A couple of days ago I was staring at a couple of cardboard boxes that I needed to clear out of my house, and I had what I thought to be a great idea. It was probably inspired by the great book index cards that I featured on Monday, but either way, I am super pleased with our fun little project.
I decided to involve my 20 month old in the material preparation process. We broke down our cardboard box, ripped the sides apart, and began painting. Clark really loves to paint. I think that it is a great way to expose him to colors. We painted both sides of our pieces of cardboard. I painted the tops shades of the primary and secondary colors (one greens, one purples, one reds, ect.) The back of those pieces of cardboard I painted a different color. You could combine any two colors that you wanted, but this is how I paired my top and bottom colors: yellow/green, red/orange, blue/purple. Clark really enjoyed painting and getting dirty. I really enjoy it when I can involve him in my arts and crafts. It seems like most of the time I am asking him not to touch this, or do that, so when I can ask him to do specific tasks and participate I really like it.
After the pieces were painted and dried I sketched out some basic shapes for animal body parts and cut them out. Next I cut small slits in my shapes to allow the pieces to slide onto one another. If you decide to try this take care not to make your slits too large or they won't stay securely in place.
I ended up making an elephant, a lion, and a giraffe (can you guess which is my favorite?). I am really thinking that the mama elephant needs a little baby by her side. These little cardboard figures aren't very refined, but they were a lot of fun to make. I enjoyed putting some texture in the Lion's mane. If anyone is interested in making these just let me know. I would be more than happy to draw up some quick little templates for you. We have some painted cardboard remaining; I might have to come up with a few more little friends.
This is a craft quickie, and a great way to reuse, repurpose, upcycle (whatever you want to call it) your old cardboard boxes.
Comments, suggestions, and questions are always welcome.
UPDATE: Get your templates here: Lion, Elephant, or Giraffe.
I love the cute animals! You are so creative.
ReplyDeleteSo cute! What a great idea, I'd love templates :) Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeletei saw these over at kojo and loved them!
ReplyDeleteThese are too cute! :)
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to let you know that I featured your here:
http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunday-spotlight-soys-33-favorites.html
lovely result, great education craft, and inspiring tutorial....
ReplyDeletenow that's exactly what our readers want.
sooo, i am inviting you to get a link back to your site so that more people can find this great idea plus templates!! thank you
here's our weekly DIY craft tutorial linky party - a new one opens every wednesday:
http://www.finecraftguild.com/diy-tutorial-linky-party-4/
So cute! What a brilliant idea. I would love a template to do this with my own kidlets.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing at my linky party Upcycled Awesome over at www.thetshirtdiaries.com
I would love to have a copy of your cardboard animals. I want to try and enlarge them in order to make large displays for animal enrichment at the zoo. This is a great way to use cardboard without glue or tape which is not allowed when making animal enrichment items. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteI love these animal great way to use recycled material. Would love to do these in my 3-4 year old room for work. They are currently questioning on what the different types of animals are called. E.g: hen, roster, chick. Or we have a cardboard doll house, just the structure thats cardboard. If you have any people etc also that would be great. Are you able to share the templates with me please on what you have posted and/or what are children have been interested in? Great work and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKind regards Stef
I love these animal great way to use recycled material. Would love to do these in my 3-4 year old room for work. They are currently questioning on what the different types of animals are called. E.g: hen, roster, chick. Or we have a cardboard doll house, just the structure thats cardboard. If you have any people etc also that would be great. Are you able to share the templates with me please on what you have posted and/or what are children have been interested in? Great work and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKind regards Stef
I love these animal great way to use recycled material. Would love to do these in my 3-4 year old room for work. They are currently questioning on what the different types of animals are called. E.g: hen, roster, chick. Or we have a cardboard doll house, just the structure thats cardboard. If you have any people etc also that would be great. Are you able to share the templates with me please on what you have posted and/or what are children have been interested in? Great work and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKind regards Stef