The other day we went to visit daddy at work we came home with this computer box, courtesy of his co-worker Rex. My little guy had so much fun playing with it at the office that I knew it could be great fun.
I took one look at those gray pieces of packaging foam and immediately thought castle. They were perfect for little doors. I pulled out my dollar store duct tape and went to work!
At this point we had a pretty cool little fort, but every castle needs a tower so I grabbed one of our diaper boxes from Costco. I sliced off the top four inches or so and put it on top. Then, I grabbed a box cutter and sliced a hole to match. I secured it on with duct tape on the inside and outside.
The tower needed a little flair so I went around and made rectangle cut outs every few inches. I decided to tape the back flap to the side two, but leave the front one free so he could spy through the hole or push it down completely. I had some concerns about potential cardboard cuts (those suckers are nasty!) so I duct taped around all of the exposed edges.
Then, I decided the duct tape looked cool, so I taped the whole tower. This took longer than you would think. You could also spray paint it. I liked the look at this point, but was worried about the structural integrity of the foam doors, especially in the middle where my son grabbed them to shut them.
I cut a little piece of cardboard (about 1.5″ x 15 “) and taped it inside of the doors by where they close to reinforce where they would constantly be handled. By this time, I had emptied about a roll and a half of tape and just had to find a use for the emptied rolls. Enter door handles. These have since been ripped off, but they looked cool for couple days they lasted.
What a great little place for my little prince! We love our cardboard castle! Tonight we were using the handle holes as mail slots and he would stick cards (we got in a kids meal) through them then go inside to get his “mail.”
Total cost: $2 for duct tape
Boxes on hand
Box cutter on hand
Linking up with Trash to Treasure Tues on Reinvented and
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Give a kid the best gift money could buy—and they’d rather play with the box that came with it.
Mike
http://www.mikeleonen.com
Twitter: AboutParenting
great creativity! Cute little boy! Lucky him!
gail
so cute! kids usually love this stuff better than store bought toys!
i’m having a goodwill party today & every Wednesday, stop by and link up!
That is a toddler’s paradise! So cool, you’re one creative mommy. Thanks for linking up to Trash to Treasure Tuesday!
Okay, that is super impressive! Nice job!
Why are boxes always so much fun?!
How fun! My sons would LOVE that!! I made them “cars” out of cardboard diaper boxes (I was 9 months pregnant, so that just involved drawing a dash panel/steering wheel on one of the small flaps, and cutting a keyhole. I also cut a door for the gas tank in one side so they could gas it up… ha ha! 🙂 I had much grander hopes for that project, but I had about 1% crafting energy so I just did what I could…
This is so cool. I love the doors!!
This one is going to be included in a post in November on Dollar Store Crafts, by the way! (Nov 8)
Love your blog.This is brilliant. My toddler would go crazy for it. I host Tot Tuesdays every week and would love it if you would stop by and link up. I’m also hosting a giveaway at the moment you might be interested in. Have a great week!
http://delicious-ambiguity-nennyk.blogspot.com/
This design is spectacular! You definitely know how to keep a reader amused.
Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well,
almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really enjoyed what you had to say,
and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!