|
Whimsical play boxes that provide hours of fun can be made out of recycled
materials you have around the house. They are incredibly fun to make and can
be designed to match any child's tastes. What's more, kids love playing with
them. These play boxes are the perfect travel toys...small, light weight, and
easily replaceable!
Supplies Needed:
empty cereal box
sharp knife
wrapping paper or brown paper bag
Plain white paper
Index Card or Cardboard from another cereal box
Markers, and Crayons
White Glue
Scotch tape
Pipe Cleaners
Tissue paper
Embellishments
Directions:
The Play Box:
1. Adults only: Lay the box on it's side. Cut along the top edge of the box
around three sides. You need to leave one side attached to the box to create
a hinge for your box cover.
2. Poke holes for your pipe cleaner closure. You can places these anywhere
on the front edge. We centered ours and poke two holes: one on the top lid,
1" back from the edge in the center, and the second 1" down from the
edge in the center.
3. Cover your box with wrapping paper. Because of the intricacy of cutting
and conforming the paper to the edges of the box, small children will have a
difficult time with this. Adults will need to help with most of this part. Young
kids love to tape the edges. If your child is older let them do the entire wrapping
process. Make sure to wrap the top cover separately and bring the raw wrapped
edges inside the box. They will get covered up later.
4. Place your box closures in place. We used pipe cleaner buttons (see creating
pipe cleaner buttons and loops).
5. Have your child create a fun scene of their choice. My daughter drew a nature
scene for her doll to play in. This is the magic part of the creative process.
Let your child know that they can create any world they wish and watch them
amaze you with their talent. They can use crayons, markers, stickers, paint,
a page from a magazine. There are no rules to this except to have fun and enjoy
yourself.
6. Glue the scene to the inside of the box the lid. When the box is opened
up, your child's scene will open up exposing their magic world. The picture
should cover up all of the raw wrapping paper edges and blemishes. We scotch
taped our scene in place but you can use glue or double stick tape.
7. Create the bottom layer of the box by cutting a separate piece of cardboard
from another empty cereal box. Make is slightly smaller than the bottom of the
play box. Cover it with white paper, and decorate another scene such as a walking
path or roads. We created a three dimensional garden path using pipe cleaners,
tissue paper, markers, and index cards. You can add any elements that you want.
(See below for details on specific items you can add here.)
8. Place the bottom layer of the box in place and your done. Enjoy!
Pipe Cleaner Buttons and Fasteners:
1. You need two pipe cleaners: one for the button and one for the loop closure.
.
2. To create a button. Fold a pipe cleaner in half and twist it together all
the way to the end. Leave at least 1" of the bottom untwisted.
3. Take the twisted end and start spiraling the pipe cleaner into itself. Keep
doing this until you get to the untwisted part. Manipulate the spiral to where
it resembles a button.
4. Stick both untwisted ends into the hole in the box until the button is flush
with the box.
5. On the inside of the box, fold the untwisted ends and press them against
the box. Secure with tape.
6. Create a loop closure for the box by repeating the above steps and leaving
a loop at the end of your pipe cleaner.
7. Fit the loop to your button. Be sure to make sure it is big enough to fit
secure over your button.
8. Place the untwisted ends into the hole on your lid and secure by folding
the edges down and taping them. If the loop is too long, you can easily shorten
it by untwisting part of the pipe cleaner and trimming the excess off the ends.
If your pipe cleaner is too short...oops try again!
Extras:
1. Create tissue paper trees by cutting a small circle out of an index card
and gluing it to the middle of a piece of tissue paper (4" square works
well). Let this dry. Next poke a hole through the card and tissue paper. Take
a pipe cleaner, fold it in half, and twist it together until you get 1"
from the bottom. At the top of the twist create a small spiral or ball. Poke
the twisted pipe cleaner through the paper and the tissue paper making sure
the ball stops it from falling through the paper. Try not to rip the tissue
paper. Crumple the tissue paper up and plump it out to look like a tree or flower.
Poke a hole into the cardboard bottom and secure by folding and taping the untwisted
ends to the bottom of the box.
2. Create a fun place for boys to drive their toy cars. Make roads and trails
with markers or crayons. Then to spice things up a little use pipe cleaners
to make bridges or tunnels. To make a tunnel. Cover curved pipe cleaners with
tissue paper or regular paper to make tunnels. Secure to the bottom of the box
by folding untwisted ends to the box and taping.
3. Create animals, houses, or people by making shapes our of index cards. Leave
1/2" base at the bottom of the card to fold and tape to the bottom of the
box. These shaped cards will bend and fold when the box closes and pop up when
it opens. If you can't draw, use stickers and cut around the animals. Then color
the folded base to match your scene.
This project is about using your imagination. Your play box can contain actual
games like Checkers or Tic Tac Toe that you design and create from discarded
bottle caps and old cereal boxes. It can also be a fantasy scene like a wild
zoo with bears, tigers, and zebra or how about a race track with a roaring crowd
in the background. No matter what you design, these play boxes are tons of fun!
Candace Huber is the original creator of Onawhim.us an interactive art portal for kids. Candace left Onawhim to establish the dynamic graphic design firm, Speckle Hen Media. Take a gander on over to Speckle Hen Media to see what Candace is up to now.
|
