Cotton Ball Owl Craft Inspired by Owl Babies

Make this adorable Owl Babies craft with kids! Fluffy cotton ball owls on a torn paper branch — inspired by the beloved book by Martin Waddell.

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These adorable cotton ball owlets are so soft, fluffy, and fun for little hands to make! Kids will love pulling apart cotton balls and pressing them onto their little owls to create their fluffy feathers. And because there’s no right or wrong way to add the cotton balls, every child’s owlet ends up with its own personality.

This craft was inspired by one of our favorite sweet picture books, Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. My kids were so excited to recreate Sarah, Percy, and Bill—and of course, Bill is their favorite! They loved carefully adding each little cotton ball and deciding where their owls should sit on the branch.

It’s such a simple craft to pair with an Owl Babies read-aloud, making it perfect for preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, homeschool, or the classroom. Read the story, make some fluffy owlets, and see which little owl becomes your favorite! 🦉

Why You’ll Love this Owl Babies Craft

Learning About Owls and Hibernation

This Owl Babies craft is such a sweet jumping-off point for a whole learning unit on owls and the natural world! After making your craft, you can keep the fun going with the Paper Feather Craft and Free Template to explore what makes birds unique, or try the Fall Science Experiments for Kids to bring a little hands-on discovery into your owl unit. And if you loved reading Owl Babies together, the Owl Paper Bag Craft is another adorable way to bring those sweet little owls to life!

A Book to Read Together

Make craft time even more fun by reading Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. This gentle, lyrical story follows a child and father on a quiet nighttime walk hoping to spot a great horned owl, making it a perfect companion to your owl craft with its cozy night-sky atmosphere. Reading it aloud while the glue dries lets little ones soak in the magic of owls after dark. Click here to learn more about this book (insert link here)

Cotton Ball Owl Craft

At a Glance

• Best for ages: Ages 3-7
• Difficulty: Easy
• Skills practiced: tearing paper, gluing, fine motor, creativity

Supplies

• Black paper or cardstock (for background)
• Brown paper bag or brown paper (to tear into a branch)
• Cotton balls
• School glue
• Googly eyes
• Orange paper (for beaks)
• Chalk (white or light colors, for outlines and details)
• Optional: Gold glitter, star stickers, chalk

How to Make an Owl Babies Craft

Owl Babies Craft Video Tutorial

Prefer to watch? Here’s the whole craft from start to finish:

Don’t forget to print the directions for easy crafting, available at the end of this post.

Set Up Your Background — Start with a piece of black paper — this will be your night sky! Black is perfect for giving your owls that cozy, nighttime feel, just like in the story.

Tear Your Branch — Rip a strip of brown paper to create a rough, natural-looking branch. Don’t worry about making it perfect — the torn edges give it a wonderfully woodsy look! Lay it across the lower part of your black paper and glue it down.

Draw Your Owl Outlines — Use chalk to draw three simple owl shapes on the black paper above the branch, one for each owl baby! They can be big or small, round or tall — there’s no wrong way to sketch them out.

Fluff and Glue Your Cotton Balls — Pull apart your cotton balls so they’re nice and fluffy, then glue them inside each owl outline to fill it in. We loved how soft and full our owls looked once the cotton was all spread out. Layer them and overlap them until your owls look good and fluffy!

Add the Details — Use chalk to draw wings, feather lines, or any little details you’d like on top of the cotton. Then cut small triangle beaks from orange paper and glue one onto each owl. Add googly eyes and you’ve got three adorable owl babies staring back at you!

Decorate the Night Sky — Stick gold glitter star stickers all around the sky to make it feel magical and bright. We scattered ours all over, but kids can put them wherever they like — cluster them together, spread them out, or make a constellation!

Step back and take a look at your owl family perched on their branch under the stars! Don’t forget to grab the free printable directions at the bottom of this post!

Try These Fun Variations

• Try it with watercolors! Instead of a black piece of paper, let kids paint a dark blue or purple night sky with watercolors first, then let it dry before adding the owls. It gives the background a beautiful, soft look that feels just like a moonlit night straight out of the book.
• Make it a torn-paper owl! Instead of cotton balls, kids can tear small pieces of brown, tan, or gray tissue paper and layer them onto the owl outlines for a textured, feathery look. We loved how each owl ended up looking totally different depending on how the pieces were layered — there’s no wrong way to do it!
• Add a moon! Cut a circle from yellow or white paper and glue it onto the night sky background before adding the owls. Kids can even use a white crayon or chalk to draw swirly clouds around it. It makes the whole scene feel extra magical and cozy.
• For older kids, try turning this into a mixed-media scene by adding a chalk-drawn tree with branches spreading across the background before gluing down the owls. It takes a little more time but the finished result looks so impressive — and kids feel so proud of it!
• Make a whole owl family! Instead of three owls, let kids make as many owls as they want — a mama, a papa, and lots of babies. We used different sizes of cotton balls to show the bigger and smaller owls, which is a sweet way to connect the craft back to the story and talk about families.

Print the Directions