I’ve made several fun toys and activities for kids using cardboard but nothing like these amazing projects. You’ll be blown away by these 32 things to make using a cardboard box. They are DIY activities, games, and imagination building props to encourage your child to play for hours.
Cardboard Box City
1. Cardboard Box City – A darling Sweetopia made for a birthday party complete with shopping center, dental office, beauty boutique, and pastry shop.
2. Cardboard Box Party - This party is seriously so creative with box cars, buses, and even a castle.
3. Cardboard City – Australian artist, Annalise Rees, plays with space and drawing in her two and three dimensional ‘drawn’ house-scapes.
4. Castle One and Castle Two - Two amazing cardboard castles made for a window display for a store owner. They are seriously so impressive and would make an amazing castle for a little boy who loves to play with knight figurines or amazing spray painted in black and used for Halloween decor.
5. Barn for the Farm – A darling barn made for a 1st birthday party in a farm theme complete with a silk flower window.
6. A townhouse Village - A sweet little townhouse village for little animals made from a cardboard box, paint, sharpies, clear vinyl, ribbon, and scraps of paper and packaging.
7. DIY Kids: Ice Cream Shop – This wonderfully social, imaginary play led me to the recent construction of our next DIY Kids Project… I present to you, the Ice Cream Shop.
Cardboard Toys
8. Cardboard Mailbox – A fun way to create your own post office at home and a fun activity for kids.
9. Cardboard Box Shape Sorter - Put together this smart cardboard shape sorter to help your toddler learn shapes and sizes.
10. Cardboard Dog House – Whimsy-girl constructed a dog house out of a cardboard box – so cute with the roof shingles!
11. Cardboard Box iPod Costume - With a lil paint, minimal artistic talent and a few supplies you will find around your home, you can easily create an iPod costume for your budding music man.
12. Recycled Three Little Pigs Puppet Theater – A darling theatre made out of a box with a fun dry-erase board topper to write the title of the play.
13. Play Dressing Table from a Cardboard Box – Two boxes made into a play dressing table and wrapped in wrapped up in some bright pink self adhesive book covering.
14. Puppet Theater - A refrigerator box turned into a fun puppet theater.
15. Cardboard Box Marble Run - A fun activity for kids that uses several pieces of cardboard taped together to make a fun marble run.
16. DIY: Castle Story Box – A darling Jack in the Beanstalk castle to inspire imaginary play.
17. Cardboard Guitars - Pictured instructions on how to make your own guitars out of a box.
Cardboard Gift Ideas
18. Cardboard Flowers – These would make a lovely gift for grandma or auntie, or if there are any dads reading, it would be a pretty sweet mother’s day gift too.
Cardboard Kitchen
19. Cardboard-Box Oven Craft – Make this lovely cardboard oven with materials from around your home.
20. Cardboard Pizza Making - A fun activity for kids using cardboard and colored paper and other supplies around your home.
21. Cardboard Bedroom Suite - An absolutely darling room decorated with a box dresser, headboard, frame and lamp.
22. Night Owl Birthday Party – This party is so fab! Look how she used cardboard and made the table look like a bed!
Cardboard Transportation
23. Riding Box Cars Tutorial – This is a fun activity that the kids can get involved in making. And boys will love this too!
24. Creative Cars made out of boxes – Make your own race car out of a cardboard box, tape, and other easy supplies.
25. Cardboard Spaceship – A fantastic spaceship with an extra partition glued on to the back to allow for intergalactic personnel transport. {snicker}
26. Giant Rocket ship – Using a potato box as the base for the structure, all the cardboard was brought home after a trip to Costco. It took about 15 sheets of the corrugated cardboard that they have in between the pallets of diaper boxes/toilet rolls/cereal boxes.
27. Train made out of Boxes - A fun and interactive party decor for a train themed outdoor birthday party. Choochoo!
28. Homemade Toy Car Wash – A car wash made for the toy cars out of a box and stuff out of the recycling bin and a pack of those foam sheets.
29. Scooter made from a box - This scooter is seriously so impressive! What kiddo wouldn’t want their own life-sized scooter made out of a box!
