We have a lot of cardboard boxes.
We did most of our Christmas shopping online this year, which was awesome. Not taking four children to a crowded mall on a freezing day and dragging them through stores was possibly the best Christmas gift of all. This makes me a Smart and Practical Parent, right? Not an anti-social mole person who prefers interacting with the outside world on the computer while in her pajamas?
So. Lots of boxes from all the stuff being sent to our house for a month. Yesterday, we pulled them out and played with them.
And we made dollhouses. Actually, we made pony stables for the My Little Ponies my daughter got for Christmas.
We used four boxes to make two buildings — a stable, and a house for the pony caretakers (naturally).
How to Make the Stable:
- I cut the top flaps off of one box, and used the second box to make the roof, just kind of folding it over the top and glue-gunning it into place.
- My daughter drew the windows where she wanted them, and I cut them out on three sides, folding that fourth side so that they’d stay open.
- Then we painted and decorated:
I’m pretty sure we had as much fun making and painting the houses as the girls did playing with them once they were dry.
And there they are — cardboard houses. If we’d been making dollhouses, I might have put some light-colored tissue paper over the windows, but since this is a horse stable…well, everyone knows horses need the fresh air. So no tissue.
So many times I look up craft or recipe ideas to do with the kids when it’s too cold to go out. And all this took was some cardboard boxes already lying around the house, some paint we already had, and an exacto knife to cut out the windows. Oh, and some glue. Why don’t we play with cardboard boxes more often? We really should.
I also love these ones from An Artful Parent — her girls made dollhouses, and added Christmas lights inside which I think looks super cute.
When’s the last time you made something out of a cardboard box?
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Great idea; I’ve got lots of boxes from product samples I have sent to me and lots of kids because the neighbor kids visit so much I’ve made up a room just for them. I think I’ll put the boxes and kids together with some crayons and see what happens!