Between moving recently and being a product review blogger, we have plenty of cardboard boxes around the house. Lately, the girls have been quite creative with our boxes. Here are three creative things kids can make with cardboard boxes…
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1. The Cardboard Box Car
Simply place the box on the floor so your child can sit in it. Cut doors in the sides of the car with heavy duty scissors or a utility knife. Allow your child to decorate the outside of the car with paint or markers.
Then let the fun begin! If you have multiple boxes, your kids can pretend to have car races together. Practice “left” or “right” by having them point which way they’re turning. Older siblings can push younger kids around the house in their car (if you have hardwood or smooth floors!).
If your child is feeling really creative, here some more ideas:
- DIY carboard box car with paper plate wheels (reminds me of Mater or Lightning McQueen from Cars!)
- Yellow school bus with a really big box!
- DIY collapsible cardboard car requires a big box and looks a little complicated but would be tons of fun to play in!
- Drive-in-movie summer fun birthday party idea!
- Cardboard box race car with shoulder straps so kids can walk around with it instead of sitting in it.
- Larger trucks made with two diaper boxes
If you don’t have big fruit boxes or diaper boxes, you can sometimes ask for empty boxes at your local grocery store. Just go to the produce section and ask an employee if they have any empty product boxes to recycle. Often they are happy to give you apple or banana boxes instead of throwing them out.
2. The Cardboard Box Doll House
If you only have little cardboard boxes around the house, you can still have fun with them! The girls made some doll houses for their Little People with a few small boxes we’d gotten in the mail. This cardboard box doll house was pretty simple and looks a bit like a barn!
The best part about this craft is that your kids can make a dollhouse to fit their dolls, whether they have Barbies, 18″ dolls, Little People or other dolls. It’s also easy to add more doll houses, new rooms, or furniture to their collection.
If your girls really like playing dolls, here’s a few more ideas for bigger doll houses:
- Cute two-storey Barbie dollhouse with stairs
- 6 ways to make a cardboard box dollhouse, including some doll furniture
- Make a shoe box dollhouse, with a matchbox dresser and a tea box stove!
3. The Cardboard Box Play House
A cardboard fort or play house requires more boxes or bigger boxes than the previous projects. The girls’ cardboard house was just big enough for them to crawl inside. Sunshine and Lily could play together but that was tight inside the boxes.
A cardboard box fort is great if you have a dress-up bin to go with it. Or just add blankets and flash lights and let your kids use their imaginations!
For more elaborate cardboard houses, check out these ideas:
- DIY cardboard playhouse with two-piece door and windows
- Cardboard play tower (perfect for the girl who loves Rapunzel!)
- Cardboard playhouse painted pink, with some creative decorative ideas
- A whole list of amazing cardboard houses
- Ice cream play shop to go with the play house
If you didn’t recently buy a refrigerator or vacuum cleaner to let your kids play with the box, you can also buy cardboard box forts for reasonable prices. The Box Creations Corrugated Play House comes with markers for your child to decorate. Or Create an Easy Rocket Ship with glow-in-the-dark stickers for your child who wants to fly to the moon! Your little princess would have fun with her very own Corrugated Castle.
These box creations will also likely ship flat and be easier to put back into storage than a fort or castle made from regular boxes. Friends gave us a playhouse like this, which moved once with us and provided the girls with hours of fun. It was bigger than we could have built with our boxes (they could stand up inside) and much prettier than our own attempts.
More Things Kids Can Make with Cardboard Boxes
Shoebox Doll Bed for Little Mommies
Turn a Carboard Box into an Epic Marble Run!
Cardboard Box Marble Labyrinth Game
Do your kids enjoy playing with cardboard boxes?
2 Comments
add some duct tape and you could make chairs and beds and more! 🙂
Boxes have been a favorite “toy” for my 5 children and still are at times. My boys played for months with a box that we flattened and drew a “town” on with roads, stores, houses, parking lots, etc. Add a few vehicles and they were entertained for hours!