30. Cardboard Fire Engine Truck Tutorial - A darling prop and boy-sized toy for a Fire Truck themed birthday party.
31. Cardboard Canoe - Use hot glue and duct tape to bring the ends together at a point to create the canoe shape out of a box.
32. If you want to make a few fun projects, be sure to check out this great article on How to Work With Cardboard. The Ikat Bag shows tons of amazing tutorials on things to make with cardboard. Click on any of the images at the bottom of her post to be taken to that tutorial on how to make it.
If you have a homemade tutorial over on your blog, we’d love to see it! Feel free to submit it to leave your link in the comments or on the Tip Junkie Facebook page. Or if you’re looking for a specific gift, let me know! I’ll be happy to find it for you. {{I’ve got your back!}}
Creating Memories that Endure,
Laurie
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Comments
Your cardboard boxes look anything but cardboard boxes… they just look like lots of fun. You are so creative making such beautiful cardboard crafts. I’m sure you kids have heaps of fun with them. Well done.
Thanks for sharing all of these amazing and creative ideas! I just made a cardboard locomotive for my son’s first birthday party but now I am inspired to make more.
http://greeneacreshobbyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/cardboard-train-locomotive.html
Wow! I LOVE the pink city! Very impressive.
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WOW pretty impressive. I think I may just have to recreate that little puppet show box. How cute is that?!
Love this! Sharing a link to it in my list of cheap and free things to do with your kids this summer.
http://www.crystalandcomp.com/2011/05/80-inexpensive-or-free-summer-activities-for-kids/
My favorite cardboard project of all time was my son’s Halloween costume a few years ago. His friends have had a running inside joke about poptarts for 3+ years now. So he decided to be a poptart. It was the easiest costume ever. We just took a large rectangular box and made holes for arms and legs. Then we covered the whole thing in brown felt. On the front we put white felt in the shape of icing and cut up small pieces of different colored felt for the toppings. My husband ended up rigging a backpack inside the box – so the backpack held the costume up (not his shoulders) and that made it much more comfy. He was the hit of the neighborhood.
I’m also an Odyssey of the Mind Coach so we have used cardboard for everything! Most recently the kids built a life size barn that when you opened it up revealed a city inside (complete with 7th graders hiding in there). They also had flaps on each side of the barn that when unhinged fell down and made popup books – so when the barn was a barn, the flap that felldown opened up to a pig sty. When the barn was a city, the flap that fell down opened up to a road with shops and cardboard people. These were my 7th graders.
I also coached a kindergarten team who made their own castle from cardboard. It rivaled any of the pictures shown above and parental (and coaches) help is not allowed! It is amazing what can be done with cardboard and it is so cheap!
Can you tell I’m uber excited by this post today!!
WOW. I love them all. TY for sharing.
i love these ideas…especially the headboard one so funny. i’m going to have to pass that onto my sister in college! lol. I made a cardboard playhouse
http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2010/06/cardboard-playhouse.html
and I LOVE cheri from I am momma hear me roar’s reading nook/ batman car!
http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2010/09/superhero-car-and-reading-nook.html
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I really like the cardbox idea for the kids. Thank you for sharing.
Have a great day :)
Delama
This HAS to be one of the best DIY projects for families I have seen in years… Oh my gosh! Its incredible… Can’t wait to pass it on! Thanks so much for this post!
cathy b
http://operationblessingbrigade.blogspot.com
http://palmbreezeliving.blogspot.com
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WOW..so many fun projects. Thanks so much for featuring my townhouse!:)
kiki
http://www.kikicreates.blogspot.com
These are fantastic ideas! I love the mailbox! Thanks for sharing all of these amazing and creative ideas!
Sooooooo cool! My kids will love these! I just linked to your post from my blog at http://www.mommysecrets.blogspot.com.
good idea, so I imagine what if all these toys were given wheels in order to roll or can be pulled like a wagon
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O M G! I am so hooked on this blog now!!! I’ve been searching the web for days trying to find how-to inspiration to create cardboard furnishings!!! TIP JUNKIE rocks!!!
