Review: DIY Box Creations

I’ve always been the sort of person who wants to hang on to happy trash, shorthand for things that might otherwise be thrown out or recycled but that could also be used for creative projects.

Now I’m going to be hoarding empty boxes even more than usual in the hope that we can make some of the projects from DIY Box Creations: Fun and Creative Projects to Make out of Really Big Boxes.

Courtney Sanchez has gathered a dozen fun projects using large cardboard boxes in this book. The projects include:

airplane
rocket ship
boxcar
train table
hot air balloon costume
indoor doghouse
retro stove
dollhouse
puppet theater
fort
lemonade stand
sailboat

The book starts with general tips and a rundown of important supplies, and each project is shown in multiple steps so it’s easy to pull them together. The idea is that kids ages 8 to 12 can make these projects themselves with supervision, but grown ups could make them for younger kids as well.

These projects are cute, clever and a lot more detailed than the projects my daughter and I have made with big boxes in the past.

The train table, for instance, is stunning, with boxes mounted on plastic cups to give the table height and built-in storage for the tracks and trains. I also love the retro stove, which uses dowel rods and milk jug lids to make pulls and knobs. The puppet theater is great, too, and the fort has a Minecraft theme if you know any kids who are into that.

If kids help construct these creations, there’s a lot of learning to be done, including by following directions, engineering and constructing with their boxes, and the creative play that is sure to follow when the boxes have been transformed.

This book is a lot of fun and you might just find yourself buying moving boxes so you can make some of these projects.

Do you have a favorite thing to make out of cardboard boxes? I’d love to hear about it!

About the book: 80 pages, paperback, 12 projects. Published by Walter Foster Jr., September 2016. Retail price $9.99.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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