have 2 holes, B will have 2 holes and 2 rails, and C has just 2 rails.
- Now it’s time to decorate. Color your telescope and allow it to dry before assembling.
- To assemble, place A in B. Line the holes in A with the rails of B and place a metal brad in each. When flattening your brad, make sure to flatten the tabs horizontally. Placing a piece of tape on just one of the tabs to the inside of the tube helps keep it horizontal and loose enough to slide. Slide tube A up half way and place B in C, lining up the holes of B with the C rails. Â
Add your brads and then you’re done.
Are your kiddos impressed? We smell a treasure hunt in your near future!

Enjoy!