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Laurie! Thank you so much for including our marble run on your fabulous site! I love Tip Junkie, and it’s an honor to be here amongst so many other great bloggers, crafters, and artists. I love that carwash, and have been dying to make one of those cardboard box parties since I first spotted it a few weeks ago.
Wow these are great! You are so talented! You have taken cardboard to new heights!!!
dreaming-n-color.blogspot.com
Wow! Those are great!
We are moving this fall (so we will have no shortage of boxes) I think I found some great ways to keep the kids entertained on the other end!
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Have you seen the children’s book, “Not A Box”? It is so appropriate for this blog entry!
FABULOUS!!! I would LOVE for you to share this link at my For the Kids Link Party! http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/05/for-kids-friday-12.html
I’ve just shared your post with my Facebook friends.
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These ideas are absolutely creative! We are also promoting these kinds of projects in our clients. Their kids loved us during their parties and still continue to enjoy shows at home and they are the ones doing the show! Thanks for sharing the love for puppetry! :)
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This is such a great post! So many fun ideas here. Thanks!
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I’m bookmarking this post because I know I’ll come back to it for birthday party ideas and rainy day crafts with my kids. Thank you!
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These are ridiculously amazing!!
My daughter’s 3rd birthday was “ccandy Land” and we made the backyard into the Candy Land game. The Candy castle was made out of cardboard boxes! You can see it here if you’d like! :)
http://hotcinnamonsticks.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/iris-3rd-candy-land-party/
Genius! There is a reason the cardboard box is in the Toy Hall of Fame. Thanks for this gorgeous post!
:-) Bethe @balmeras
Oh what a totally brilliant list!!!
Please can I add to your list with our space rocket (http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/11/25/a-rollicking-rocket-in-se7en-steps )
and our submersible (http://www.se7en.org.za/2011/02/01/se7ens-sinking-submersible).
Whooooaaaa..astonishing..now I can do that sometime..very interesting..:)
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I had a dream to make my company, but I didn’t have enough of cash to do it. Thank heaven my fellow recommended to take the home loans. Thus I took the credit loan and realized my desire.
I’m bookmarking this post because I know I’ll come back to it for birthday party ideas and rainy day crafts with my kids. Thank you!
If you are willing to buy a house, you would have to get the credit loans. Moreover, my mother usually utilizes a collateral loan, which occurs to be the most rapid.
I love all your ideas. Something good to do with my granddaughter.
I know they’re not cardboard boxes, but you can get unlimited huge flat sheets of cardboard at Costco. I take the cardboard that separates the big packages of toilet tissue and let the kids do countless fun and creative things with them.. I just put them in my cart while shopping, and no one ever questions me. HAVE FUN!!
wikes sufff xxxxxxxx
i mean wiked stuff lol and i love he idea of a barn kids love barns xxxxxx
What an amazing post! I have just started a blog “The Green Classroom” where teachers share their great, gree ideas! This is one of them! Could you please link this post here – Your Green Classroom or give me permission to link it? Thank you so much! What an EXCELLENT post!
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In one word; Fabulous!! I’m trying to figure out how & which ones I can utilize into my preschool & daycare. My children would go absolutely insane. I know that I would have parents jumping on board to help me create!
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Your extensive list of cardboard box crafts is awesome. I have done lemonade stands with my kids but nothing to compare with the creativity shown. Thanks for the post. I will be sharing it with my friends.
LOVE these tutorials!!! FINALLY somebody that knows how to do it….Thank You. My husband is a street musician on Royal St in the French Quarter in New Orleans…I think I’ll make one for the grandson..12 going on 50…I can use power tools so don’t need to bother the man..:)Thanks again, I need to follow you.
Hi! This is an excellent post on using a cardboard box diy. I will follow your valuable points in the future while using a cardboard box.
Every now and then you come across someone that is truly talented. Thanks for all the information.
Pssssst I figured out where I found the cardboard bedroom! I linked it on my tumblr post and thought I’d pass the info along..!!
This is great
Wow these are really great ideas I will look forward to
Making some of these ideas because they are blowing
Me away you ate one good box idea person