Cardboard Cave

For our Stake Teen Elect activity, I volunteered to come up with a cardboard decoration of some kind.   The theme was "Even A Caveman Can Do It."  As I have previously mentioned, I love to make stuff out of cardboard!  I found the perfect large flat pieces of cardboard at Costco, that were used to separate levels of items stacked on pallets.  I asked an employee if they were free for the taking.

Yep, free.  My favorite word.  I brought home two and cut a cave opening section out.  Then, I took the cut out cardboard pieces and placed them on the top for a rounded boulder effect, see the 4 cut-out sections below.  The puzzle pieces worked together almost perfectly, with just a little rounding on the edges. Next I taped the pieces together really well with packing tape.

The fourth piece at top left not yet in place

All the pieces together and ready to tape

Next, I wadded up newspapers and taped it on to make a jagged rock effect.  Not a pretty sight, but ultimately it is just to create volume and lumpy rock shapes.

Now it gets sloppy.  I made a big bowl of paper mache goop.  I don't have a recipe for this, I just add the ingredients until it is the right consistency.  I bet you could find oodles of recipes through google.  I used water, Elmer's glue, and flour to make a liquidy paste.  Next, I ripped strips of newspapers and dipped them one at a time into the goop.  I needed it to dry fast, so I squeezed off most of the liquid before placing the strips as flat as possible over the wadded newspaper...

fancy stuff, right?  I let it dry for about 3 hours, then enlisted Berkley's help.  Armed with 4 almost-empty cans of spray paint, and one brand new can of textured stone spray paint... we attacked the cardboard and completed the transformation.

Berkley doing a final inspection before we painted

The painting is finished... next I taped some boards up the back on each side for some extra support, and we duct taped it to two stacks of chairs  to hold it up.  A couple strands of vines were stapled on, and the ring of rocks in front of it finished off the look.

The only item I purchased was the textured stone spray paint from Walmart for $7.97... someone else bought the vines so I don't know the price on those.

We still have two more evenings of Teen Elect, I will post more about the activity when it is finished.

Cardboard Creations

One of my favorite childhood stories was Chistina Katerina & The Box, by Patricia Lee Gauch.  It is the story of a girl who loves imaginative play, dressing up, and turning everyday objects into treasures.  Her favorite things in the world are boxes of all kinds.  (Yes, I still have my original copy... and yes it is well worn and loved and has survived its second generation of children!)

The story begins with the delivery of a new refrigerator.
Christina's mother says "Oh, how grand and new," looking at the refrigerator...
"It is!  Oh, it really is!"  says Christina, looking at the box.

The giant box goes through transformation after transformation providing weeks of castle living, race car driving, election scandals, fig newton enjoyment, and a summer ball in the front yard, before falling victim to the garden hose.

Today's post touches on a lifetime's worth of cardboard creations which began with this storybook.  With Halloween just around the corner, I share with you the Haunted Mansion Beanbag Toss from our neighborhood party a couple years ago.  It doubled as a clubhouse as well for a while.

Made from two boxes (one quite large) with windows and doors cut out.  Spray painted black and decorated with foam shapes and spiderweb.  We ran an extension cord to it, to light it up from the inside... so the numbered target holes were visible when it got really dark that night. 

The inspiration for this post was discovered on pinterest.  You can find amazing ways to recycle your boxes at a blog called ikatbag.  Below are just a couple of her creations, click the ikatbag link to see more!  For her tutorial (and tons more ideas!), click here.  For a bunch of additional cardboard links she lists, click here.

Thanks for reading!