Cardboard Box Craft!

   
What do you do with a couple of cardboard boxes, some old paint, a kitchen bowl, and a few other odds and ends from around the house? Make a play kitchen!

I had some old paint in the garage & used it to put a couple of coats on the boxes.

Then, I carefully cut out the "oven" door, leaving the bottom still attached. I poked a hole on each side of the upper corners & holes in the base of the oven to match & tied 2 strings of yarn to it (it helps with the opening and closing process). I found an old plastic handle from a shopping bag of some sort & poked holes in the oven door to attach it. I painted the door in a contrasting color.

I cut off the "back of the oven" box to use the cardboard for other pieces. I cut a few circles for "eyes" on the stove & control buttons - I painted them red (for hot hot hot) On the buttons I labled "High & Low"  and drew  criss-cross. On the stove eyes I just used a sharpie marker to draw a circle outline to give it some character.

One of the stove eyes came from the hole cut into the top of the "sink" cabinet.
I measured a stainless steel bowl with a rim- and cut the hole just a tad smaller to keep the bowl from falling through.

I cut out a couple of "doors" from other cardboard (most of it was taken from the backs of the big boxes! I fashioned "hinges" from cardboard. I made the latch by cutting a strip of cardboard with a notch in the end- on the other door I used the leftover pieces from the notch (the cut out piece) and cut several layers of cardboard the same size. I stacked them and glued them together & it made a little handle for the hook to grab hold of.

On the side of the oven (maybe it should go on the sink side?) I used an old clothes hanger piece- the cardboard dowel for hanging pants. I ran a piece of yarn through it, punched holes on the side of the cabinet, ran the yarn into the holes & tied large knots to keep it from slipping back through. A dab of glue from the hot glue gun insures that it won't slip back through.

The faucet is simply  candy cane shaped pieces of cardboard layered on top of each other and  attached to a base of layerd square cardboard. I didn't have any silver paint on hand, but I think that would make a nice touch.

On the inside of the cabinets, I made shelves by placing squares of cardboard evenly on each side & setting a larger piece across, resting on top of the edges of the side pieces.

It was really fun to make! The kids had a ball helping to paint all the little pieces. Even though it was just cardboard in a house full of boys, it actually lasted several months!

This craft originated from a magazine article I did in 2008 for Charlotte Woman Magazine- summer crafts to enjoy with your kids. I don't have other pictures on hand- sorry! I am going to "re-create" quite a few of the crafts we did for that project and will be posting them for your summer craft inspiration.