Cardboard Box Projects Completed

Finally, after a few weeks of delay and interruptions, I have managed to finish my kids cardboard toys.

Added finished touches to Samuel's spaceship. Yogurt and milk caps were used as knobs and buttons. Soda can ring was used as fuel gauge indicator. Added old Hard Rock Cafe keyrings as his keys (he loves music and guitars). Used old discs as headlights. Adding the straps was the trickiest part. To be honest, I did this project without a lot of plan except that I envisioned how I can cut the cardboard box and make the shape. A lot of details were just sudden inspirations and found items around the apartment.

Now, he's asked me to make a space helmet to match his spaceship... hhhmmmm


The other project we started was also finally finished. Audrey's dolly house is all done except Samuel decided it was a great 'garage' for his Mac truck and other cars.
Mod podged the 'ground area' with print outs of green patterns. For the roof, decided at the last minute to make 'shingles' rather than mod podge it with the pattern I printed out weeks ago. Got my new Creative Memories circular cutter to good use. The kids also helped cut up the 'shingles'. Just used double-sided tape to attach the discs one over the other starting from the bottom area.

The tricky part was cutting thru the mod podged walls. Simon had already cut windows and doors before I covered the walls with paper printed with wood pattern. So I had to make sure that I cut thru the same area. Unfortunately some of the mod podge did not seal the paper and cardboard together so had to improvide and used kraft tape around the edges.

Audrey loves the little wooden beads I used as knobs on the doors and windows.

Overall, I am still feeling quite proud to have finally finished these 2 projects and that the kids are still playing with their toys.

Cardboard Box Projects

Ever since we got this book 'Too Many Toys', my kid has been asking me to make him a spaceship just like the one he saw in the book. He said it had to have some knobs, steering wheel, wings, and 'piang' thingy (which translates to something like those blasters or space toy guns).

And my daughter also wanted a dolly house since his brother was getting something made...

So this weekend, we finally managed to get down to collecting all the materials we would need. Got some cardboard boxes from the office, collected some bottle and milk caps to use as knobs as well as the tubes from used aluminum foil rolls.

I think the kids had a lot of fun helping to hold the boxes while me and Simon did some cutting. They also enjoyed making some mess with the debris we created... Unfortunately, we couldn't finish these in that afternoon. I need to continue adding some paint and details later.

I also need to use fasteners to attach the knobs. Strangely, we cannot find any fasteners at any stationery or school supplies shops in Shanghai! We went to several places and we were even told to go to the hardware store by one clerk at one big shop.

All in all, it was a good afternoon of crafting.