I guess that’s why ocean animal crafts are always popular summer crafts for kids.

Even if there’s no trip to the beach in your future,  you can still create a little bit of the ocean at home with these adorable sea animal crafts!

Sea Animal Crafts

No matter what age your child is, you’re sure to find the perfect ocean animal craft in the collection below.   Just click on the blue words to find the complete directions for each ocean animal craft.

And, if you are looking for all things shark, check out our shark crafts & activities post for tons of fun ideas, perfect for summer or anytime. 

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Fish Crafts

Water Bottle Fish — Recycle a few of those empty water bottles into colorful fish that you can hang from the ceiling.  These would be so fun as a party decoration!

Toilet Paper Roll Fish —  Find out how you can recycle an empty toilet paper roll into a fun fish craft. 

Woven Angel Fish — This fun fish is a colorful weaving craft for kids that turns out beautiful.  

Puffer Fish Craft —  Skip the paintbrush and show kids how to create art using a fork!  This pufferfish craft turns out super cute.   

Craft Stick Angelfish —  Colorful craftsticks make this super simple fish craft lots of fun.    

Tissue Paper and Cardboard Tube Fish —  Make 3 dimensional pictures with this simple idea using recycled cardboard tubes.  

Paper Plate Pufferfish — Kids will have fun using fork painting to create this ocean animal craft.

Squid, Octopus, and Jellyfish Crafts

Paper Cup Jellyfish — With colorful paperclip chains, this adorable jellyfish is fun to make.

Jelly Fish Craft —  Hit your recycling box and create this cute jelly fish with a paper bowl and bubble wrap.  

Paper Bag Octopus — Kids will enjoy painting and creating their very own octopus with this easy craft.

Cardboard Tube Octopus —  Who doesn’t love a good cardboard tube craft?  Make your own octopus from an empty toilet paper roll. 

Paper Plate Octopus — Use a paper plate and bubble wrap to make a funky looking octopus.  

Plastic Bag Jellyfish  —  This one is super simple, and makes a quick decoration for a sea animal party.  

Coffee Filter Jelly Fish —  These beautiful jellyfish look gorgeous hanging from a mobile.  

Simple Paper Squid Craft —  You don’t find a lot of crafts involving squids.  This simple paper craft is perfect for teaching kids all about how squids and octopuses are different.  

Plastic Jug Jelly Fish —  Here’s one more fun way to create a jellyfish in a recycled craft.  

More Sea Creature Crafts

Seahorse Craft —  This cute craft goes great with the book, Mister Seahorse.  

Toothpick Sea Urchin Craft —  This super simple craft is perfect for working on manual dexterity with little ones.  

Coffee Filter Sea Coral —  This tie-dyed coffee filter craft would make a cute table decoration at an under the sea party.  

Egg Carton Crab  —  Find out how you can recycle a cardboard egg carton into an adorable crab.

Paper Plate Crab —  Do you love a good paper plate craft?  This little crab craft is perfect for preschoolers.  

Ocean Sensory Bag —  Sensory play meets art in this fun activity for preschoolers.  

Cupcake Liner Crab — Cupcake liner crafts are simple and fun to make.  This cute crab craft is no exception.  

Paper Plate Sea Gull —  These fun sea gulls remind me of the one in The Little Mermaid movie.  

With so many fun sea animal crafts on this list to choose from, it may be hard to decide where to begin.

You’ll also love these posts:

• 25 Rainbow Crafts
• Awesome Activities for a Backyard Summer Camp
• 20 Fun Watermelon Crafts and Activities 
• Paper Plate Crafts for Summer 

Our Favorite Kid Craft Materials

Originally published June 19, 2014

The post Adorable Sea Animal Crafts for Kids first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

This recycled craft uses both recycled water bottles and tissue paper left over from birthday gifts to create colorful, one of a kind, water bottle fish.

This fun sea animal craft is a great way to use those old water bottles for art.  

If you love water bottle crafts as much as we do, then you need to check out these beautiful Water Bottle Suncatchers.

Water Bottle Fish Craft

Affiliate links provided.  

Materials Needed:

• Clean, dry water bottles
• Colored tissue paper
• White craft glue
• Hot glue gun
• Paintbrush
• Wiggly eyes
• Craft foam

To begin crafting your fish, have the kids rip up squares of brightly colored tissue paper.   This is a great activity for building hand strength for later writing skills!

The squares are great for giving the fish a multi-colored collage look.  You can also cut 1 inch thick strips of tissue paper, which are great if you want a striped fish instead.

Once the tissue paper is ready, have your child use an old paint brush to paint white craft glue on the outside of their water bottle.

It helps to only use a little glue at a time, adding pieces of tissue paper as you go, instead of covering the whole bottle with glue at once.  Also, you may want to have a damp paper towel handy for wiping excess glue off so the tissue paper doesn’t keep getting stuck to little fingers.

Once the water bottle is covered in tissue paper,  let the whole thing dry.  It took ours about one hour.  While you’re waiting, check out this fun sea animals game.  

Use craft foam to create your fish’s fins.  For younger children you may want to cut out the pieces yourself.  For older children, you could draw the design on the craft foam and have them cut it out, or let them design the fins completely on their own.

Use a hot glue gun to add wiggly eyes and the craft foam fins and tail to your fish.  Please remember, hot glue can get extremely hot!  This is a step best suited for an adult to do.  Young children can easily point out where each piece should go while the adult works the hot glue gun.

The best part of using hot glue is that your one of a kind creation will be ready to play with, or display, as soon as the glue cools.

These brightly colored water bottle fish look beautiful hanging from the ceiling or in a window.  

You may also like:

• Water Bottle Lightning Bug
• How to Make a Duct Tape Water Bottle Holder 
• Fun Kids Crafts for All Ages

This post was originally published August 10, 2012.  

The post Colorful Water Bottle Fish Craft first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.