DIY Cardboard Boxes Activities for Kids

On April 22^nd of every year, the world celebrates Earth Day. Thousands of events are held throughout the world in support of protecting the environment. An easy way to celebrate at home with your kids is to make arts-and-crafts projects using reusable or recyclable material such as cardboard boxes. Below are five creative ways to use cardboard boxes as a craft medium.

1. Mailbox – Play postman/post office with a neat cardboard mailbox. Your kids can send letters, cards, and packages to other family members in the household.

2.  Puppet Stage – Use two large cardboard boxes to make a puppet stage. Children can decorate the outside of the boxes using markers or waterproof paint. Then use some fabric to create the curtains for the stage.

 3. Build a store – Whether it is a donut shop, candy shop, or convenient store, you can use a couple of large cardboard boxed to build a “play” store for your kids. Cut out some windows to display the items for sale and if the box is large enough, you can even cut out a door.

4. Build a castle – Using cardboard boxes and four inner tubes from paper towel roles, your kids can create an elegant castle with all the frills and accessories of a real castle.

5. Make a guitar – Grab some corrugated cardboard boxes, a wooden dowel, and a few rubber bands to create this unique cardboard guitar for your kids. 

Pop Art: Bubble Wrap Paintings

Artist, Bradley Hart, takes creativity to a whole new level with his unique paintings that incorporates bubble wrap as a canvas. Hart, who lives in Toronto but works in New York City, creates portraits of celebrities by tediously injection acrylic paint into bubble wrap, thus creating a unique pixelated effect. On average, each painting takes about 150 hours. Hart admits that the process of injecting each bubble with paint is a daunting task – injecting too quickly could destroy the bubble while injecting too slow does not fill the bubble completely. It takes him two to three days just to load the paint into the 1200-1500 syringes that is needed to make one portrait.

Perhaps one of Hart’s most popular bubble wrap portrait is of the late Steve Jobs. Hart injected over 16,000 bubbles using 89 different colors of paint to create this one-of-a-kind portrait. Bradley Hart’s collection called “Injections” can be seen in person at Gallery Nine5 in New York. 

The Cardboard Box Arcade

Less than a year ago, a 9-year boy named Caine spent his summer vacation building an arcade with cardboard boxes. It started off with a game or two and soon enough, the arcade was taking over his dad’s auto parts shop. Using his imagination and plenty of cardboard boxes, Caine created classic games such as the claw machine and an elaborative pinball machine. He even found a way to dispense the tickets like a real arcade game would.

It was only a matter of time before someone discovered this gold mine of imagination, creativity and ingenuity. A young man entered the auto shop looking for a door handle for his car and came upon Caine’s arcade. He bought a fun pass and became Caine’s first customer. Little did they know that both of their lives would change after that day. Caine’s first customer, Nirvan Mullick, eventually made a short video featuring the arcade and put it online. The video went viral in a few days and caught the attention of the media and celebrities. At one point, Caine’s Arcade, had a line with a 4-hour wait.

The story of the young boy from East L.A. inspired a movement. Caine’s College Scholarship Fund raised over $100,000. Moreover, the story inspired other kids to create their own arcade games using cardboard boxes and their imagination. Teachers incorporated these projects into their curriculum and instead of children spending their summers watching TV or playing video games, they were able to use their mind, ingenuity and resourcefulness to create a fun world of their own.

5 Great Everyday Uses for Baskets

One of the best ways to clear clutter in your house is to take advantage of one of the most affordable and versatile items out there: baskets! Here are some great ways to organize your house using baskets.  

Snack Holder  

Put some afternoon snacks for your children in small baskets. Place the baskets on a low-level shelf for easy access.

Remote Control Center

Almost everyone deals with a missing remote control once in a while. Designate a basket for all your remote controls and avoid the hassle of searching through your couch cushions for them.

Towel Dispenser

You can use a basket to store your hand towels in the bathroom. This is especially great for guest bathrooms. Roll up the towels, place them in the basket, and put the basket near the sink for your guests.

Crafts Organizer

Place your tape measurer, scissors, hot glue gun, and other crafts tools into a basket to keep them organized in one place.

Silverware Carrier

Whether it is at an outdoor BBQ or dinner at home, it’s always great to have a basket with all the necessary silverware in place. It also makes transporting your silverware to different locations much easier.

Stationary Organizer

Ever found yourself searching the entire room for a pen or pencil? Well, using a basket as a stationary organizer is the perfect solution. Keep your pens, pencils, sticky notes, and note pads in a basket for easy access.

Wall Decor

Spruce up an empty wall by hanging some baskets on it. Not only do they provide a unique decorative touch, they are very useful for storing or displaying other items as well. Check out our previous post for a video tutorial on decorating your walls with baskets.

Bubble Wrap for a Cause

Who would’ve thought that one day bubble wrap would play a part in a world record? Well, that’s exactly what happened last month. In an effort to raise money for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary, students at Hawthorne High School took part in a new Guiness World Record for the most people simultaneously popping bubble wrap. More than 360 participants took part and 8,000 square feet of bubble wrap was popped at the New Jersey high school.

Even more special was that the inventors of Bubble Wrap were originally from Hawthorne, New Jersey. After failing to create plastic wallpaper, the young engineers found another use for their product. We all can appreciate bubble wrap these days. From bubble mailers for shipping to loose sheets of bubble wrap for packaging fragile items, bubble wrap is by far one of the most useful products ever invented. As the students of Hawthorne High School can attest, popping bubble wrap can be a joyful activity as well.

How to Make an Easter Gift Basket

It’s no questions that Easter is one of the most popular holidays for gift baskets.  Making a gift basket is quite simple and the best part is that you get to decide how to decorate it. All you need is some gift basket supplies and a variety of items to place inside. Making your own gift basket is often more rewarding and fun than buying one from the store.

Gift Basket Supplies

• Easter Basket
• Large Cellophane Bag
• Fillers/Paper Shreds
• Rubber band
• Pastel Colored Ribbon (1 inch)

Gift Items (Examples)

• Toys                                                                          
• Books
• Stuffed Animals
• Candy
• Pencils/Pens
• Baked Goodies

Steps

1.     Fill the basket with paper shreds.

2.     Arrange the gift items inside the basket. Place the tallest items in the back and the shorter ones in the front.

3.     Place the basket inside the cellophane bag and secure with the rubber band.

4.     Wrap the ribbon around the rubber band and finish it off with a bow.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW; SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING TULLE

If you aren’t familiar with the fabric tulle, then you should take the time to become familiar with it so you can take advantage of what it has to offer in the way of fashion and decoration. Tulle is a lightweight, netting fabric used for wedding veils, dresses, tutus, and the like. The best part about tulle is how inexpensive it is. Depending on the type of fiber the tulle consists of (silk, nylon, and rayon), you can get a 40 yard spool for just under $ 15.00.

Weddings are a great example of the versatility of tulle. The majority of women’s wedding attire will have a certain amount of tulle. Sometimes it’s the top layer of the dress skirt, while other times it is used in the wedding veil. Using tulle does not have to end with the wedding attire though. Tulle can be used for all types of decorations for your special day. It can be used on chairs, on pews, in the bride’s bouquet, mixed in with the centerpieces, and it can even be added on the wedding cake for that special touch.

 

Tulle comes in many different colors and styles and designs, including polka dots and shimmer. You can simply use tulle from the spool or you can add a little something extra by using lights, rhinestones or flowers. With tulle, the possibilities are endless. The link below can help make these possibilities a reality. Just follow the link; if you see something you like, find a video that shows you how to make it. Everything created using tulle is fairly straightforward and simple.