Fun Things To Make With Cardboard

We know that it’s sometimes difficult being a working parent, especially if you own your own small business and are in demand around the clock like many of our customers. It’s particularly difficult over the summer holidays, 6 long weeks and hardly any time to plan anything can be tough. This is why we’ve created today’s post – for you to be able to grab a few boxes from your Warehouse and have some creative fun with your kids.

Now you may have noticed we’re on a bit of a cardboard theme this week with our posts – picture frame boxes for our most recent packaging surgery patient and a detailed description of the complex process that goes in to making these everyday items – so we thought it was time to inject some fun! If you follow us on Pinterest you will have hopefully heard of our board ‘More Than Boxes’ where we pin some of the most fun and interesting ways people have used packaging.

Today’s ideas come straight from the good people of Pinterest – a fantastic community of image sharers who can inspire creativity in the most un-creative of people. So if the thought of making and crafting things scares you fear not, these simple ideas are exactly that – simple, and will guarantee hours of play for your kids.

Playing House

If you missed it we launched a competition on Facebook a while ago to win a Kinderhouse, our patented cardboard houses that kids just love. However if you missed out you can always have a go at building one yourself! Use our step by step guide:

1. Take a large cardboard box and pull out the top and bottom flaps
2. Tape the flaps together so the box forms a rigid tower
3. Lay the box out flat and draw where the windows and doors will be
4. Using a box knife cut out the windows and cut three quarters of the door (so that it opens)
5. For the roof take a cardboard sheet and fold in half so it sits in a tent shape on top, then tape in place
6. Now for decorating! For the roof you can use scrap squares of fabric, wallpaper, card or paper and lay them over each other to look like tiles. You can then paint the walls and add any decorations – kids love this bit so get them to be creative and decorate the windows sills, door and walls in whichever way they choose
7. Ta-da! Your cardboard house is complete!

Image Credit: www.abeautifulmess.com

What’s Cooking?

When I was younger I loved my play oven, and spent hours serving my family plastic food that was ‘freshly baked.’ Of course though being plastic and the nineties it took hours for my dad to fix all the little bits together, not with a cardboard oven! This is so simple to make and will provide kids with hours of fun, just be prepared to be pretending to enjoy a lot of cardboard.

1. Take a large archive box and make it up as per our demonstration video
2. Paint the box and lid, get your kids to choose the scheme and they’ll feel like grown ups!
3. On the lid, cut a square in the middle to be the ‘window’ and tape to the back of it some florist wrap so that it is see through
4. Make two cuts in the lid where it will be secured to the bottom of the oven to ensure it will fold out
5. Tape this side to the bottom of the box
6. Tape a piece of cardboard to the back of the oven so that a back board appears (around 30cm taller than the ‘hob)
7. Paint some old drinks bottle lids to look like oven knobs and stick them to the backing board
8. Tape a small postal tube to the door to be a handle
9. Finally, for the hot plates, either draw/paint these on in black or if you have nay glue some old vinyl records to the top of the box
10. Get cooking!

Image Credit: www.marthastewart.com

Pitch & Putt

A great game to play with kids is some pitch and putt, a box is perfect for collecting the balls neatly and keeping score! This is one of the easiest makes on our list, and once the cutting is done can be decorated by the kids in no time. You could even do this tonight before bed ready to play at the weekend.

1. Take a long box and tape up the flaps
2. On the front of the box draw some arcs on – these will be the targets so make sure there is no overhang where the ball can get caught
3. Decorate the box and add numbers above the arcs for points, the one in the middle gets the most and the sides get less
4. Grab some postal tubes and golf balls (alternatively you can use some balled up paper) and get putting!

Image Credit: www.activityconnection.com

Knight In Corrugated Armour

You could literally create a whole knights outfit from old cardboard boxes but before you get carried away a sword and shield should do just fine!

To make the shield simply cut a round shape out of a piece of cardboard, then ask your son or daughter to decorate it in their battle colours! Use a scrap piece of cardboard cut into a long rectangle as a handle and tape it to the back of the shield in a hump shape so it can be held easily.

For the sword cut several sword shapes in to the card and tape them all together to make a sturdier toy, 3 sheets should be enough. Again get your kids decorating the handle and cover the ‘blade’ in foil to make it look nice and shiny.

Image Credit: playandgrow.blogspot.ru

En garde!