My son is a Cub Scout in his last year, which is called the Webelos level. Part of the Webelos requirements involve making a craft from recycled materials. My husband is the Pack leader and my son’s Den leader. He and I often collaborate on creative ways to engage the Scouts, and this was an obvious project for my input.
I designed a Cub Scout wearing the scarf of the Webelos, which is a green and red plaid. We walked around the grocery store looking for any packaging with plaid, mostly looking for items that were “Scottish.” We did not find what we wanted, but we remembered these toffees we used to eat as kids and ordered Macintosh’s Toffees from Amazon.
The body of the Cub Scout is made with a cork of a specific type – it’s wider along the top. I drilled it from top to bottom with my drill press. My drill bit was not long enough to go all the way through the cork, so I went in through the center top, and then center bottom, and they met in the middle. I used a wooden skewer to ensure the way was clear.
I then drilled the cork through the widest part to make a place for the shoulder pipe cleaner.
I cut a standard wine cork in half with an exacto knife and drilled holes through the centers.
I drilled one hole towards the top and side of two black caps for the shoes.
The legs are made from empty plastic spools from my sewing projects.
I cut a brim for our Cub Scout hat from a cereal box. Bob designed the scarf. Here are the templates for those items.
I drilled two holes side-by-side in a beige cap for his hat. This cap has some extra holes in the side because I am recycling it from a previous project. I didn’t have so many beige caps, so that’s what happening.
I then made the face from a peachy-colored cap, along with a few other colors so the Scouts can choose their own face color. I hot-glued on googly eyes.
To assemble, our Cub Scout requires three pipe cleaners. I connected two together and came down through the beige cap, then through the cardboard brim. Next came the head and the scarf. Next both ends went through the body cork. Then I put one spool on each pipe cleaner. Finally, I wrapped the pipe cleaner around the black cap to make each foot.
Next I took a single pipe cleaner and put it through the shoulder hole. I put half a wine cork on each side. On one side, I added the cardboard hand, cut from cereal box, and wrapped the extra pipe cleaner back around to make the arm thicker.
I hope you are inspired to make your own cap person, wearing whatever kind of uniform!
Oh, and one more tip! To help our Cub Scout stand up, I took the extra piece of pipe cleaner and attached the ankles together. He stands up very nicely then. But if you wanted it to be more like a doll to facilitate play, that works great too.